National Laboratories

The Department of Energy is planning to hold an informational meeting for the Brookhaven National Laboratory in mid to late January, the Department said yesterday. DOE earlier this month postponed an Oct. 17 informational meeting and windshield tour at the lab because of the government shutdown. In September, the Department said it was seeking Expressions […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory has extended for four years Locus Technologies’ contract to manage the Lab’s environmental data and information, Locus announced yesterday. The company has managed the data at the Lab since 2011 using its Environmental Information Management software. “We look forward to continuing to work with the team of talented professionals at LANL, […]

The Department of Energy still is planning on releasing a Request for Proposals for its Brookhaven National Laboratory procurement in the first three months of 2014 despite delays brought about by the government shutdown earlier this month, according to Questions and Answers released by the Department yesterday. The Q&As contained few surprises, but the Department […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration quietly changed out acting directors of the Los Alamos Field Office last month, swapping headquarters official Ike White for Sandia Field Office manager Geoff Beausoleil during the 16-day government shutdown. The NNSA did not publicize the switch, which was first revealed in a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative […]

Santa Fe, N.M., Mayor David Cross Thursday urged Los Alamos National Laboratory to fully excavate and characterize buried waste at the Lab’s Technical Area-54, submitting a draft resolution that the city council will vote on next month. While LANL is considering leaving a portion of the waste buried in place, the resolution asks LANL to […]

The Obama Administration’s “3+2” strategy for modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile ovrt the coming decades is expected to bring a more extensive workload to the weapons complex, and especially at Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administration chief Don Cook said yesterday. Speaking at the lab’s second “Primer” conference to commemorate its 70th anniversary, […]

Six years after a sharply critical Inspector General’s report on nuclear Material Control and Accountability (MC&A), Los Alamos National Laboratory has made progress, according to a review released yesterday. But the lab still has work to do, the Department of Energy’s IG concluded. “While several corrective actions were completed on the recommendations included in our […]

Almost a month after pausing Plutonium Facility operations, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan said the lab has started restarting work at the facility in phases. “I assume we’re going to be resuming in phases,” he said in a telephone interview with NW&M Monitor. “Where we’re in better shape, we’ll do those first and […]

Deficiencies in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s software quality assurance system have drawn the attention of the Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement and Oversight, but actions by the lab to correct the problems staved off a fine from the Department. Instead, in a July 22 letter to Livermore Director Parney Albright, Office of Enforcement and […]

B&W has continued to fight the National Nuclear Security Administration on its selection of a Bechtel-led team for its combined Y-12/Pantex contract, but B&W President and CEO Jim Ferland said last week that he didn’t envision the procurement battle impacting the NNSA’s other looming opportunity, for Sandia National Laboratories. “An awful lot of the background […]

In another report criticizing National Nuclear Security Administration contractors for poor contract management, the Department of Energy Inspector General raised questions yesterday about how Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory handles its time and materials subcontracts. The IG said that the lab did not fully justify six of seven time and materials subcontracts that it reviewed, potentially […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory will resume operations at its Plutonium Facility in phases, but the restart will be accompanied by a “rapid” expansion of qualified criticality safety analysts and revamped procedures for operating the lab’s plutonium production hub, acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held said in a recently released letter to the Defense […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory awarded three new master task order agreements for cleanup activities earlier this week. The winners of the new contracts, which are for environmental support services, were Navarro Research and Engineering, Portage and TerranearPMC. Details on the length and ceiling value of the new MTOAs were not available yesterday. In total, 11 […]

With the end of the fiscal year looming, Congress has still not signed off on a $120 million reprogramming request from the National Nuclear Security Administration to begin work on an alternate plutonium strategy despite dire warnings from Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. In a July letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz obtained […]

Officials at the National Ignition Facility took a small step forward in their quest to achieve fusion ignition at the facility earlier this month when the massive laser eclipsed its previous record for neutron yield in cryogenic implosions threefold. More importantly, however, the experiment accurately matched predictions by computer simulation tools, representing a milestone on […]

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will make his first official visit to New Mexico today, making stops at the state’s two nuclear weapons laboratories. In the morning he will tour the newly constructed New Mexico Consortium Biology Laboratory in Los Alamos before attending closed briefings at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Accompanying him will be New Mexico […]

Science and engineering at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons laboratories remains “healthy and vibrant,” according to a report released yesterday by the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council, but the experimental work that underpins much of the expertise at the labs is becoming increasingly threatened by burdensome oversight. The report represents the […]

The Department of Energy took a small step toward competing the Brookhaven National Laboratory contract yesterday, unveiling a website for the procurement. DOE has not released any information about its plans for the contract since issuing a sources sought notice in April, but it is believed to be crafting a draft Request for Proposals that […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration continues to study its plutonium options at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the wake of the deferral of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, the Government Accountability Office urged the agency to think long-term as it zeroes in on a plutonium solution. The agency is considering a modular […]

A program that supports Sandia National Laboratories’ life extension work received a clean bill of health from the Department of Energy’s Inspector General, though the IG highlighted a host of potential challenges facing the program in the future. In a report released Friday, the IG noted that Sandia’s Readiness in Technical Base and Facilities (RTBF) […]

National Energy Technology Laboratory Director Anthony Cugini was abruptly removed from his position and escorted off-site by security yesterday, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing has learned, though the reasons for the move remain unclear. The Department of Energy declined to comment on the move yesterday, stating that the Department does not comment on personnel actions. Prior to […]

The Department of Energy plans to release a Request for Proposals for its Brookhaven National Laboratory contract competition “in the January-through-March 2014 timeframe,” the Department said yesterday as it announced that it was seeking Expressions of Interest from companies interested in the procurement. Expressions of Interest are due by 5 p.m. Oct. 2, and an […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory suffered flooding and storm damage to infrastructure and monitoring stations after record rainfall inundated the site earlier this month. “We experienced an epic event,” Dave McInroy, the laboratory’s program director for environmental corrective actions, said in a statement. “We received more than 7-and-a-half inches of rain in a four-day period and […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is seeking small businesses able to provide technical support services to a number of site offices, according to a sources sought notice posted yesterday. DOE anticipates the contract to be a cost-plus award fee or a time-and-materials contract with a one-year base period and four one-year option periods […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory has avoided a fine for an incident in which a laboratory machinist was exposed to higher-than-allowed levels of beryllium. In a May 29 letter to LANL Director Charlie McMillan, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement and Oversight said the lab ignored procedures for collecting and controlling personal exposure assessment air […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is considering reducing already-earned fee of several weapons complex contractors after the Department of Energy Inspector General revealed former Congresswoman Heather Wilson was paid more than $450,000 for undocumented work as a consultant from 2009 to 2011 while she was out of Congress. Wilson, a five-term Republican and former Pete […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory spokeswoman Lynda Seaver confirmed yesterday that 399 employees will leave the lab after taking a buyout designed to address Fiscal Year 2014 budget shortfalls. The lab said last month it could accommodate buyouts for up to 600 employees, and though the lab didn’t reach that target, it is not expected to […]

A former Los Alamos scientist and his wife will both serve prison terms after pleading guilty to providing an undercover FBI agent with a detailed scheme to help Venezuela establish a nuclear weapons program. Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, who went by “Leo,” and his wife Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, were charged in 2010 in connection with the […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is officially jettisoning plans for its salary reduction/closure day program, which had been planned to deal with a massive budget shortfall. Lab Director Parney Albright said in a Monday memo to lab employees that the lab had addressed a $100 million shortfall by cutting costs through reductions to procurement, travel and […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory has selected three companies for its long-awaited Quality Assurance Technical Services contract, NW&M Monitor has learned, picking teams led by North Wind, Vector and Technology Management Consulting Resources for the support work at the lab. A Los Alamos National Laboratory spokesman declined to reveal the names of the companies selected for […]