On March 12 the Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS) celebrated its latest infrastructure modernization milestone with the dedication Building 01-350 Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation (PULSE) Technical Support Facility.
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Associate Administrator for Infrastructure Nicole Nelson-Jean, NNSA Nevada Field Office (NFO) Manager Dr. David Bowman, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Advanced Sources and Detectors (ASD) Project Director Mike Furlanetto, and NNSS Infrastructure Senior Director Joel Leeman participated in the ceremony.
The 14,000-square-foot High Performance Sustainable Buillding will serve PULSE personnel with mission control, diagnostic and conference rooms in classified and unclassified settings. Work conducted in trailers, remote areas of the Sites and administrative functions that took place underground will now be centrally located at Bldg. 01-350.
This modern and state-of-the-art facility is essential to future operations at PULSE over the next decades,” said Dr. Bowman. “Relocating these workers to the new facility will allow additional personnel underground to continue with the important construction activities for the Enhanced Capabilities for Subcritical Experiments and to prepare and conduct subcritical experiments to support the certification of our nuclear stockpile.”
“With all the capabilities we have underground and the volume of work that’s coming, we need to be as efficient as we can be doing those experiments, understanding the results and getting them out so we can have an impact on our nuclear stockpile and make our country safer,” said Furlanetto. “It’s really exciting for me that we have the opportunity to have this kind of investment and capability.”
The Technical Support Facility, modeled after Mercury Building 1, is just one facet of the Site’s modernization efforts to support mission work at the Site. With a growing workforce and evolving mission programs, the NNSS will develop a forward area mission support complex to accommodate security, food, housing, and administrative needs central to the Site’s Device Assembly Facility, tunnel complex and PULSE.
“The important part of this is it’s just the start,” said Leeman. “This is the first permanent facility like this in decades in this forward area. It’s part of how we’re doing things quicker, more effectively, more efficiently, and delivering back into the mission.”
As the NNSS continues to evolve, one aspect remains constant.
“What never changes is the dedication to the mission from the people who are involved,” said Nelson-Jean. “Whether you’ve been here for 50 or 60 or more years or you’re brand new to the complex as an intern or a fellow, you immediately get a grasp from those who have been around how dedicated people are to the mission and what we do. This isn’t just a building. It represents the future of what we need for our overall mission within NNSA today and beyond.”
