National Laboratories

Top generals with the U.S. Air Force on May 12 reaffirmed their call for continued modernization and recapitalization of the country’s nuclear capabilities. “We must modernize our aging delivery platforms, nuclear weapons and supporting infrastructure so that America’s deterrent remains credible and effective in the future,” Gen. David Goldfein, the service’s chief of staff, and Gen. […]

Workers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on Wednesday morning sent the first barrel of potentially explosive nitrate-salt waste to the building where it will be cleaned up and prepared for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a source in New Mexico said. Stephen Hoffman, deputy manager of the agency’s Environmental Management Los […]

The Energy Department said its effort to clean up potentially explosive transuranic waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was slowed again last week after the site’s contractor discovered a possible crack in a machine vital to the project. On May 8, workers at the lab’s Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility […]

The Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories came in at No. 20 in Forbes Magazine’s 2017 ranking of the best employers in the United States. Forbes compiled its list based on surveys of 30,000 American workers who were asked how likely they were to recommend their employer to others. “Those results were the most important factor […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has taken delivery of some transuranic waste generated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and formerly stored at the privately operated Waste Control Specialists disposal site near Andrews, Texas, sources in New Mexico said. WIPP took delivery of the waste last week. The sources did not quantify […]

The U.S. Senate voted 77-22 Monday evening to confirm former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) as Air Force secretary, making her the first Air Force Academy graduate to become the service’s top civilian. Air Force Undersecretary Lisa Disbrow has been serving in the acting secretary position since January. Early last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee […]

In a paperwork milestone that speeds but does not clear the way to start treating a potentially explosive stream of transuranic waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico will allow the Energy Department to use a forklift as part of the agency’s planned treatment regimen. The state approved forklift use and other elements […]

New leadership is wrapping up its first week on the job at the Sandia National Laboratories, following a transition that removed former contractor Lockheed Martin from its management position. The National Nuclear Security Administration last December awarded the management and operations contract to National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, a subsidiary of Honeywell International. The deal […]

Montana-based S&K Logistics has secured a contract worth up to $17.4 million over five years to provide a host of technical and business assistance services for the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management’s Los Alamos Field Office. The field office oversees cleanup of legacy nuclear contamination and waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has made progress in its governance of the U.S. nuclear security enterprise but will need to take more concrete steps to improve the federal-contractor relationship and reduce bureaucratic burdens, according to a new congressionally mandated report. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Academy of Public […]

Jill Hruby had no intention of leaving her job as director of the Sandia National Laboratories, but those plans were interrupted by an imminent change in management. Now, for the first time in more than three decades, she is pondering a future that doesn’t include the multi-state Department of Energy research complex. Just days before […]

Lockheed Martin Corp. on Tuesday announced net sales of $11.1 billion and net earnings from continuing operations of $763 million for the first quarter of 2017. Net sales increased from $10.4 billion in the same three-month period of 2016, while year-over-year net earnings fell from $806 million. Lockheed subsidiary Sandia Corp., with only a few […]

U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command airmen from the service’s bases in Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska on Wednesday launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, the Air Force announced. The operational test involved an unarmed ICBM with a single test re-entry vehicle containing a telemetry package, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General dismissed in a newly released inspection report allegations of security concerns at a facility that houses special nuclear material at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The April 20 report, made public Tuesday, said the IG had received a complaint about security issues at ORNL’s Building […]

Lockheed Martin Corp. on Tuesday announced net sales of $11.1 billion and net earnings from continuing operations of $763 million for the first quarter of 2017. Net sales increased from $10.4 billion in the same three-month period of 2016, while year-over-year net earnings fell from $806 million. Lockheed subsidiary Sandia Corp., with only a few […]

Los Alamos National Security, the contractor managing the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, should improve its work planning and control processes, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a newly released enforcement letter to lab director Charles McMillan. The April 19 letter to the contractor said the Enterprise Assessments office […]

The Department of Homeland Security and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) last week announced a new forensics capability to trace the origins of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. The new Plutonium Processing Signatures Discovery capability involves the replication of various plutonium conversion processes that result in the production of weapon-usable material with different characteristics – such as color […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday had planned to start treating the troublesome stream of transuranic waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) that leaked radiation into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant three years ago, but the day came and went without any confirmation that DOE and its contractor had begun the work. An agency spokesperson […]

For the first time in three years, the Energy Department has sent shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for permanent disposal. Shipments from separate DOE facilities either arrived at WIPP or departed for it this week. One shipment arrived early Monday from the Idaho National Laboratory, while another […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted 22-5 in favor of Heather Wilson’s nomination as secretary of the Air Force, moving the matter on to the full Senate for final consideration. During her confirmation hearing before the committee last week, some lawmakers raised ethics concerns surrounding Wilson’s past consulting work. She was asked in particular […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted 22-5 in favor of Heather Wilson’s nomination as secretary of the Air Force, sending the matter to the full Senate for consideration. During her confirmation hearing in the same committee last week, some lawmakers raised ethics concerns surrounding Wilson’s past consulting work. She was asked about the contracts she […]

New legislation on enhancing nuclear energy research and developing new nuclear reactor technologies has reached the U.S. Senate. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) in January introduced the legislation, called the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act of 2017, which is intended to enhance civilian research and development of nuclear energy technologies. The bill highlights the need to maintain […]

Pat Host Defense Daily Most Republicans at Heather Wilson’s confirmation hearing to become the next Air Force secretary seemed largely uninterested in probing her alleged ethics missteps, instead saluting her experience and supporting her nomination. Aside from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) inquires, it was Democrats, led by Ranking Member Jack Reed […]

Two senior Democrats in the House of Representatives have asked the Government Accountability Office to study the need for a new nuclear warhead that would be manufactured to fit onto both ICBMs and sea-launched ballistic missiles. At issue is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s first “interoperable warhead,” or IW-1, which would replace the land-based W78 […]

President Donald Trump on March 21 formally submitted his nomination of Heather Wilson to become the next Air Force secretary after he announced his intention in late January. Wilson has served as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology since 2013. If confirmed, she will become the first Air Force Academy graduate […]

Months before a state regulatory deadline, the Energy Department and its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant have stopped using emergency above-ground waste storage space at the mine, according to a Monday regulatory filing. “On February 9, 2017, [DOE and Nuclear Waste Partnership] reconfigured the TRU [transuranic] mixed waste in storage in the […]

  The Energy Department is refusing to say when two outstanding cleanup contracts might be awarded at the Idaho National Laboratory site, or why the contract procurements were delayed in the first place. DOE early last year awarded its primary five-year Idaho cleanup contract — worth about $1.4 billion — to the contractor team Fluor […]

New Mexico Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall on Tuesday introduced a resolution that calls on the secretary of the Navy to name the next nuclear submarine the “USS Los Alamos” in honor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s contributions to the service. The senators’ press release noted that 2018 will be the 75th anniversary […]

New Mexico Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall on Tuesday introduced a resolution that calls on the secretary of the Navy to name the next nuclear submarine the “USS Los Alamos” in honor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s contributions to the service. The senators’ press release noted that 2018 will be the 75th anniversary […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is soliciting statements of interest from parties that would like to join the facility in a potential bid to support the development of a radiological/nuclear detonation response plan for the state of California, according to a notice posted last week. The notice said the California Emergency Management Agency released a request […]