Nevada National Security Site

There are no problems with the data from a recent subcritical plutonium experiment in Nevada, despite the unprecedented breach of the protective steel container in which the explosive test took place, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said. The breach also has not set back the schedule for other planned subcritical tests, despite personnel at […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration were set to meet Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) in Nevada on Friday, about a week after after the Silver State’s senior senator stopped blocking nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs because of a contentious plutonium shipment last […]

There are no problems with the data from a recent subcritical plutonium experiment in Nevada, despite the unprecedented breach of the protective steel container in which the explosive test took place, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Friday. The breach also has not set back the schedule for other planned subcritical tests, despite personnel […]

The Energy Department should prepare comprehensive assessments of Cold War nuclear sites now storing high-level radioactive waste to determine how much of it could safely be handled as low-level or transuranic waste, the Energy Communities Alliance said Monday. That is one of a set of recommendations in an ECA report, which aims to build on […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) this week agreed to stop blocking nominees for high-level Department of Energy jobs after securing an in-person meeting in Nevada with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, head of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The senator, her staff, and the DOE top-dogs are set to tour the […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) on Tuesday agreed to stop blocking nominees for high-level Department of Energy jobs after securing an in-person meeting on storage of plutonium in Nevada with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, head of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The senator, her staff, and the DOE top-dogs are set […]

Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates has hired Brian Bielecki, a longtime manager with experience at Department of Energy sites and the nuclear power industry, as its group vice president for mission assurance. The Energy Department subcontractor announced the addition Monday, the same day Bielecki joined the company. Bielecki, who reports to Senior Vice President for […]

An appeals court will “likely” hear arguments about why the Department of Energy should remove half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from Nevada by August, attorneys for the state wrote in a Monday court filing. The news dropped in a filing with the U.S. District Court for Nevada, in which the state reasserted its […]

The Energy Department should make a “full evaluation” of Cold War sites now storing high-level radioactive waste to determine how much of it could safely be handled as low-level or transuranic waste, the Energy Communities Alliance said Monday. That is one of a set of recommendations in an ECA report, which aims to build on […]

A key figure in federal lawsuits involving weapon-usable plutonium moved last year to the Nevada National Security Sitehas retired from the Department of Energy, the agency confirmed this week. Henry Allen Gunter left DOE after a long federal career, a spokesperson for DOE’s Environmental Management Office at Savannah River confirmed in an email Tuesday. The […]

A panel of appeals judges will hear oral argument from Nevada by early October about why the Department of Energy should remove a half metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility. That is according to a Monday order in which the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals told the […]

Department of Energy contractor Honeywell on Thursday attributed a 15% drop in first-quarter revenue primarily to the spinoff of two business lines, saying organic growth was otherwise up by 8%. Company-wide sales dropped from $10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2018 to $8.9 billion in the same period of 2019. “The difference between reported […]

After Nevada demanded in a lawsuit that the Department of Energy produce detailed records of all plutonium shipments to and within the state during the last 20 years, the agency on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss the case entirely. Nevada sued DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in November to stop […]

Nevada is demanding that the Department of Energy produce detailed records of all plutonium shipments to and within the state during the last 20 years, a Monday court filing shows. It was only one of 65 demands from Nevada in a 28-page list made public Monday by the U.S. attorney representing DOE and its National Nuclear […]

The contractor for the Nevada National Security Site is looking for a miner to expand the underground test space where future explosive plutonium experiments will help verify that refurbished nuclear weapons work as intended, according to a procurement notice released this week. The eventual subcontractor will “[p]rovide mining equipment and personnel to excavate, stabilize, and […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was not moved by a Department of Energy statement this week that plutonium stored in the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility is safe from earthquakes that might cause high explosives to detonate in the facility and spew plutonium into the air beyond the site’s borders. “The […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management (EM) expects to speed cleanup of its nuclear sites by decades and save “$100s of millions” in life-cycle costs, according to the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2020 budget request. The request, issued in March, would trim the DOE nuclear remediation appropriation from $7.2 billion in fiscal 2019 to […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is concerned that an earthquake could cause high explosives to detonate in the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility and spew plutonium into the air and beyond the confines of the former nuclear test site. The independent federal nuclear health and safety watchdog laid out the concern […]

Democratic members of Nevada’s congressional delegation on Monday called on key House appropriators to prevent the federal government from moving forward with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository or shipping any more plutonium to the state. Nevada’s leaders have for decades fought the U.S. government’s effort to make their state home to the nation’s stockpile […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tapped John Benner, who in early March returned to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to aid the agency with future warhead core production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The lab subsequently detailed Benner to Washington, where the longtime Los Alamos staffer will work […]

A federal appeals court should throw out Nevada’s request to block further shipments of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site, since the Department of Energy has already shipped the material there, according to court filings from the agency and the state of South Carolina. Nevada is trying to get the U.S. Ninth Circuit […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tapped John Benner, who in early March returned to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to aid the agency with future warhead core production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The lab subsequently detailed Benner to Washington, where the longtime Los Alamos staffer will work […]

A federal appeals court should throw out Nevada’s request to block further shipments of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site, since the Department of Energy has already shipped the material there, according to a Friday filing by the state of South Carolina. Nevada is trying to get the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of […]

A former security guard at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) sued former site security contractor Centerra Group this week for repeated incidents of alleged sexual harassment culminating with a violent sexual assault in 2017 by five male colleagues. Jennifer Glover, who first told her story to The New York Times in January, sued Centerra […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said this week she will block the Senate from quickly confirming nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs until the agency sets a date to remove a half-ton of plutonium from Nevada. “Until I get commitment from [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] that [DOE] will set a date for the […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said Monday she will block the Senate from quickly confirming nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs until the agency schedules removal of a half-ton tranche of plutonium from Nevada. “Until I get commitment from [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] that [DOE] will set a date for the removal of […]

The U.S. Department of Energy said last week it is ahead of schedule in removing 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and should finish the court-mandated process by the end of the year. The Energy Department update was seemingly prompted by a March 1 letter that South Carolina […]

An increased risk of radioactive contamination combined with the flouting of federal environmental laws should have persuaded a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending weapon-usable plutonium to Nevada, the Silver State told an appeals court this week. Nevada wants the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California to overturn U.S. District […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. – While the Energy Department and its nuclear cleanup contractors acknowledge they are learning on the job, both sides Wednesday stressed the urgency of meeting deadlines for the first set of solicitations issued under the agency’s overhauled approach to procurement. Requests for proposals are due March 18 for two potential 10-year, multibillion-dollar contracts […]

An increased risk of radioactive contamination combined with the flouting of federal environmental laws should have persuaded a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending weapon-usable plutonium to Nevada, the Silver State told an appeals court this week. Nevada wants the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California to overturn U.S. District […]