National Laboratories

Officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have known for at least two years that the facility would not meet a key deadline in a fence-to-fence cleanup of radioactive and hazardous waste that their predecessors agreed to more than a decade ago under a binding court-ordered consent decree. A settlement for completing the cleanup of […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 The Los Alamos National Laboratory and its newly selected protective force contractor, the Centerra Group, have completed a full transfer of security responsibilities from departing contractor SOC. The final change took place Tuesday despite a pending protest by SOC that disputed the award, a factor that went unmentioned in announcements […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 The mission need Critical Decision (CD)-0 for the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) modular approach to plutonium manufacturing has been approved, according to Department of Energy documents shared with NS&D Monitor. The plutonium modular approach (PMA) project will provide the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with “high-hazard, high-security laboratory space” […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 The Department of Energy (DOE) identified deficiencies in hazard assessment and abatement and emergency response at the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in a preliminary notice of violation (PNOV) issued earlier this month to SNL’s managing contractor, Sandia Corp. The DOE investigated SNL’s worker safety and health program following a lithium ion battery […]

Physicists at the Energy Department’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory want plasma-based centrifuges to process nuclear waste, PPPL announced on Tuesday. Known as “plasma mass filtering,” the new mass separation techniques would supplement chemical techniques, and stakeholders hope the two-pronged approach would decrease disposal costs and the number of byproducts produced, according to the PPPL press […]

The mission need Critical Decision (CD)-0 for the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) modular approach to plutonium manufacturing has been approved, according to Department of Energy documents shared with NS&D Monitor. The plutonium modular approach (PMA) project will provide the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with “high-hazard, high-security laboratory space” for LANL’s plutonium operations, according […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) identified deficiencies in hazard assessment and abatement and emergency response at the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in a preliminary notice of violation (PNOV) issued earlier this month to SNL’s managing contractor, Sandia Corp. The DOE investigated SNL’s worker safety and health program following a lithium ion battery fire in October 2012 and […]

Cement is a “good choice” for storing spent nuclear fuel, according to a new study by researchers from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub and a lab of the joint MIT-French National Center for Scientific Research known as the MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment. “Because it is inexpensive and easy to manufacture, cement is […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 11/20/2015 Plans are in the works to deliver at least 25 spent fuel rods from the North Anna Power Station in Virginia to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Tennessee lab is preparing to cut up and analyze the “fast burnup” fuel to better understand the aging processing outside the reactor […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 11/20/2015 The relationship between the federal government and national laboratories should be modified to ease the burden of federal regulations while promoting transparency and trust between the two entities, according to the co-chairs of the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories (CRENEL) and a laboratory director.  CRENEL, established […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 11/20/2015 15 projects from National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) labs, some of which feature nuclear deterrence applications, were chosen last week as winners of R&D Magazine’s annual R&D 100 Awards recognizing “the top technology products of the year,” according to the magazine. One of the winners in the software and services […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 11/20/2015 The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is remaining mum on its latest cost estimate for cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, after New Mexico’s top environment official this week knocked DOE’s 2008 $1.2 billion estimate as “too low." The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) “and DOE need to […]

The relationship between the federal government and national laboratories should be modified to ease the burden of federal regulations while promoting transparency and trust between the two entities, according to the co-chairs of the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories (CRENEL) and a laboratory director. CRENEL, established last year, released a report recently […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on Thursday knocked the Energy Department’s recent $1.2 billion cost estimate for remaining cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as “too low," “NMED and DOE need to develop a new schedule to secure the increased funding necessary for remediation,” according to a briefing slide from the Northern New […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 11/13/2015 Partnerships between universities and national laboratories that support the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation are developing new detection, verification, and network analysis technologies for nonproliferation while promoting a student-to-lab pipeline meant to recruit a new generation of technical experts into the nuclear security enterprise. A […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 11/13/2015 Analysts and specialists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) this week in Washington, D.C., highlighted research projects that offer nuclear nonproliferation applications. Speaking at the American Nuclear Society’s annual winter meeting, IAEA analyst Regine Schuler said that to provide credible assurance “that […]

The ExchangeMonitor Publications & Forums is accepting nominations for the Johnny Foster Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented at the Eighth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, scheduled for Feb. 16-19, 2016, in Arlington, Va. The award is named for former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Johnny Foster, who was the inaugural honoree in 2013. It […]

Chris Schneidmiller NS&D Monitor 11/6/2015 The Sandia National Laboratories this year lost a device that contained radioactive polonium 210, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said last week. The New Mexico facility in 2014 leased two static-eliminating inline alpha ionizers that each contained 10 millicuries of the substance, Steven Simonson, director of […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 11/6/2015 Seventeen members of Congress are urging the Department of Education to grant eligibility to all employees of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) 16 national laboratories for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLFP). Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) Nov. 2 letter to the Department of Education says the PSLFP, which forgives […]

The ExchangeMonitor Publications & Forums is accepting nominations for the Johnny Foster Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented at the Eighth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, scheduled for Feb. 16-19, 2016, in Arlington, Va. The award is named for former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Johnny Foster, who was the inaugural honoree in 2013. It […]

NS&D Monitor 11/6/2015 IN THE NNSA The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) late last month hosted eight foreign disarmament experts representing Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) non-nuclear weapon states for a transparency visit. The U.S. labs demonstrated technologies “through which the United States maintains the nuclear weapon stockpile in a non-testing […]

CRENEL Final Report Released Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 10/30/2015 Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Wednesday suggested holding regular meetings between lawmakers and national laboratory directors, and expressed hope that more frequent communication of this type could help lab projects and programs finish on time and on schedule. […]

The Sandia National Laboratories this year lost a device that contained radioactive polonium 210, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments [EA] said last week.   The New Mexico facility in 2014 leased two static-eliminating inline alpha ionizers that each contained 10 millicuries of the substance. One was sent to a Department of Defense […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/30/2015 AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. – The Los Alamos National Laboratory legacy cleanup contract is expected to be awarded next year, and will most likely yield the winning prime contractor or prime team approximately $150 million-$180 million annually, Jack Surash, deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management for the Energy Department’s […]

The ExchangeMonitor Publications & Forums is accepting nominations for the Johnny Foster Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented at the Eighth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, scheduled for Feb. 16-19, 2016, in Arlington, Va. The award is named for former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Johnny Foster, who was the inaugural honoree in 2013. It […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/30/2015 A team of five Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) staffers that joined over 200 experts from 44 countries to conduct an on-site field exercise in Jordan late last year to evaluate progress in developing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was recognized for “exceptional work,” the National Nuclear Security […]

NS&D Monitor 10/30/2015 Contractor Criticality Safety Infraction Reported at Sandia A contractor in September caused a criticality safety breach that forced the evacuation of a section of the Sandia National Laboratories, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report released this month. The worker was taking measurements at the SNL Annular Core […]

A contractor in September caused a criticality safety breach that forced the evacuation of a section of the Sandia National Laboratories, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report released this month.   The worker was taking measurements at the SNL Annular Core Research Reactor facility on Sept. 8 while preparing to […]

Senate Energy & Water Development Appropriations Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) yesterday pitched holding regular congressional meetings with national laboratory directors, and expressed hope that more frequent communication between Congress and the Energy Department and its labs could help lab projects and programs finish on time and on schedule. “I would hope…that we could have […]

A team of five Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) staffers joined over 200 experts from 44 countries to conduct an on-site field exercise in Jordan to evaluate progress in developing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Friday. As part of the field exercise, experts used “120 tons […]