National Laboratories

Work on Leaking Reactor Pool to Begin In May WC Monitor 2/13/2015 Cleanup actions at an old and leaking reactor pool at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are expected to begin in May, the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC, said this week. UCOR is evaluating bids for the work package, which would […]

Sherwood Fawcett, the first director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, died Feb. 3 in Upper Arlington, Ohio. Fawcett, 95, also was the president of Battelle Memorial Institute from 1968-81. Fifty years ago he came to Richland to assume control of the lab, which was being created from the former Hanford Laboratory under a […]

NNSA, Livermore Moving Forward With Pu Shots on NIF Despite Activist Objections NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration is not backing off a plan to use plutonium in shots at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility despite a last-minute appeal by activist groups to postpone the experiments. The first shots on the […]

Construction Begins on RLWTF-Upgrade Project NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 Construction work has begun on the first phase of a project to replace the aging Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Late last week, Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the managing contractor at the lab, issued a notice to proceed with construction […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 A Los Alamos National Laboratory classification officer disclosed “sensitive, national security information” after misclassifying six documents, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General Office said in an apparent draft report released on the LLNL: The True Story blog this week. The undated draft report from Inspector General Gregory Friedman also revealed […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 Los Alamos National Laboratory manager Los Alamos National Security, LLC, has a long list of issues to address as it looks to recover from its worst year since taking over management of the lab in 2006, and laboratory Director Charlie McMillan emphasized that the laboratory will take a measured approach […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 National security agencies doing business with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons laboratories should establish a “formally recognized” strategic partnership with the Department of Energy, a National Academy of Sciences panel said in a recently released report. The Committee on Assessment of the Governance Structure of the NNSA National […]

Construction Begins on RLWTF-Upgrade Project WC Monitor 1/30/2015 Construction work has begun on the first phase of a project to replace the aging Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Late last week, Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the managing contractor at the lab, issued a notice to proceed with construction […]

A pair of activist groups are asking the Department of Energy to hold off on using plutonium in shots at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility. The shots involving plutonium could begin as early as today, but Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs and the Natural Resources Defense Council called on shots involving plutonium to be halted […]

Former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for sharing classified nuclear weapons data to an undercover FBI agent. Mascheroni, 79, is alleged to have claimed that he could “deliver” a nuclear weapon to Venezuela in exchange for $793,000 during an […]

A Los Alamos National Laboratory classification officer disclosed “sensitive, national security information” after misclassifying six documents, the Department of Energy Inspector General said in an apparent draft report released on the LLNL: The True Story blog Monday. The undated draft report from Inspector General Gregory Friedman also revealed that Los Alamos management did not investigate […]

After two trials, two appeals, dozens of motions and more than five years of litigation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory officials and lawyers for 130 workers laid off from the lab in 2008 are headed to the negotiating table to try to reach a settlement. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman has delayed the start […]

National security agencies doing business with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons laboratories should establish a “formally recognized” strategic partnership with the Department of Energy, a National Academy of Sciences panel said in a recently released report that stops short of advocating major upheaval to the governance model for the labs. The Committee on […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Department of Justice is investigating whether officials with Sandia National Laboratories improperly used government funds to lobby for an extension to the Lockheed Martin-run contractor’s management and operating contract. The mention of the investigation was buried in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 Performance Evaluation Review, released […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 1/23/2015 National Nuclear Security Administration officials were highly critical of Los Alamos National Laboratory management in the lab’s recently released Fiscal Year 2014 Performance Evaluation Review, with the document stating that shortcomings during the year “reflect a negative trend in leadership performance.” The agency docked lab manager Los Alamos National Security […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 National Nuclear Security Administration officials were highly critical of Los Alamos National Laboratory management in the lab’s recently released Fiscal Year 2014 Performance Evaluation Review, but had plenty of praise for the managers of the agency’s other physics laboratory, lauding Lawrence Livermore management for turning things around during the year. […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor  1/23/2015 In a move that could lead to financial penalties, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement is planning to investigate an incident at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that left seven workers exposed to radiation while working on a project for the Y-12 National Security Complex. In a Jan. 16 letter […]

Staff Reports RW Monitor 1/23/2015 Canadian-based Terrestrial Energy announced this week that it was entering into a relationship/collaboration with Oak Ridge National laboratory for the possible development of a new line of small molten salt reactors. Nuclear advocates who’ve long pushed for a revival of the molten salt technology, developed at ORNL decades ago, greeted […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 James Doyle, the Los Alamos National Laboratory nonproliferation analyst who claimed he was let go by the lab after writing a paper advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons, has had his second whistleblower claim accepted by the National Nuclear Security Administration and began mediation with the lab this week. […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement is planning to investigate an incident at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that left seven workers exposed to radiation while working on a project for the Y-12 National Security Complex. In a Jan. 16 letter to ORNL Director Thom Mason, Steven Simonson, the director of the Office of Enforcement, […]

The Department of Energy yesterday awarded a $5 million cooperative agreement to Mississippi State University’s Institute for Clean Energy Technology to evaluate High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filters and related nuclear cleanup technologies, according to a DOE release. The five-year agreement will run from Jan. 20, 2015, until Jan. 19, 2020.   The activities under the new […]

National Nuclear Security Administration officials were highly critical of Los Alamos National Laboratory management in the lab’s recently released Fiscal Year 2014 Performance Evaluation Review, with the document stating that shortcomings during the year “reflect a negative trend in leadership performance.” The agency docked lab manager Los Alamos National Security more than 90 percent of […]

LLNL Develops Realistic Radiological/Nuclear Training Technology NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said this week that it has developed a technology that will help train first responders on radiological and nuclear hazards. The technology involves injecting simulated radiation signals into the analog simplifiers of real radiation detectors that are used by first responders and […]

High Flux Isotope Reactor Back in Operation After Long Outage NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor came back into operation this week after a recent maintenance period. During the 32-day maintenance-and-refueling outage that was longer than normal because of the holidays, ORNL workers made modifications to the “deep well pump” […]

James Doyle, the Los Alamos National Laboratory nonproliferation analyst who claimed he was let go by the lab after writing a paper advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons, had his second whistleblower claim accepted by the National Nuclear Security Administration and began mediation with the lab yesterday. Doyle’s initial whistleblower complaint was based on […]

Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory official Ronald Streit has joined the consulting firm Longenecker & Associates as a Senior Associate, effective Jan. 14. Streit previously served as Lawrence Livermore’s Associate Program Director for Nuclear Weapons Engineering, where he was “the lead for development of additive manufacturing focused on applications nuclear weapon components and ancillary equipment […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 1/9/2015 In an unprecedented move, the National Nuclear Security Administration has drastically reduced the Fiscal Year 2014 fee for Los Alamos National Laboratory contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) because of “performance failures” associated with the February 2014 radiological incident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant while stripping the contractor of […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/9/2015 In an unprecedented move, the National Nuclear Security Administration has drastically reduced the Fiscal Year 2014 fee for Los Alamos National Laboratory contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) because of “performance failures” associated with the February 2014 radiological incident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant while stripping the contractor of […]

Activist Groups Ramp Up Opposition to NIF Plutonium Shots NS&D Monitor 1/9/2015 Members of an anti-nuclear activist group met with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory officials this week about plans to use small amounts of plutonium in experiments at the National Ignition Facility after ramping up their opposition to the plans in a Jan. 6 protest. […]

Members of an anti-nuclear activist group will meet with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory officials today about plans to use small amounts of plutonium in experiments at the National Ignition Facility after ramping up their opposition to the plans yesterday. About a dozen members of Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs and the Catholic Worker Farm protested the plans […]