National Laboratories

The Department of Energy Cleanup to Clean Energy Program will hold its second industry day at a DOE nuclear site, this time at the Idaho National Laboratory on Oct. 25. While the notice shared by DOE does not yet list an exact meeting time, the day-long session is scheduled for the Idaho National Laboratory’s meeting […]

National Technology and Engineering Solutions has established adequate safety systems management programs at Sandia National Laboratories, but a new watchdog report questions whether those programs can ensure safe nuclear operations at the lab’s New Mexico research reactor.  The Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments inspected the safety system management practices at Sandia’s New Mexico campus, […]

National Technology and Engineering Solutions has established adequate safety systems management programs at Sandia National Laboratories, but a new watchdog report questions whether those programs can ensure safe nuclear operations at the lab’s New Mexico research reactor.  The Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments inspected the safety system management practices at Sandia’s New Mexico campus, […]

Lockheed Martin wants to build solid rocket motors to compete with the military’s two current main suppliers,  Northrop Grumman’s Orbital ATK and L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne. “We are endeavoring as a defense company to create another supplier,” James Taiclet, the president of Lockheed Martin, testified at a Sept. 20 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s […]

As a safeguard against wildfires, crews for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started to thin out the forest in certain areas of Rendija Canyon, lab officials announced last week. The Rendija Canyon Wildland Fire Fuels Reduction and Defensible Space Project, which should be finished in November, will create a […]

Sen. Roger Wicker, (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers, (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on Friday sent a letter to Strategic Command (STRATCOM), “demanding a full accounting of why an Iranian propagandist and former regime official participated as a keynote speaker in a STRATCOM-sponsored event.” […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Processing Facility is structurally sound enough to withstand potential seismic events, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board found in a recent study of the building.  The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has worked with the Department of Energy on the seismic safety of PF-4 and Los Alamos since […]

Linda Bauer, former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deputy director, will lead a new effort to write a “blueprint” for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production and science & technology infrastructure.  NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby announced the campaign to “keep pace with the dynamic global environment” in an internal email seen by the Exchange Monitor on […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Processing Facility is structurally sound enough to withstand potential seismic events, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board found in a recent study of the building.  The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has worked with the Department of Energy on the seismic safety of PF-4 and Los Alamos since […]

Linda Bauer, former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deputy director, will lead a new effort to write a “blueprint” for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production and science and technology infrastructure.  NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby announced the campaign to “keep pace with the dynamic global environment” in an internal email seen by the Exchange Monitor on […]

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm will travel to New Mexico to tour Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to meet with the lab’s workers, the agency wrote in a press release. While at Los Alamos, Granholm will meet Field Office Manager Ted Wyka, LANL Director Thom Mason, and NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby […]

A National Nuclear Security Administration facility in Albuquerque, N.M., received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, a first for any of the agency’s roughly 1,000 buildings. The John A. Gordon Albuquerque Complex Facility, a satellite campus that provides high-performance computing, research and engineering capabilities to nearby Los […]

In a statement Monday from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. “For more than fifty years, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has endured as the foundation of a system built on nuclear restraint,” Miller said. “The challenges we […]

The Department of Energy, contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge and various state and local officials broke ground Wednesday on a new $550-million low-level radioactive waste landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE said in a press release. The new Environmental Management Disposal Facility will provide onsite disposal of debris generated as DOE continues […]

Stephen Streiffer, who is currently the interim director of a national laboratory in California, will become the new director of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in October, Battelle announced last week. Streiffer is currently the interim head of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, formerly known as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, […]

Lawrence Livermore National Security, the contractor that operates Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is now accepting applications for its 2023 Community Gift Program. Established in 2008, the Community Gift Program provides annual awards to support nonprofit organizations addressing science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics education, community service and philanthropic needs in local and surrounding communities. The […]

Just after 8 p.m. on Thursday, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which provides a modest boost to civilian and military nuclear weapons modernization programs.  The Senate’s version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), approved 86-11, authorizes the National Nuclear Security Administration to spend $24 billion or so, up […]

The Department of Energy’s Northern New Mexico Advisory Board, which provides input on cleanup issues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, asked the acting head of the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management last week about expanding its role to include the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. William (Ike) White, the senior adviser for DOE’s […]

The Senate has left town until next week, leaving the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) without a vote. Senators were scheduled to resume consideration fo the bill on Tuesday. The Senate’s version of the fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill includes $24.1 billion for nuclear defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, almost exactly in […]

The recent unprecedented expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory workforce will continue for at least another year before leveling out at around 2,0000 employees, a senior lab official told the Los Alamos County Council on Tuesday. All told, there are 17,244 people employed at Los Alamos in various capacities from professional National Nuclear Security […]

The Department of Energy and New Mexico should work with a third-party mediator “to build trust” on legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a Congressional watchdog reported Wednesday. Without “clearer communication that leads to smoother relationships with the regulators and the public,” DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department could risk, “further delaying […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started cutting recently dug-up corrugated metal pipes into sections small enough for shipment to the agency’s underground disposal site for transuranic waste. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) workers are using hydraulic shears to cut […]

The Department of Energy and New Mexico should work with a third-party mediator “to build trust” on legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a Congressional watchdog reported Wednesday. Without “clearer communication that leads to smoother relationships with the regulators and the public,” DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department could risk, “further delaying […]

The recent unprecedented expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory workforce will continue for at least another year before leveling out at around 2,0000 employees, a senior lab official told the Los Alamos County Council on Tuesday. All told, there are 17,244 people employed at Los Alamos in various capacities from professional National Nuclear Security […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday the legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico started cutting recently dug-up corrugated metal pipes into sections small enough for shipment to the agency’s underground disposal site for transuranic waste. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) workers are using hydraulic shears to cut […]

A House committee’s first draft of an annual defense policy bill would increase funding for plutonium pit production, a controversial sea-launched cruise missile warhead and other nuclear weapons modernization programs.  While House Armed Services subcommittees, including the strategic forces subcommittee, were debating their versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Tuesday, the full […]

Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and National Nuclear Security Administration head Jill Hruby are too legit to quit. In mid-May, the pair hosted former rapper and “science enthusiast” MC Hammer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore California.  Hruby included a photo of the three of them, along with Kim Budil, director of […]

Senators from four states have joined forces to form a caucus dedicated to advocating for U.S. national laboratories, including those overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), James Risch (R-Idaho.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced the creation of a new Senate National Labs Caucus on May 25. […]

A member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) announced plans this week to leave Congress in order to attend to his ill wife. Stewart did not reveal details of the health issues facing his wife but could resign soon, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday. “I can say with pride that I […]

Senators from four states have joined forces to form a caucus dedicated to advocating for U.S. national laboratories, including those overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), James Risch (R-Idaho.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced the creation of a new Senate National Labs Caucus on May 25. […]