National Laboratories

The former management contractor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico received a slap on the wrist from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) over a 2017 incident in which personnel entered a low-oxygen environment in violation of federal workplace safety laws. No one was hurt in the Sept. 13, 2017, incident, in […]

Michael Dunning retired as the acting head of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate on Wednesday, capping a 30 year career at the nation’s second-oldest weapons laboratory. “Michael Dunning has retired after a long and impactful career at LLNL,” a spokesperson for the California facility said by email Thursday. “It was […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) disposal facility in Texas for up to two more years, and Texas regulators are expected to follow suit. The head of NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Marc […]

Nuclear security made some news on Capitol Hill in 2018, but the biggest news in the enterprise concerned another hill in New Mexico, where the Department of Energy formally ended the abortive experiment of running the Los Alamos National Laboratory for profit. On Nov. 1, the nonprofit Triad National Security took over as the National […]

Albuquerque, N.M.-based Energy Department contractor Strategic Management Solutions Inc. has promoted longtime executive David O’Flynn to president effective Jan. 1. O’Flynn, currently senior vice president at SMSI, is a veteran of project management, construction, engineering, and nuclear infrastructure work across the Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration complex, the company said in a Wednesday […]

An appeals court’s October order for removal of 1 metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, took effect Tuesday, depriving the Department of Energy of some legal wiggle room to contest the directive. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., gave notice that its October ruling was, as far […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking comments this month on the Energy Department’s annual update to its cleanup plans for the Idaho National Laboratory complex. The comment deadline on DOE’s draft 2019 version of its Site Treatment Plan for the 890-square-mile national laboratory expires at 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 28, […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management prime Triad National Security is whipping together plans for addressing the major weapons projects of the future and cleaning up after major lab faux pas of the past. Triad, a three-way partnership of Battelle, longtime Los Alamos operator the University of California, and Texas A&M University, took over as the […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) could face fines from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) for reportedly sending construction waste to a nearby public landfill without proper documentation. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Friday that NMED has threatened to fine LANL for making several shipments of construction waste to the Caja […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Los Alamos’ new counter-unmanned aircraft […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Los Alamos’ new counter-unmanned aircraft […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – While the Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup manager said Wednesday her office will not use a new agency order to thwart oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), members of the panel remained apprehensive. Order 140.1, issued in May, will not change the relationship between DOE’s Office of Environmental Management […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corp. on Nov. 8 named William Madia to its Board of Directors. In addition to heading his own energy consulting firm, Madia is chairman of the board and vice president for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University in California. Originally called the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, […]

Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) will be the assistant Democratic leader in the 116th Congress come January, bolstering the political bona fides of the six-termer, whose 3rd Congressional District includes the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Luján confirmed the news in a Twitter post late Wednesday. It is a relatively low-ranking leadership post — fourth after […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corp. on Nov. 8 named William Madia to its Board of Directors. In addition to heading his own energy consulting firm, Madia is chairman of the board and vice president for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University in California. Originally called the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The NNSA did […]

Terry Wallace, who was briefly director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the waning days of Los Alamos National Security’s management contract, is still with the lab in an emeritus role, a Los Alamos spokesperson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Wallace “continues to serve the Laboratory as Director Emeritus in the Office of National […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California sent many of its 7,000 employees home early Wednesday and Thursday because of poor air quality resulting from wildfires burning in other parts of the state, a lab spokesperson said. The early dismissals applied both to employees at the main Livermore campus and the lab’s Site 300 non-nuclear-explosives […]

WASHINGTON — The aspiring chair of the House Armed Services Committee wants to scrap the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, whip up a multilateral Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces-style treaty, and take a run a making no-first-use the nuclear law of the land. Speaking here Wednesday at the Ploughshares Fund’s “Future of U.S. Nuclear Policy” conference, Rep. […]

A Kansas City, Mo., company will help upgrade infrastructure at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to accommodate future exascale computing capability, under a contract from lab prime Livermore National Security. Burns & McDonnell announced the award Monday. The company did not provide the financial terms of the contract, which involves design services for Livermore’s […]

George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]

George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]

BWX Technologies has rolled up a trio of big “wins” in the Energy Department’s cleanup complex during the past 12 months and is hoping for more, President and CEO Rex Geveden said Wednesday. “There remain significant pending opportunities including the re-award of the Savannah River [Site] liquid waste contract, Savannah River management and operations,” along […]

The New Mexico congressman whose district covers the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s wants a leadership role with the House Democrats, who in midterm elections Tuesday secured control of the lower chamber for the next two years. Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a five-term congressman who just won a sixth, announced the move online Wednesday, including […]

While Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) easily won re-election Tuesday, his ability to influence the money flow to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, and federal nuclear cleanup operations as a whole, appears to be on the decline. Simpson took more than 60 percent of the vote in Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District to decisively defeat Democrat Aaron […]

George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]

Triad National Security took over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Thursday, ending a decade-long experiment in running the nation’s oldest nuclear weapons laboratory as a for-profit business. After a four-month transition, Triad — led by the nonprofit trio of Battelle Memorial Institute, longtime Los Alamos manager the University of […]

Triad National Security is set today to take over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, ending a decade-long experiment in running the nation’s oldest nuclear weapons laboratory as a for-profit business. The transition was still on track for Thursday, a Triad spokesperson wrote in a Wednesday email. The company — led […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico last year shipped 5,058,687 kilograms of low-level radioactive waste off-site for disposal at federal and commercial properties. Operations at storied nuclear weapons laboratory generate low-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, mixed low-level waste, and mixed transuranic waste, according to the 2017 Annual Site Environmental Report […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) won’t rule out pressing Triad National Security, the incoming management contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to apply for federal nonprofit status. The company apparently hasn’t done that yet, and its new host county hopes it never does. The NNSA “is focused on making the transition […]