Los Alamos

While would-be bidders mull over the Department of Energy’s request for proposals to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next decade, a community representative is cautiously breathing a sigh of relief that the agency has made some concession to the local businesses for which the lab is lifeblood. The final solicitation was “surprising […]

Three workers and two rooms were radioactively contaminated after a botched maintenance job on a glove box at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility, the Department of Energy and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said. It was the latest in a series of safety snafus at Los Alamos to come to light during […]

Processing of potentially combustible waste containers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory could be finished by Thanksgiving, a source in New Mexico said this week. That would be ahead of the latest official schedule for completion in December. An official with the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management told the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory […]

Processing of potentially combustible waste containers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory could be finished by Thanksgiving, a source in New Mexico said this week. That would be ahead of the latest official schedule for completion in December. The source said an official with the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management told the Northern New […]

Despite a public rebuff from rival University of Texas last week, Texas A&M University expects to join “strong partners” in a bid to manage the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. The DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Oct. 25 solicited bids for a new lab contract that is expected to cost some $21 […]

Three workers and two rooms were radioactively contaminated after a botched maintenance job on a glove box at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility, the Department of Energy and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said. It was the latest in a series of safety snafus at Los Alamos to come to light during […]

The Santa Fe City Council is urging the U.S. Energy Department and New Mexico Environment Department to “strengthen” a 2016 consent order governing cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and also suspend any expanded plutonium pit production at the site “until safety issues are resolved.” The resolution, passed Oct. 25, calls for additional characterization […]

The University of Texas affirmed its interest in managing the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 10 years last week, but has apparently ruled out partnering with fellow Lone Star State university system Texas A&M. On Thursday, a day after the Department of Energy (DOE) rolled out its final request for proposals for a […]

In a closed-door meeting Thursday, the acting head of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup program briefed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on the 45-day review of his office’s operations and other key issues. An entry on the DNFSB calendar says the five-person board was scheduled to receive one of its periodic briefings from EM-1, […]

With the House of Representatives already planning to look at the issue, the Senate on Oct. 19 approved a measure that could result in more predictable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding federal facilities, including many across the Energy Department complex. The amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2018 budget package won approval […]

The Department of Energy this week released its final request for proposals for a 10-year contract to manage and operate the Los Alamos National Laboratory: the storied nuclear weapons research site in New Mexico that will become the nation’s primary plutonium-pit-production facility under the next prime contractor’s watch. The final solicitation is for a cost-plus-fixed-fee […]

With the House of Representatives already planning to look at the issue, the Senate on Oct. 19 approved a measure that could result in more predictable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding federal facilities, including many across the Energy Department complex. The amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2018 budget package won approval […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday released its final request for proposals for a 10-year contract to manage and operate the Los Alamos National Laboratory: the storied nuclear weapons research site that will become the nation’s primary plutonium-pit-production facility under the next prime contractor’s watch. Those interested must submit a bid by Dec. […]

A major contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory has recently completed $7.5 million of cleanup work adjacent to the Los Alamos townsite in New Mexico. The cleanup, conducted by TerranearPMC and overseen by lab prime Los Alamos National Security LLC (LANS), was done on DOE property along the south-facing slopes of the Los Alamos Canyon. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week announced back-to-back milestones on warhead refurbishments intended to preserve the potency of U.S. nuclear submarine and cruise missiles. On Tuesday, the NNSA said it modified the first W80-1 air-launched cruise-missile warhead under a program launched in 2012 to help keep the weapon suitable for service into the […]

An Energy Department contract for loading of transuranic waste prior to shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., will not be renewed when it expires at the end of this month. Georgia-based-Celeritex Services physically loads certain transuranic waste at DOE generating sites prior to its transport to WIPP. That covers assembling payloads, […]

President Donald Trump called it “fake” news and arms control wonks called it impossible: a radical increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal the commander in chief demanded during a private meeting at the Pentagon in July, according to an NBC News report Wednesday. During the meeting with Cabinet officials and military brass, Trump reportedly said he […]

A fledgling effort by the Department of Energy to revive domestic production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) in order to fuel deep space missions by NASA shows promise but still faces challenges, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Oct. 4. The Energy Department has demonstrated “a proof of concept” by producing 100 grams of Pu-238 […]

Fresh off a win in the contract for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, BWX Technologies is eyeing additional contract awards in the near future, according to the company’s Oct. 4 investor day presentation. BWXT partners with fellow DOE major AECOM in Nuclear Waste Partnership, which in September secured a $928 […]

Honeywell’s decision to spin off three of its business units should not affect the company’s work with the Energy Department, a corporate spokesperson said Tuesday. Honeywell announced Tuesday it will spin off its Homes portfolio and ADI Global Distribution business into a separate home ventilation, security, and fire-protection company, and spin its Transportation Systems segment […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is expected to receive 170 shipments of transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory between August 2017 and August 2018, officials said during a WIPP Town Hall last week in the city of Carlsbad. Idaho will account for nearly two-thirds of the 258 anticipated total […]

Two sources in New Mexico said Thursday the Los Alamos National Laboratory is slightly more than two-thirds through treatment of potentially combustible waste containers. At a late September meeting of the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board, an Energy Department official reported that 20 drums of inappropriately remediated nitrate salts remained to be treated, one […]

The Energy Department as of this week had yet to release a solicitation for the next 10-year contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) released a draft solicitation in July, which said the final solicitation for the next management and operations pact for […]

Weeks before it was awarded a six-month extension for legacy nuclear cleanup operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, contractor Los Alamos National Security was slightly more than halfway through processing canisters of problem waste. As of early September, the lab’s Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility (WCRRF) was treating the 34th […]

The leaders of site advisory boards for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management complex will discuss waste cleanup with DOE officials, and members of the public, on Oct. 18-19 in Kennewick, Wash. The chairs and vice-chairs of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) local boards meet twice per year to get updates […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is expected to receive 170 shipments of transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory between August 2017 and August 2018, officials said during a WIPP Town Hall on Thursday in the city of Carlsbad. Idaho will account for nearly two-thirds of the 258 anticipated total […]

The Energy Department said Tuesday that it had awarded a $19.3 million task order to Waste Control Specialists for continued storage in West Texas of transuranic and Greater-Than-Class-C waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Dallas-based waste storage specialist said the agreement includes research into ultimate disposal of the waste at […]

As has been expected, the Energy Department on Tuesday issued a six-month extension for the current contract for legacy nuclear cleanup operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The department said Tuesday that Los Alamos National Security, the lab’s management and operations contractor, would also remain its environmental management provider through March […]

Since it resumed accepting transuranic waste in April, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has received 68 shipments as of Sept. 25, officials said Thursday during a “WIPP Town Hall” in Carlsbad, N.M. The officials also offered some details of a potential rock fall situation in one of the underground mine’s storage rooms. With […]

General Atomics appeared a lock to once again win a contract, potentially worth more than $125 million over five years, to help the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) simulate conditions of a nuclear explosion. The San Diego-based company is the incumbent on the work under a nearly $150-million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract awarded in 2012 […]