NNSA photo
This view shows the interconnected facilities that form the 9212 uranium processing complex at Y-12.
One of the supporting arguments for building the mutlibillion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant is to get out of the old and deteriorated 9212 uranium complex.
Much has been said about 9212’s roots in the World War II Manhattan Project and its perpetual need of maintenance and repairs in order for the plant to meet its nuclear defens requriements.
Here is the description of the complex provided earlier by the National Nuclear Security Administration:

“The 9212 Complex, a uranium processing facility, was built in 1945 and occupies approximately 311,325 square feet and is used for recovery, purification, and processing of enriched uranium into usable products or forms suitable for storage. The complex includes buildings 9212, 9809, 9812, 9818, 9815, and 9980. Building 9212, the largest, originally had four wings, A, B, C, and D, and its primary activity was uranium recovery and reclamation.
“In 1948, new structures were built between the four wings and in 1951, the E Wing was added.
“The functions performed at 9212 include the casting of highly enriched uranium (HEU) metal, the recovery and reclamation of HEU for storage, and serving as the source of all HEU used in test, research, and propulsion reactors and for isotope production.”