Nevada National Security Site

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management still has much work to do on its end state contracting model in order to truly drive nuclear cleanup projects toward completion, according to a National Academy of Sciences report released Monday. The Environmental Management (EM) office should set up results on intermediate end state milestones midway […]

As part of the omnibus spending package signed Dec. 27 by President Donald Trump, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will receive almost $7.6 billion for fiscal 2021, which is $131 million above its funding level for the 2020 budget year that ended Sept. 30, 2020. It is also about 22% more than […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Nevada National Security Site are resetting the underground U1a facility at the former Nevada Test Site for the second in three planned Nightshade subcritical experiments. Nightshade B is scheduled to fire in “spring 2021,” a spokesperson for the Los Alamos National Laboratory told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing in […]

The ex-finance chief of the Honeywell-led Nevada site operations contractor Mission Support and Test Services is pressing on with a lawsuit in which he claims that his exposure of alleged financial impropriety at the privately held contractor was protected by the Sarbanes Oxley anti-corruption act. “Privately held companies such as MSTS [Mission Support and Test […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration in November shot its first deep-underground test involving special nuclear materials at the Nevada National Security Site in more than a year, according to a recent report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The Los Alamos National Lab and Nevada site prime Mission Support and Test Services supervised the […]

The former finance chief of Mission Support and Test Services LLC, who alleges he was fired last year for exposing financial misconduct at the Nevada National Security Site by company president Mark Martinez, has less than two weeks to revise his lawsuit before a federal judge throws it out for good. Ex-Chief Financial Officer Stephen […]

While the coronavirus pandemic affected nuclear cleanup at the Department of Energy in ways great and small, it did not slow down the acquisition process in 2020, when the Environmental Management Office awarded about $31 billion worth of new cleanup contracts. That includes $17 billion of contracts during the 2020 calendar year and some $14 […]

The former finance chief of Mission Support and Test Services LLC, who alleges he was fired last year for exposing financial misconduct at the Nevada National Security Site by company president Mark Martinez, has less than two weeks to revise his lawsuit before a federal judge throws it out for good. Ex-Chief Financial Officer Stephen […]

Las Vegas-based Department of Energy subcontractor Longenecker & Associates announced this week that retired Jacobs nuclear executive, Terry Hagen, has joined the Longenecker advisory board. Hagen retired effective in June 2019 chief operating officer and president for Jacobs Aerospace, Technology, and Nuclear group. Hagen led Jacobs’ work for the DOE, the Department of Defense, the […]

More than a week after the Nov. 3 elections, a California Congressional race with implications for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex remains undecided.  With 86% of the votes counted and more than 330,000 votes cast, incumbent Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), who won a special election in May to claim the open seat, leads Christy […]

As Friday deadline approached for Weapons Complex Monitor, the Associated Press had not declared a winner in the presidential election between President Donald Trump (R) and the former vice president, Joe Biden (D).  Biden was leading in electoral votes. Whomever is declared president-elect an intense legal challenge is expected, according to media outlets. While a […]

The COVID-19 pandemic helped sell the top brass at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management on the value of telecommuting, the No. 2 official there said Wednesday. When the DOE office was forced to roll back on-site work at nuclear remediation operations starting in mid-March, “a lot of people had their doubts” on the […]

Having lined up a potential two-year extension for environmental remediation at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture is wrapping up work on the grounds of a former uranium enrichment complex, top managers said Thursday. Without offering much detail, leaders at URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR) affirmed they are also […]

Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., which should help students there start careers in the Energy Department’s weapons complex. South Carolina State, founded in 1896, is the only historically black college or university in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in […]

Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., which should help students there start careers in the Energy Department’s weapons complex. South Carolina State, founded in 1896, is the only historically black college or university in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in […]

Starting Monday, the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state will enter Phase 2 of remobilization toward full-scale operations following the March drawdown forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance announced the change in a Thursday message to the 11,000 federal and contract workers at the former plutonium production complex. Phase 2 […]

If any of the factors that led to the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee shipping mislabeled radioactive waste to Nevada are present elsewhere in the Department of Energy complex, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments did not find them in a year of looking, according to a recent report. The complex-wide evaluation“did not find […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported contained Wednesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon site. The site is investigating the cause of the fire, which was […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported close to “100 percent containment” late Tuesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon complex. The site first acknowledged the fire […]

The number of active cases of COVID-19 among Energy Department nuclear cleanup personnel rose substantially this week, and some industry sources suspect this is slowing a return to normal operations at former Cold War and Manhattan Project sites. There were 94 active cases as of Thursday within the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) complex, […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management plans to beef up its procurement staff to evaluate contract proposals. The nuclear cleanup office said in a July 16 press release it is launching an “acquisition corps” to increase its talent pool of procurement specialists at field sites and the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC). […]

Navarro Research and Engineering faces no challenges to Energy Department contract it won last month for a potential 10-year, $350 million contract to continue providing environmental services at the Nevada National Security Site. The Energy Department awarded the contract to the incumbent on June 17. The window for protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

Navarro Research and Engineering faces no challenges to Energy Department contract it won last month for a potential 10-year, $350 million contract to continue providing environmental services at the Nevada National Security Site. The Energy Department awarded the contract to the incumbent on June 17. The window for protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]

Navarro Research and Engineering earned roughly 93% of its total potential fee for its environmental work at the Energy Department’s Nevada National Nuclear Site (NNSS) over a 16-month period ended Jan. 31. That’s the crux of a recently published fee performance scorecard from the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Oak-Ridge, Tenn.-based Navarro earned about $1.13 […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state will continue in Phase 1 of restart operations next week, Manager Brian Vance announced Thursday as the facility moves toward more normal work levels while simultaneously trying to avoid the spread of COVID-19. However, there will be a “marginal increase” in on-site staffing at the Waste Treatment […]

To settle a 2018 lawsuit over storage of plutonium, the Department of Energy has tentatively agreed not to send more of the weapon-usable material to Nevada. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced the development in a June 26 press release summarizing the unpublished settlement between the Silver State and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). […]

Navarro Research and Engineering earned 90% of its available fee – not including any incentive fee — for its environmental work at the Energy Department’s Nevada National Nuclear Site (NNSS) over a 16-month period ended Jan. 31. That’s the crux of a recently published fee performance scorecard from the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Oak-Ridge, […]

To settle a 2018 lawsuit over storage of plutonium, the Department of Energy tentatively agreed not to send more of the weapon-usable material to Nevada, the state said Friday. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced the development in a press release summarizing the unpublished settlement between the Silver State and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration […]

All 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management have at least initiated Phase 1 remobilization operations, after on-site work was drastically scaled back this spring in an effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among the workforce. In addition, Phase 2 is now underway at the Idaho National […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory got whacked with some $300,000 in fines this month for failing to notify the New Mexico state government about eight off-site waste shipments in 2017 and 2018. The eight shipments, comprising 18 containers, happened while contractor Los Alamos National Security was still in charge of the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapon lab. […]