News

Area middle schoolers work to build renewable energy vehicles

A record number of middle school teams will gather Saturday to put their engineering and building skills to the test at the annual B&W Pantex Electric Battery Car Race.

The race, which is part of the National Science Bowl, will pit 29 teams of car builders against each other in a competition to build the fastest battery powered car. The event challenges students to use scientific knowledge, creative thinking, experimentation and teamwork to design and build a car powered by renewable energy.

Each year, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsors the car races, with different types of propulsion chosen for the cars. In prior years, the cars were powered by solar power or Hydrogen fuel cells. This year, DOE chose electric battery cars. Teams were given kits a month ago to assemble into the fastest, most stylish car they can create.

“This is always an exciting, enjoyable event for our area middle schools,” said race coordinator Debra Halliday. “It’s a fun and exciting way for us to encourage a new generation of inventors and engineers.”

The races start at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Tascosa High School cafeteria. Each race will feature four cars running down a 20-meter track, as well as a competition for car design, craftsmanship, creativity and the most appealing design.

All Amarillo media is invited to attend the races, which will run through the morning, with a pause for lunch from 11 a.m. to noon. The finals will take place after lunch and should be concluded by 12:30 p.m. Interviews with race organizers, coaches and students will be available.

The two senior leaders of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) visited the Pantex Plant Tuesday to tour the facility and deliver a message of support to the workers.

U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) told an assembled group of Pantexans he was aware of the critical work done at Pantex through his role as the HASC chairman, but seeing it firsthand really made an impact.

“When I saw that weapon being put together, I was so thankful that you’re all here to do this work,” McKeon said.

McKeon traveled to Pantex with HASC vice chairman, U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, whose district includes the Pantex Plant. Thornberry talked about the challenging budget situation facing all levels of government and the importance of maintaining the capabilities of facilities like Pantex.

“What you do here is very, very important, and it needs to be protected,” Thornberry said.
After taking questions from several Pantexans, the two Congressmen concluded the all-hands meeting with a few final words of encouragement.

“(Pantex) is a crown jewel,” McKeon said. “You’ve kept us safe for many years, and you should be congratulated for that.”

Workers at the Pantex Plant last month finished the largest concrete pour to date on the High Explosives Pressing Facility, completing the last of the elevated soffits, which are part of the roof deck/second story of the building.

The pour marked the completion of approximately 50 percent of the construction on the 45,000 square-foot facility, which will combine high explosives operations from numerous outdated buildings into one state-of-the-art facility which will help to bolster Pantex’s status as the DOE’s High Explosives Center of Excellence for HE manufacturing.

Construction of the $65 million facility is expected to be complete next year. The construction effort is being managed by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers and the design effort/plant support is being led by B&W Pantex/CH2MHill.

Engineering workshop for Girl Scouts gaining popularity

A group of female engineers from Pantex are working to develop a Girl Scout cookie of a different sort: a Smart Cookie.

The Smart Cookie program started in January with a half dozen young women engineers from Pantex who decided to pass on their love of engineering to the next generation with a workshop for Girl Scouts. The program has taken off in the intervening months, with more engineers and more Girl Scouts coming together for a workshop sequel this weekend.

“The response to the first event has just been phenomenal,” said Savannah Gates, a process engineer at Pantex who helped start the program. “We thought there were a lot of girls out there who would be interested in engineering if they just had a little encouragement. It’s extremely gratifying to find so many girls showing an interest.”

The number of women engineers who are involved in the project has doubled, and a much larger group of Girl Scouts is expected at the workshop this weekend.

Gates said the workshop will teach engineering principles with a pair of projects. In the first, hard candies and diet soda will make an effective, if messy, demonstration of propulsion concepts. The second half of the workshop will show what it’s like for an engineer to work on a real project, with the girls building structures that must meet height and load bearing standards, all while staying on budget.

The future for the program looks bright, with plans underway to enlist experts from Pantex in areas as diverse as math, science and information technology, for future events with the Girl Scouts.

All Amarillo media is welcome to cover the workshop, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Girl Scouts headquarters, 6011 SW 45th Ave. Interviews with engineers and Girl Scouts will be available.

Don Cook, NNSA’s deputy administrator for Defense Programs, last week spoke to Pantexans about the future mission of Pantex and the critical role the plant will play in maintaining the nation’s stockpile for decades to come. During the visit, Cook congratulated some of the 100-plus Pantexans who helped to secure the plant and conduct recovery operations during and after the Feb. 25 blizzard that dropped more than 19 inches on the Amarillo area.

When the biggest blizzard in 70 years is bearing down on your nuclear weapons facility, you’d better have a good plan and a dedicated group of people to execute that plan.

The Pantex Plant was fortunate to have both those elements in place on February 25 when a massive blizzard dumped 19.1 inches of snow – the second highest total ever recorded in Amarillo – on the plant. To make matters worse, 70-mile-per-hour winds whipped up drifts ten feet high.

More than 100 dedicated Pantexans spent the next 48 hours helping to dig out and secure the plant, enabling the nation’s primary nuclear weapons assembly plant to return to operations after only two days of lost work.

Most importantly, the massive recovery effort and return to work were accomplished without a single lost time injury and no substantial damage to facilities or property.

Forecasters were predicting the looming blizzard could be a record breaker, so the Pantex Yard Group broke out the snow plan and started looking for volunteers several days before the snow started falling. Nearly 30 members of the Yard Group stepped up to help ensure the plant could weather the storm. They were joined by more than 100 Security Police Officers, firefighters, plant shift superintendents, equipment mechanics and emergency services dispatchers who were prepared to ride out the storm.

“It just shows how selfless our people are, because every one of them had families that were snowed in while they were out here,” said Plant Maintenance Department Manager Lew Monroe.

“They made a conscious decision to be here to help ensure this facility recovered and returned to operation.”

Operations at the Plant were suspended late Feb. 24 in advance of the storm, and when it finally arrived, snow quickly overwhelmed the efforts of the Yard Group. Heavy snow was compounded by howling winds that created huge drifts and reduced visibility to essentially zero. Snow accumulated so quickly and so deeply that four-wheel-drive security vehicles and even a fire truck became stuck in the snow.

After a couple hours of working in whiteout conditions, the Yard Group was forced to retreat indoors and hunker down. As soon as the snow stopped, workers moved out into the howling wind with heavy equipment to start clearing paths through the drifts.

To ensure safety, the workers operated in teams of two or three to start clearing the 57 miles of paved roads and 28,000 linear feet of sidewalks scattered across the 16,000-acre site. David Taylor, yard group supervisor, said many of the equipment operators have decades of experience at Pantex and know the plant like the back of their hand.

“All of our crews who volunteered to come out take great pride in what they do,” Taylor said. “They see it as a service to this country to make sure this Plant is taken care of.”

The crews immediately focused on opening critical areas of the plant to ensure security and emergency services were able to move freely. The battle was nonstop, as the winds continued to whip the snow around, often requiring roads to be plowed three or four times. The snow caused significant issues with the electrical distribution system, requiring several of the plant’s high voltage teams of electricians to brave the weather to help keep the electrical system at the plant operational.

For 48 hours, work crews battled the elements, working long shifts and sleeping where they could before finally being able to declare the plant open for operations Wednesday morning.

“As these guys were leaving the plant, they were glad to go and get some rest. But a lot of them were still worried about whether they’d done enough,” said Yard Group Supervisor Vance Morrison. “That tells you just about all you need to know about their dedication.”

Program accomplished much at plant over 11 years

After more than a decade of work and an investment of $246 million in transforming the Pantex Plant, the Facilities and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program (FIRP) is drawing to a close. New, gleaming white roofs dot the plant, new fire alarm systems protect facilities and upgraded utility systems help to ensure that Pantex can continue to fulfill its critical national security mission.

As FIRP winds down this month, officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Pantex Plant are reflecting on the successes of the program, which has helped to rehabilitate buildings dating back to the 1940s at sites across the country.

"Investing in the revitalization of our infrastructure is a critically important step as we move forward in maintaining our nation's nuclear deterrent, said Johnnie Guelker, Deputy Assistant Manager for Programs & Projects. “The FIRP has been a huge success. The investment made through the program will be paying dividends for decades to come through increased reliability in our operations."

The FIRP was established in 2002 with a mission to restore, rebuild and revitalize the physical infrastructure of the Nuclear Security Enterprise through the reduction of deferred maintenance that was impacting the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the enterprise.

Pantex took advantage of the program to help sustain dozens of buildings at the plant including some that stretched back to World War II. The most visible success of FIRP at Pantex is the roof replacement program. Many of the decades-old roofs at the plant leaked regularly and heavy rains impacted critical weapons work. While replacing the roofs through FIRP Pantex took the opportunity to install energy efficient roofing including “Cool Roofs” which reflect the sun’s rays and reduce energy usage, resulting in an energy savings of approximately 70 percent.

Other FIRP projects included replacement of obsolete fire alarm panels, upgrades to radio capabilities, construction of a record storage facility and upgrades to gas and electrical distribution systems. Five new facilities totaling 71,000 square feet were constructed under FIRP, replacing older facilities that were later demolished.
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CONTACT
Greg Cunningham
Public Affairs
Office (806) 477-5140
Pager (806) 345-1560

Teams from as far away as Lubbock, Higgins to compete for regional title

The stakes will be higher and the questions even tougher Saturday as the high school round of the annual B&W Pantex Science Bowl competition kicks off.

More than 150 students will converge on West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) for the competition, where 32 teams from schools across the Texas Panhandle and High Plains will go head-to-head in a competition that will thoroughly test their knowledge of math and science.

“February is such an exciting time of year for us,” said Debra Halliday, Science Bowl coordinator. “It’s very gratifying to be able to encourage a love of math and science in so many of these amazing students.”

Around 150 Pantex employees and community volunteers will be on hand to help run the Science Bowl. The competition features teams of four students answering science and math questions in a Jeopardy-style round-robin format, followed by a double elimination tournament after lunch. The winner of Saturday’s event will be eligible to travel to Washington in April to compete with scores of other teams from across the U.S. for the national title. Last year, Amarillo High School won the regional competition and tested their knowledge in Washington D.C.

Media is invited to attend the Science Bowl from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the fourth floor of the Classroom Center at WTAMU Media will be able to film or photograph the competition, and interviews with contestants will be available. The official Twitter Hashtag for the event will be #PXSB
In addition to bragging rights and a shot at the national title, the winning team will earn $1,000 for its school’s science program, with $500 and $250 going to the second and third place schools.

This year, the Education Credit Union has joined the U.S. Department of Energy, Pantex and WTAMU in sponsoring the event.

The high school round is the second phase of the Science Bowl competition. A team from Dumas Junior High School won the middle school competition February 9.

Schools participating in this year’s Pantex High School Science Bowl are:

• Amarillo Area Center for Advanced Learning
• Amarillo High School
• Bovina High School
• Canyon High School
• Caprock High School
• Clarendon High School
• Coronado High School (Lubbock)
• Friona High School
• Higgins ISD
• Highland Park High School
• Holy Cross Catholic Academy
• Lazbuddie High School
• Lubbock High School
• Nazareth High School
• New Home ISD
• Palo Duro High School
• Panhandle High School
• Randall High School
• River Road High School
• Tascosa High School
• West Texas High School (Stinnett)

CONTACT
Greg Cunningham
Public Affairs
Office (806) 477-5140
Pager (806) 345-1560

Middle schoolers up first in academic competition

More than 30 teams of middle school students from across the area will converge on West Texas A&M University Saturday for a competition that will test their mental mettle.

The students, who hail from 15 schools across the Panhandle, have been preparing for months to compete in the Science Bowl competition, which challenges students to answer questions in math and science for prizes, prestige and the right to represent the area at the national competition in Washington, D.C.

Pantex has sponsored the bowl for more than 20 years in hopes of fostering a love of science and math in the youth of the Texas Panhandle.

“This is one of our favorite times of the year, when we get to see so many talented and dedicated youngsters compete in Science Bowl,” said Debra Halliday, science bowl coordinator. “These are the students who will make up the next generation of engineers and scientists, so it’s important we foster a love of learning in them.”

More than 100 Pantex employees and community volunteers will be on hand to help run the Science Bowl. The competition features teams of four students answering science and math questions in a round-robin format, followed by a double elimination round after lunch. The winner of Saturday’s event will be eligible to travel to Washington to compete with dozens of other teams from across the U.S. for the national title.

This year, the Education Credit Union has joined B&W Pantex in sponsoring the event.

Media is invited to attend the Science Bowl starting at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the Classroom Center at West Texas A&M University. Media will be able to film or photograph the competition, and interviews with contestants and volunteers will be available. Please come to room 401 and ask for Greg Cunningham. The competition will run from 12:30 p.m. through the final round, which starts at 4 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony. The official Twitter Hashtag for the event will be #PXSB.

In addition to bragging rights and a shot at the national title, the winning team will earn $1,000 for its school’s science program, with $500 and $250 going to the second and third place schools. Last year, Canyon Junior High School won the regional competition.

Schools participating in this year’s Pantex Middle School Science Bowl are:

Bonham Middle School
Bovina Middle School
Bushland Middle School
Canyon Junior High School
Clarendon Junior High School
Dumas Junior High School
Friona Junior High School
Hartley School
Higgins Junior High School
Highland Park Middle School
Lazbuddie Junior High School
Lorenzo De Zavala Middle School
Panhandle Junior High School
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

World Trade Center steel is monument's focal point

Each year, the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 tragedy brings America together to remember the bravery of both first responders and everyday heroes. This year, Pantexans gathered to unveil a monument years in the making featuring salvaged steel from the World Trade Center.
Pantex 9/11 memorial

In a ceremony outside the Pantex Fire Department, a memorial was dedicated. Etched in marble, flanked by two quartz towers and topped with a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, the memorial to all who lost their lives in the attack has now become a permanent part of the landscape at Pantex.

“It is extremely appropriate that we place this memorial in front of the building that houses our first responders, because it serves as a symbol of our gratitude for the service they provide to this Plant,” Mark Padilla, Assistant Manager for Programs and Projects with the NNSA Production Office (NPO), said. “It also serves as a bridge between our first responders and the first responders who gave their lives on that fateful day.”

Efforts to create the monument at Pantex began in October 2009 with a letter to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey requesting a piece of the World Trade Center for a memorial monument. Once onsite, the steel was cut in Pantex’s own Machine Shop.

“It is important that we can visually see something tangible and realize that what we do is important to our freedom and the American way of life,” said Donovan Morgan, Pantex Fire Department battalion chief, who spearheaded the memorial initiative.

Craft Supervisor and member of the Navy Reserve John Herrera oversaw work done on the steel in the Machine Shop. “I revere the World Trade Center steel just as I would a piece of steel from the USS Arizona,” he said. “On the USS Arizona, we had military personnel from the Navy and the Marines die on board when it sank. At WTC, we had civilians die from the deliberate attack.”

“During the attack at Pearl Harbor, the sleeping giant awoke,” said Herrera. “During the attack at WTC, it united all fellow Americans, both civilians and serviceman, as brothers and sisters. It changed the way we live and made us more aware of the existence of terrorism around the world. As I walk past the WTC memorial, I will remember the civilians that died on that day and the dark moments this nation has endured.”

In addition to display in the monument, pieces of the salvaged World Trade Center steel are now displayed onsite at the NNSA Production Office building and at the Pantex Visitors Center.