Pantex Blog
High Explosives Science and Engineering Facility continues to progress
An aerial view of the High Explosives Science and Engineering Facility.
The High Explosives Science and Engineering (HESE) Facility continues to achieve milestones as construction pushes forward to improve High Explosive (HE) operations here at Pantex.
The HESE main works (HESE MW) project began in April 2022 and has experienced two major challenges to construction. The first was a redesign of the HE Lab walls and elevated deck during construction. “Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), Burns & McDonnell (BMcD), and Hensel Phelps (HP) collaborated seamlessly to revise drawings, minimize project impacts, and allow construction to proceed on track,” said Katy Beyer, BMcD, Onsite Project Engineer. The second was funding issues associated with the FY24 continuing resolution that required stakeholders to deploy strategic scheduling activities to avert potential setbacks. “Through careful planning throughout the continuing resolution and great partnership with HP, the project was able to mitigate significant impacts to the schedule,” said Steve Kemp, subcontractor technical representative.
The project has overcome these challenges and as of July 2024, Hensel Phelps, the construction company assigned to the HESE MWs project, has placed all of the HE Lab walls. “At the onset of completing the final structural building components, the project is transitioning into interior buildout phases with a large focus on mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems to support start up and commissioning activities,” said Cody Edwards, HP, Project Manager. The project is also targeting aggressively completion of the Technology Development & Deployment Laboratory (TD/DL) three months ahead of the overall project completion date.
In August 2024, BMcD, the construction company assigned to the HESE Firewater Pump & Tank, commenced erecting the fire water tank that will provide fire water for not only the TD/DL and HE Lab, but future projects such as High Explosives Synthesis, Formulation, and Production Facility.
Currently there are an average of 120 people per day working on the HESE MWs project and they have worked over 390,000 injury-free manhours. The HESE project has a total project cost of approximately $295 million, encompasses 72,762 square feet, and will replace about a dozen existing Cold War-era facilities when complete. It contains 1.3 million pounds of structural steel and is closing in on over 4 million pounds of reinforcing steel. More than 12,000 cubic yards of concrete will be used to build the HESE before project completion in August 2025.
I am Mission Success: Sabrina Perez
Take 5 minutes to learn about Sabrina Perez, recruiter for Pantex Mission Assurance and summer internship coordinator. Now included in the questions is one related to a CNS performance element (communications, teamwork, problem‑solving, accountability, interpersonal, technical competence, or leadership). All views and opinions are the employee’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of CNS.
Sabrina Perez knows how to find talent. As a recruiter for Pantex Mission Assurance, she considers managers’ needs and sources candidates who are the best fit. From application to onboarding, she helps candidates through the hiring process, but she also continues to care for employees’ journeys through career development and internal transfers.
Perez started as a recruiter in 2023 and was immediately impressed with the Pantex mission, and the way the workforce implemented their values into everything they do.
“I was really surprised at how critical the work we do here in little ol’ Amarillo, Texas, is to the nation and the world,” Perez said. “How unbelievably awesome is it that we get to serve our country and the world from this great city on the High Plains?”
Recruiting, Perez believes, is a special job because it gives her a hand in shaping the future at Pantex and the lives of those she helps bring to the plant.
“The absolute best part of my job is extending an offer to a candidate who has waited their whole life to get on at Pantex,” Perez said. “It’s the call that changes their life and sometimes their family’s lives. It’s overwhelming sometimes to hear about their backgrounds and the joy and hope they have for their future career goals at Pantex. Sometimes there are tears, and I’m a crier, so I jump right in there and join! It’s such a blessing.”
Perez also molds the future as the Pantex summer internship coordinator in charge of the internship experience at the site. She loves working with interns because she gets to learn about their interests and capabilities. Whether it is new hires or interns, she thinks Pantex employees stand out among the crowd.
“I love how people implement the values we learn at Pantex into their everyday jobs,” she said. “We all focus on getting our mission completed by making the right decisions for the right reasons, having a questioning attitude, or striving for continuous improvement.”
What daily task lets you know you’re helping achieve the CNS mission?
I love our regular meetings with the managers across Mission Assurance. When they are trying to hire for a new position or backfill one of their team members who has moved departments, I love getting to hear about the work they do and the skill set needed to meet deliverables. It’s so interesting to get to know their work and then go out and hunt for the perfect candidate to fill the spot and join their team. Knowing that my fellow Human Resources teammates and I are getting the right people at our company is rewarding.
What is your favorite aspect about your work environment?
My Recruiting and Placement team is awesome! We all have different strengths and personality types, but we’re all in it together to get people hired and give them a positive experience that fuels their love for the mission and their organization. We’re all here to be a catalyst for a candidate or a current employee’s next best step in their career. Because we are elevating the individual while also building great teams for our managers, we are elevating Pantex as a whole.
Why are communications important for all Pantex and Y-12 employees?
I had the opportunity to see Brené Brown speak at a conference. She said, “Being clear is kind. Being unclear is unkind.” That statement reminded me of the power behind purposeful communication. When you bring clarity to a situation (the who, the what, the how, the why), you set everyone involved up for success. You’re being kind by making sure you are providing accurate details, engaging others in the conversation, asking for clarification when there’s confusion, and correcting any miscommunication along the way. Communication helps serve the people around you.
What work advice would you offer someone who is new to Pantex?
There’s probably a form for that… Ha!
What’s your top bucket list item and why?
I love traveling! I’ve been to six countries (Cambodia, Spain, England, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic) and Maui a few times. My bucket list locations are a food and wine tour of Italy, walk where Jesus walked in Israel, play golf in Ireland, and take a Sound of Music tour in Austria!
I am Mission Success: Chelsey Westfall
Chelsey Westfall helps make sure the efforts of Safeguards and Security run smoothly.
The most visible part of Pantex’s Safeguards and Security division is the team of Security Police Officers patrolling every inch of the sprawling complex. However, the department is much more – it encompasses eight divisions responsible for protecting the people, technology, and information that makes Pantex so vital to our nation’s defense.
One of the team members who makes sure the fast-paced division flies down its assigned task list like an Olympic bobsled team is administrative assistant Chelsey Westfall. She is responsible for a wide variety of tasks, from authoring letters, to organizing spreadsheets, to responding to Emergency Response Organization calls.
“With constantly changing environments, people, and technology, there is never a dull moment for me in the division office,” Westfall said.
Westfall, a native of Spearman, Texas, joined Pantex in 2015. She worked first as a shipping clerk, then joined Infrastructure before settling in Safeguards and Security in 2019.
“I never realized just how much work goes into managing the stockpile, supporting the nuclear deterrent mission, or protecting our assets until I started working at Pantex,” Westfall said. “I was overwhelmed with the depth of our mission and layers of security at Pantex. The push for safety, education, OPSEC, and being good stewards of our funding have been a constant since I started working for CNS.”
Chelsey and her husband Kirk have been married for 17 years and share four children, all of whom are frequent subjects of her hobby as a photographer. Their oldest daughter, Kayleigh, lives in Ruidoso, New Mexico; Lexi is a student at West Texas A&M University; Ian serves in the United States Marine Corps; and their youngest, Kaine, is a student at River Road High School.
What stands out to you about Pantex?
The pride and patriotism that Pantexans share and feel for their work. Most employees are keenly aware of just how important our work is to the nation, and we are very proud to be the chosen few who are entrusted with these tasks. Working for Pantex is a job you can be proud of, knowing that you’ve made a difference.
What has surprised you the most since joining CNS?
I’m most surprised by the exponential growth Pantex and Y-12 have seen in employees over the last couple of years. The mission is growing, and to accommodate that, so is our workforce. When I started, I was explicitly told that you are still considered a “new” employee until you have been at Pantex for at least 10 years. I wonder if that still holds true?
What top strength do you bring to your organization and why?
My organizational and communication skills. I build spreadsheets for nearly everything that is important in my job, and having a system to easily track information and effective ways to communicate have made our department more efficient and timelier.
What advice would you offer a newer employee about the importance of solving problems and asking questions?
I would tell a new employee that it is important to get to know “people who know people.” A vast majority of the issues I deal with day-to-day are solved by asking someone for help who knows more about the issue at hand. It is always okay to ask questions if you aren’t sure about something; CNS promotes having a questioning attitude.
What’s your favorite outside-of-work activity and why?
I have always enjoyed photography, especially sports photography. When my kids were young, I used to spend insane amounts of money on professional photos from competitions. And sometimes, there just weren’t any good photos of my kids. I thought, why don’t I just teach myself how to do that? And I did.
I did a lot of research and watched a lot of videos, and I took a lot of blurry, awful photos! I started just taking pictures of my own kids. Eventually, people started asking me to get a few shots of their kids, too. I just love the look on someone’s face when they see a photo of them doing what they love.
I am Mission Success: Eric Bowen
Eric Bowen’s role at Pantex is a perfect mesh with his skills and interests.
The rules and instructions used every day by Pantex employees doing the hands-on work for the mission are exacting and complex. Humans are a wild card in the equation due to our tendency to perform small variations when completing tasks, whether by error or happenstance.
The solution to this variable has been the Human Factors Engineering group – a small number of employees who consider human tendencies and work to eliminate their risk in a process.
Among them is Eric Bowen, an Amarillo native and a generational product of Pantex. Both his parents were longtime Pantex employees, and hearing about a training course his dad attended related to human factors piqued his interest.
“I had an interest in psychology, but didn’t want to be a therapist,” Bowen said.
This seemed like a perfect fit – he went to college at Texas Tech to pursue higher education in psychology and industrial engineering. While he was earning those dual degrees, he felt a calling to do something more, and thus signed up for the Army National Guard.
He worked initially as a mortarman before he was given the opportunity to attend sniper school.
“I feel like every little boy, at some point, has a dream of growing up and becoming a sniper, and I was able to fulfill that dream,” Bowen said. “I loved being a soldier. I still say that being a sniper was the best job I ever had!”
When it was time to settle down with his wife, Laura, they chose to make their home in Amarillo and he joined Pantex’s efforts as a human factors engineer. The Human Factors group is housed within Process Engineering. The idea is common within high-reliability manufacturing industries, but it is rare in the Nuclear Security Enterprise – only Pantex and Sandia have Human Factors employees. Sandia’s team focuses more on design, while Pantex’s team focuses more on hands-on work.
“We look at human capacities and limitations — physical and psychological — and use what we know about that to fit the work to the worker instead of trying to fit the worker into something not designed for them,” Bowen said. “We want to get away from ‘blame/shame/retrain’ and look at actual processes and sequences without leaving anything out.”
They prevent errors by doing procedure validations, and inspecting the processes to evaluate everything from whether tools are designed appropriately, to the cognitive load being applied to a technician. They also advise in casual analyses after an error occurs to locate flaws in the process and work to eliminate them.
Their job primarily focuses on manufacturing processes, but they also provide advice to anyone looking for ways to improve their systems.
It is a perfect fit for Bowen’s interests and talents.
“There is nowhere else I would rather be today,” Bowen said.
What has surprised you the most since joining CNS?
I would say the complexity of everything that needs to get done every day to make the work we do at Pantex possible. Everyone has an important job that they must execute to enable our mission.
What stands out to you about your site?
The singularity of our mission. There is no other site in the nation that is equipped or staffed to do the very specific work that we perform every day.
Give an example when teamwork has helped you in your role.
Wow, there are too many to count. The Human Factors team is so close knit we are always sharing projects and contributing advice if an issue falls more within the realm of another’s expertise.
What is your favorite aspect about your work environment? How does that aspect make you know the mission is being met?
Without a doubt it is the people I work with. Our Human Factors Engineering team has some of the friendliest and smartest people I could ever have the pleasure to work with. Outside of our group, I love the culture within Process Engineering. Our department is close knit and always willing to drop what they are doing to lend a helping hand.
What work advice would you offer someone who is new to Pantex or Y-12?
Talk to people. Build positive relationships with everyone you can. We all have a different perspective based on our roles, the more of those different perspectives you can add to your own point of view, the better informed you are when making decisions.
What’s your favorite outside-of-work activity and why?
I really enjoy traveling to shooting competitions with a few of my sharp-shooting coworkers. We enjoy challenging each other and it is important to keep those skills sharp.
Pantexans named as Amarillo Chamber’s Top 20 Under 40 Recipients
Stefanie Hulcy and Zuleyma Carruba-Rogel were named as recipients of the 2024 Amarillo Chamber of Commerce Top 20 Under 40 award.
Two Pantexans have been named among the 2024 Amarillo Chamber of Commerce Top 20 Under 40. This annual distinction celebrates young professionals who have demonstrated professional excellence and bring value to the Amarillo business community. Recipients are selected based on their professional achievements and community involvement.
Stefanie Hulcy, Senior Security Specialist, a Pantexan for more than eight years, is a spearheaded the launch of the Mothers at Work affinity group, which seeks to help mothers transition back in to the workplace. Outside of Pantex, Hulcy and her husband founded the Yellow City Spark Fastpitch, a girls’ softball organization. The organization requires their athletes to do 10 hours of community service each season. She also has led the Be the Spark Sporting Good Drive, which has provided more than 100 children with gear they needed to get started in their chosen sport. Currently, Hulcy has assembled a school-supply drive and serves on the West Texas Fastpitch advisory board, where she works closely with the youth sports community.
“Being recognized by the Amarillo Chamber is incredibly humbling,” said Hulcy. “I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had, and I truly do have the best group of people around me. So many people help me out each day and I know that I couldn’t do any of this without them.”
Zuleyma Carruba-Rogel, a Pantexan for more than three years, worked on the HR team at Pantex and championed various educational partnerships. She then joined the Performance Improvement team and has started building her skillsets as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, to help Pantex improve processes.
Carruba-Rogel started demonstrating community service when she was in the Fourth grade. Her volunteer experience focuses on providing college and career advice to support Amarillo citizens and others through various networks across the nation. While at college, she founded a student organization which provided at-risk high school students with college-readiness support services.
On her visits home to Amarillo, she led presentations to help disadvantaged students see college as an option for them.
After receiving her education, she went to work for Amarillo Independent School District, where she established the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Department through which she developed and delivered various programs and trainings for parents across the district.
“I feel incredibly honored and humbled for this recognition,” Carruba-Rogel said. “I’m deeply grateful for all the people God blessed me with along the way to help me break generational cycles. Thanks to my parents’ sacrifices, I get to live a life that as a child was unimaginable.”
Carruba-Rogel has also served on a range of committees in support of the community, including United Way, Operation First Five, Panhandle Community Partnerships, and Los Barrios de Amarillo.
“We are very proud of both Stefanie and Zuleyma’s selection as Top 20 Under 40 recipients,” said Site Manager Colby Yeary. “Their achievements exemplify the company’s values of excellence and commitment to the community. This recognition is a testament to their hard work and the positive impact they have made on our team and the Amarillo community. We are incredibly proud to have them as Pantexans.”
Both recipients were recognized for their achievements on August 22.