For over three decades, Keystone International has provided unique, exceptional technical and organizational development expertise to a wide variety of customers and programs important to our country’s National security and defense, including the U.S. Departments of Defense (DoD)and Energy (DOE), and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and state, county and municipal level governments. Keystone’s ability to provide superior and affordable technical expertise are founded on a diverse team of talented staff educated in nuclear physics, nuclear radiation and chemistry, mechanical and electrical engineering, engineering sciences, program management, and systems engineering.
In support of MSTS’s customers and programs, Keystone provides expertise in the areas of the Dense Plasma Focus (DPF), UCEP/U1A construction project, DAF security upgrades, and quality assurance and advanced diagnostics expertise used in the sub-critical testing program. Keystone also provides nuclear weapons scientists and testing experts focused on training the next generation of NNSA and Nuclear Weapons Laboratories (NWLs) staff and leadership. Most of Keystone’s staff have worked for or with the NWLs, DoD, DOE/NNSA, Armed Forces, large commercial enterprises, and major universities, and bring unique, problem-solving skills to MSTS and NNSA’s missions.
Keystone’s ability to bring together this pool of talent provides MSTS and NNSA with a cost-effective method of maintaining the necessary skills to meet their customers’ objectives. A large portion of Keystone’s work orders are firm, fixed price helping MSTS manage and understand more completely their project costs. Keystone maintains a low overhead rate that results in very competitive labor rates yielding cost-savings to MSTS and their customers while maintaining key talent.
As one specific example, Keystone provided staff for the DAF ARGUS security upgrades team which was awarded DOE’s Project Management Achievement Award, delivering ahead of schedule and at a cost savings of nearly $6M. This project was also awarded MSTS President’s Distinguished Performance Award in 2018. Many of these staff have recently been redirected to the UCEP project utilizing their experience to further refine MSTS’s processes and strategies for this critical project. At MSTS’s request, Keystone added experienced project planning/management and engineering staff who understand the interface between engineering and procurement helping to streamline processes and the execution of this project. Keystone staff also led the design and manufacturing of a one-of-a-kind high-vacuum system used in the DPF program experiments.
Keystone is clearly a customer-focused company that provides unique expertise which complements MSTS’s expertise to solve our customers’ problems. Keystone understands our program and mission needs and has built partnerships with MSTS program leadership, technical, procurement, and administrative staff. Keystone has provided early career and senior staff for the DPF program, helping that program meet its experimental objectives and evolve. Keystone has identified and hired new staff for critical short-term staffing needs that MSTS determined were not long-term staff requirements (e.g., UCEP). Keystone has successfully worked with MSTS to understand how best to manage the work through COVID restrictions, playing an important role in meeting critical milestones on several projects. This partnership permits Keystone to identify talented staff and provide unique, cost-competitive solutions to MSTS’s missions. Keystone is an excellent value-proposition for MSTS, NNSA and their customers.
