Los Alamos

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 […]

Workers were evacuated from a high-explosives research area at Los Alamos National Laboratory late last week after lightning apparently sparked a wildfire nearby, the Energy Department disclosed Tuesday. On Thursday, “personnel responded to a wildland fire west of Technical Area (TA) 40,” according to a report published in DOE’s official Occurrence Reporting and Processing System […]

Workers responsible for a breach of criticality safety procedures at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are back on the job, the lab’s prime contractor confirmed this week. The workers had been temporarily “disqualified” from working at Los Alamos’ Plutonium Facility after moving a shell — part of a nuclear-weapon core — into […]

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 […]

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 […]

Almost $27 million will be earmarked for road improvements around the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) as an outgrowth of a 2016 settlement between the Energy Department and the state of New Mexico, Gov. Susana Martinez said this week. The funding should shore up New Mexico routes used for transporting Energy Department transuranic waste to […]

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 […]

Workers were evacuated from a high-explosives research area at Los Alamos National Laboratory late last week after lightning apparently sparked a wildfire nearby, the Energy Department disclosed Tuesday. On Thursday, “personnel responded to a wildland fire west of Technical Area (TA) 40,” according to a report published in DOE’s official Occurrence Reporting and Processing System […]

A major environmental management contract at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico is scheduled to expire Saturday, but don’t be surprised if the incumbent cleanup provider receives an extension to wind up an ongoing project. Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the laboratory’s management and operations prime, is at the tail end of […]

There was another criticality safety scare at the Los Alamos National Laboratory over the summer, the federal government’s independent defense-nuclear watchdog disclosed in a recent report. On Aug. 18, personnel at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Plutonium Facility moved a shell into an area that already contained plutonium, according to a report uploaded to the […]

Kim Davis Lebak, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos Field Office, will retire after nearly 30 years at the Energy Department. Davis, who has managed the Los Alamos Field Office for the past three years or so, will leave the agency in “early October,” a spokesperson for the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said Monday. […]

The Energy Department would not agree to increase the fees it plans to pay the next management and operations contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), despite repeated complaints that they are too low to attract quality bidders. The agency also confirmed this week that Bechtel, senior industry partner on the troubled LANL prime […]

Ellen Tauscher will replace Norman Pattiz as the chair of the University of California Board of Regents’ national laboratories subcommittee, the board said Thursday. Tauscher is a former California congresswoman who later served as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs during the Obama administration. Pattiz is the founder of radio giant […]

The National Academies will, over the next year, evaluate technology development activities within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The study, led by the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, is being conducted at the request of DOE EM. It has two primary purposes: reviewing […]

Kim Davis Lebak, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos Field Office, will retire after nearly 30 years at the Energy Department. Davis, who has managed the Los Alamos Field Office for the past three years or so, will leave the agency in “early October,” a spokesperson for the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said Monday. […]

Ellen Tauscher will replace Norman Pattiz as the chair of the University of California Board of Regents’ national laboratories subcommittee, the board said Thursday. Tauscher is a former California congresswoman. Pattiz is the founder of radio giant Westwood One. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) appointed Tauscher to the board in June. Pattiz was originally appointed […]

The Senate this week marked a major milestone toward passing its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018, which would set reporting requirements for unmet Energy Department nuclear-weapons needs, and encourage appropriators to fund research on a new intermediate-range missile. The Senate voted to end debate Thursday, setting up floor action on the bill as […]

The University of California will seek new industry partners to chase a follow-on operations contract the Department of Energy expects to award next year for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a university regent suggested Thursday. “As we go forward … we’re going to be bidding with a different group of private sector […]

The Energy Department’s Environmental Management Field Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is studying potential strategies for dealing with combustible radioactive waste held at a private facility in West Texas. Between 300 and 400 drums of waste from Los Alamos have been kept at Waste Control Specialists storage complex in Andrews […]

Within recent days, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico has received its 60th shipment since it resumed receiving radioactive waste from other Department of Energy sites in April. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent repository for transuranic waste, and its nearly three-year closure following a February 2014 radiation release left shipments stranded […]

The Energy Department’s Environmental Management Field Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is studying potential strategies for dealing with combustible radioactive waste held at a private facility in West Texas. Between 300 and 400 drums of waste from Los Alamos have been kept at Waste Control Specialists storage complex in Andrews […]

Former Sen. Peter Domenici (R-N.M.), a stalwart ally of virtually all things nuclear in his state, died Wednesday following complications from abdominal surgery, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He was 85. Domenici was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and served six terms. During his Senate career, he chaired the chamber’s Energy Committee and Budget […]

The University of California on Wednesday made all but official what has until now been merely “likely”: that the longtime Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) manager plans to compete for the next contract to manage that critical Energy Department facility. “It is anticipated that Regents’ approval for the formal bid submission will be requested at […]

The Energy Department’s Environmental Management (EM) Field Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico  is studying potential strategies for dealing with combustible waste stored at a private facility in West Texas. Between 300 and 400 drums of waste from Los Alamos have been held at Waste Control Specialists storage complex in Andrews County […]

The University of New Mexico is the third institution to express interest in the next management and operations contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a university official confirmed to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor this week. “The University of New Mexico is very interested in the LANL Management and Operations contract competition,” Joseph Cecchi, senior adviser […]

Although the soon-to-be-retired Charles McMillan, director of the the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory now only through December, has two deputies, the order of succession at the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapon facility will officially remain a mystery at least until later this year. McMillan announced Tuesday he would step down in December after six years […]

The Energy Department isn’t releasing any additional details on the timeline for announcing a new environmental management contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. “DOE does not comment on ongoing procurements,” a spokesperson said Wednesday. The current “bridge” contract for legacy cleanup at LANL, held by lab management and operations prime […]

Charles McMillan will retire as director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory on Dec. 31, the long-time lab hand told employees of the northern New Mexico weapons lab Tuesday. McMillan was appointed director of the weapons lab in 2011 by Los Alamos National Security: a consortium led by the University of California and industry partners. […]

Waste Control Specialists has withdrawn a request for an exemption from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store select radioactive waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The exemption became unnecessary after all shipments of transuranic waste to Waste Control Specialists’ storage complex in West Texas were halted when a container of material from the Energy […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday it is is pleased with the outcome of a federal operational readiness review (FORR) for the Transuranic Waste Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, in which 12 of the 13 functional areas passed muster. “This was a successful review in the eyes of […]