National Laboratories

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory inappropriately used Department of Energy facilities and resources when it participated in a 2011 National Geographic documentary on the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, according to a DOE Inspector General report released yesterday. The lab spent $81,746 in Licensing and Royalty funds to conduct explosive testing and synthesis at the High […]

Timothy Hallman, the Associate Director for Nuclear Physics in the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, will serve as the Source Selection Official for the Department’s Brookhaven National Laboratory procurement, officials said at an informational meeting last week. DOE released documents from the industry day this week, revealing the role that will be played by […]

A review of criticality safety issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory has revealed widespread problems that led to the ongoing shutdown of its Plutonium Facility last summer, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report released last week. The report describes Los Alamos’ Criticality Safety Infractions Causal Analysis, which identified five “root causal factors” […]

Paul Henry, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Principal Associate Director for Capital Projects, will serve as the lab’s acting Deputy Director with the sudden departure of Beth Sellers, NS&D Monitor has learned. Sellers, a Bechtel executive, abruptly resigned Friday in the wake of an ethics scandal, and will leave the lab at the end of this […]

The President’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget released last week proposes terminating $10 million in Department of Energy Office of Science funding for the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has lab officials concerned for the future of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The Lujan Neutron Scattering Center is one of […]

Department of Energy oversight of Work For Others activities at its 17 national laboratories is lacking, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued yesterday that suggests DOE didn’t do enough to control costs or ensure the programs met requirements. The report, titled “DOE Needs to Improve Oversight of Work Performed for Non-DOE Entities,” was […]

The University of California has formed a committee to search for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s next director, and the group will solicit input from employees on the lab’s next leader at its first meeting in January, Norm Pattiz, the chairman of the UC Board of Regents Committee on Oversight of the DOE Laboratories, said in […]

Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director George Miller began testifying yesterday in the second phase of an age discrimination lawsuit filed by dozens of former lab employees, and he is expected to continue to testify for most of today in Alameda County (Calif.) Superior Court. Miller was questioned by Gary Gwilliam, a lawyer representing five […]

The University of California has begun the search for a new Vice President for Laboratory Management after Glenn Mara recently announced his retirement. Mara took over as the head of UC’s lab management efforts last year, replacing Bruce Darling. Mara has served at both Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, last serving at Los […]

Delayed by the government shutdown in October, an informational meeting for the Brookhaven National Laboratory procurement has been rescheduled for Jan. 30. The meeting and windshield tour of the laboratory will begin at 1 p.m. at the laboratory, and is expected to last about four hours. An agenda for the meeting has been posted on […]

An Alameda County (Calif.) jury has ruled against five former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees that accused the lab of age discrimination in connection with a massive layoff in 2008. The five employees won a $2.7 wrongful termination verdict earlier last year, but in a separate trial focusing on age discrimination, a jury found Dec. […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Contractor Assurance System (CAS) did not adequately alert lab or National Nuclear Security Administration management to problems on a botched nuclear security upgrade project at the lab’s Technical Area 55, according to a report released yesterday by the Department of Energy’s Inspector General that suggested the CAS problems at Los Alamos were […]

The omnibus spending package unveiled earlier this week by Congressional appropriators preserves Senate-drafted language that would create a broad-ranging Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories. The nine-member panel would be chosen by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz from a list of 18 qualified officials picked by the President’s Council of Advisors on […]

Sandia National Laboratories said yesterday that an impact test involving the B61 nuclear bomb in late November performed as expected. The impact test was the first rocket-driven impact test at the lab in seven years after a 2008 accident at the lab’s 10,000-foot rocket sled track forced a hiatus to rocket-driven tests. In the three […]

Kim Davis Lebak is taking over as the manager of the Los Alamos Field Office, shifting to the role from the top federal spot at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Lebak has served as the head of the Lawrence Livermore Field Office since January 2012, and previously served as the Deputy Site Office Manager at Sandia […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration needs an extra $55.9 million to make a payment to the University of California Retirement Plan, according to a reprogramming request submitted to Congress Tuesday. The reprogramming request was coupled with an appeal to reprogram another $2.5 million to finish designing Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Low Level Waste building, a […]

A Department of Energy Inspector General Audit released yesterday noted that improvements in accounting practices at the Work for Others Program at Sandia National Laboratories could result in significant annual savings. For example, costs relating to Sandia’s WFO support organizations were included in a general organization-wide cost pool rather than an allocating them to a […]

Former National Ignition Facility Director Ed Moses will head up an effort to explore the uses for ignition, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Parney Albright said yesterday. Moses was shifted out of his role as the NIF director earlier this year, and had served as the Principal Associate Director for NIF and Photon Science (NIF&PS) […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory has put several cleanup projects on standby as a result of the government shutdown, though other cleanup work at the lab is continuing—at least for now. Weapons Complex Monitor has learned that much of the lab’s canyon cleanup work as well as some inspections and work under the Consent Order with the […]

Though Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security Administration have improved management of a replacement liquid waste processing capability, the project has experienced numerous issues since it was launched in 2004, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report released yesterday. LANL is looking to replace its aging Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment […]

The National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Site has not fully restored its ability to perform plutonium-based criticality experiments, the Department of Energy Inspector General said in a report released Friday. Officials moved four criticality machines from Los Alamos National Laboratory Technical Area-18 to Nevada’s Device Assembly Facility due to […]

An explosives research facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory failed to control access to its explosive operations area, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report issued Friday. Investigating allegations that the lab hadn’t controlled access to the High Explosives Applications Facility (HEAF), and the IG found lab officials had been lax in limiting […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory suspended its transuranic waste shipping project because of the government shutdown yesterday, telling approximately 200 subcontractor employees to stand down, the lab confirmed. Four shipments already loaded and ready to be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will still be sent, but processing of the transuranic waste is being stopped, […]

Contractors across the weapons complex continued to initiate shutdown plans yesterday, with Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory making plans to shutter operations by Oct. 21 if the shutdown persists. Sandia Director Paul Hommert said the lab was complying with National Nuclear Security Administration direction to “prepare for a safe, secure, and orderly […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory will begin putting its facilities and equipment into a “safe and secure status” Oct. 15 and plans to complete shutdown activities by Oct. 17, lab Director Charlie McMillan said in a message to lab employees yesterday. McMillan confirmed in his message that the last day for non-essential lab employees would be […]

A Los Alamos National Laboratory security official is suing the laboratory in a New Mexico District Court, alleging that he was retaliated against for raising concerns about security procedures on trips to the lab by high-profile visitors. Michael Irving, a security program leader and manager in the lab director’s office, said he informed executives at […]

Anthony Cugini has officially resigned as director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Fossil Chris Smith said in a message sent to employees yesterday. Cugini’s resignation, which took effect Oct. 11, came approximately a month after he was placed on administrative leave for reasons that remain unclear. That move reportedly […]

The second phase of a trial pitting laid off Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees against their former employer is gearing up and could start as early as next week. A pretrial hearing on several motions—including an effort by the lab to delay the trial because of the government shutdown—is scheduled for Wednesday. Barring any hiccups, […]

The University of California is seeking a small business subcontractor for a cleanup project to address a set of aging excess facilities at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s “old town” section. The subcontract would be for demolition engineering design services. “There are multiple buildings over a two acre site that are planned to be isolated; […]

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is looking for a contractor to provide a remote monitoring system for Global Threat Reduction Initiative work around the world, according to an Oct. 22 Request for Information. PNNL, which is one of the main labs supporting the National Nuclear Security Administration’s GTRI program, said it is looking to strengthen […]