National Laboratories

Los Alamos County, N.M., is calling on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to take responsibility for remediation of radioactive waste discovered last month off the property of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Debris contaminated by uranium and plutonium was discovered Feb. 14 by a county contractor doing sewer line excavation for a planned low-income […]

Los Alamos County, N.M., is calling on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to take responsibility for remediation of radioactive waste discovered last month off the property of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Debris contaminated by uranium and plutonium was discovered Feb. 14 by a county contractor doing sewer line excavation for a planned low-income […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is transitioning to minimum-safe operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a move that by next Monday will sharply shrink staffing levels and curtail some scientific activity at the Department of Energy nuclear weapons facility. Livermore Director William Goldstein made the announcement Monday night after the government of […]

There are no known cases of COVID-19 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after an employee who reported exposure to the novel coronavirus tested negative for the disease, a lab spokesperson said Wednesday. “We’ve had no cases, confirmed or presumptive,” the spokesperson wrote in an email Wednesday evening. Livermore managers became aware last week of […]

Amid the continuing spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus disease, the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapon-design laboratories have canceled the unclassified 2020 Strategic Weapons in the 21st Century summit scheduled for Thursday in Washington, D.C. This would have been the 13th year for the annual summit, co-hosted by the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national […]

Someone at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California was exposed to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that broke out in 2019, local media reported last week. A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employee exposed to someone with the disease is now self-monitoring at home, along with more than a dozen other […]

While the Department of Energy is not yet restricting travel inside the United States in response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), it is encouraging offices to “begin reducing non-essential domestic travel, as appropriate,” according to a Friday memo. “We will look at this issue and provide additional guidance as needed,” the agency […]

As budget hearing season ramps up in Washington, D.C., hearings of a different kind are scheduled elsewhere in two court cases touching the nuclear security enterprise: one involving a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who pleaded guilty to lying about ties to China, another involving weapon-usable plutonium sent to Nevada for safekeeping. First, Turab […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray (D) on Wednesday became the latest lawmaker from Washington state to chastise Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for the deep budget cuts proposed for the Hanford Site in fiscal 2021. Funding for the two Energy Department offices at Hanford, considered the nation’s most complex and expensive nuclear cleanup, would be slashed […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Thursday chastised Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for the deep budget cuts in fiscal 2021 proposed by the White House for the Hanford Site in Washington state. The former plutonium-producing site, considered the nation’s most complex nuclear cleanup, would see its total spending slashed from $2.6 billion enacted by Congress in […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has called it a career. Doug Hintze’s last day as manager of DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office was Friday, an agency spokesman confirmed Monday. Hintze spent more than 12 years in supervisory positions for the Office […]

As budget hearing season ramps up in Washington, D.C., hearings of a different kind are scheduled elsewhere in two court cases touching the nuclear security enterprise: one involving a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist who pleaded guilty to lying about ties to China, another involving weapon-usable plutonium sent to Nevada for safekeeping. First, Turab […]

The management and operations contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California will retain its AECOM branding, even though a private-equity partnership bought that company’s government contract business and rebranded it as Amentum. “AECOM E&C Holdings remains intact and still part of LLNS, LLC [Lawrence Livermore National Security] so we have retained the logo,” […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has promoted Huban Gowadia to principal associate director of global security, where she will lead the California nuclear weapons facility’s nonproliferation and nuclear counterterrorism programs. Livermore’s Global Security Security Principal Directorate also includes the Department of Energy’s programs to counter chemical, biological, and explosive threats. The directorate employs about 800 […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has promoted Huban Gowadia to principal associate director of global security, where she will lead the Californi nuclear weapons facility’s nonproliferation and nuclear counterterrorism programs, the lab announced recently. Livermore’s Global Security Security Principal Directorate also includes the lab’s efforts to counter chemical, biological, and explosive threats. The lab announced […]

Relying on competition, rather than a sole-source award, to choose the latest management contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory could save about $75 million over the life of the potentially $20-billion, 10-year deal, according to the Government Accountability Office. Some of the potential savings come from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) […]

While Amentum is a new company, it is far from a new face doing business for government nuclear and environmental agencies, a senior executive said Tuesday. The former AECOM Management Services division officially became Amentum on Jan. 31 with the closure of the $2.4 billion sale to affiliates of New York-based investment firms Lindsay Goldberg […]

A federal judge is scheduled on April 22 to sentence a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who has pleaded guilty to lying about his relationship with a Chinese talent recruitment program, according to a hearing notice filed Sunday. Turab Lookman, formerly of the New Mexico lab’s Theoretical Division, pleaded guilty in January to one count of […]

Relying on competition, rather than a sole-source award, to choose the latest management contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory could save about $75 million over the life of the potentially $20-billion, 10-year deal, according to the Government Accountability Office. Some of the potential savings come from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) […]

A federal judge is scheduled on April 22 to sentence a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who has pleaded guilty to lying about his relationship with a Chinese talent recruitment program, according to a hearing notice filed Sunday. Turab Lookman, formerly of the New Mexico lab’s Theoretical Division, pleaded guilty in January to one […]

A former physicist at the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory on Friday pleaded guilty to one count of lying to federal authorities about his alleged connection to a Chinese government-sponsored talent recruiting program. Turab Lookman, formerly of the New Mexico facility’s Theoretical Division, pleaded guilty to the second of three counts of fraud and […]

A former physicist at the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory on Friday pleaded guilty to one count of lying to federal authorities about his alleged connection to a Chinese government-sponsored talent recruiting program. Turab Lookman, formerly of the New Mexico facility’s Theoretical Division, pleaded guilty to the second of three counts of fraud […]

The U.S. Energy Department still has to work out some murky issues that could result from establishing a stand-alone contract for management of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. This includes specifics of how a new laboratory manager would work alongside the Fluor-led operator of the entire Savannah River Site, and how DOE’s […]

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist is set today to change his plea of not guilty to charges that he lied about alleged connections to a Chinese-sponsored talent-recruiting program, a new court filing shows. Turab Lookman’s plea-change hearing is slated for 10 a.m. local time in U.S. District Court for New Mexico in Albuquerque. The […]

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist is set Friday to change his plea of not guilty to charges that he lied about alleged connections to a Chinese-sponsored talent-recruiting program, a new court filing shows. Turab Lookman’s plea-change hearing is slated for 10 a.m. local time in U.S. District Court for New Mexico in Albuquerque. […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week moved to extend its contract with the panel of scientists known as JASON for up to a year, while the Pentagon works to resurrect its old arrangement with the group. Also this week, the JASON team endorsed a plan for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear […]

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Leveraging resources from U.S. Department of Energy contractors and research universities will be a key part of the inaugural stand-alone management and operations contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Thursday. The Energy Department is planning for a contract that would separate the […]

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Leveraging resources from U.S. Department of Energy contractors and research universities will be a key part of the inaugural stand-alone management and operations contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar said Thursday. The Energy Department is planning for a contract that would separate the […]

Comments on the U.S. Energy Department’s request for information (RFI) on a possible stand-alone management contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in South Carolina are now due by 3 p.m. ET Jan. 29. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the one-week extension for market research comments in a Tuesday notice on a […]