Pantex Plant

The Department of Energy will not pick up the remaining options on Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and Pantex Plant in Texas, which now will expire after Sept. 30, 2021. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) will leave three years’ worth of options on the table. The […]

As part of what it has dubbed a good-faith effort to better cooperate with the federal government’s independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this month delivered an updated plan for implementing safety recommendations for the Pantex Plant in Texas. Whether the changes will convince the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Pantex Plant in Texas said Monday it has assembled the “first production capability unit” of the W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched nuclear warhead, a precursor to the first production unit intended to prove the entire warhead design is ready for mass manufacturing. The phrase “first production capability unit” officially debuted in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is willing to let Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) personnel attend meetings of the secretive Nuclear Explosives Safety Study Group at the Pantex Plant in Texas on a “trial” basis, according to a letter published this week. The two federal agencies have fought since 2018 over whether DNFSB […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is willing to let Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) personnel attend meetings of the secretive Nuclear Explosives Safety Study Group at the Pantex Plant in Texas on a “trial” basis, according to a letter published this week. The two federal agencies have fought since 2018 over whether DNFSB […]

Vice presidents at Department of Energy contractor Bechtel are taking pay cuts of up to 25% over 90 days during the COVID-19 crisis The one-quarter reduction applies to senior vice presidents, while principal vice presidents at the Reston, Va.-based company are receiving a 10% reduction, management told employees on April 6. The measure is a […]

The host states of the Department of Energy’s three main nuclear weapons production sites are among those planning early, partial reopenings after weeks or months of shuttering most businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19. Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri, host states to the Y-12 National Security Complex, the Pantex Plant and the Kansas City National […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Pantex Plant in Texas said Monday it assembled the “first production capability unit” of the W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched nuclear warhead, a precursor to the first production unit intended to prove the entire warhead design is ready for mass manufacturing. The phrase “first production capability unit” officially debuted in February […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has lost its game of chicken with the Pantex Plant in Texas, where personnel recently blocked a board inspector from attending a meeting of the secretive Nuclear Explosive Safety Study Group, according to a letter posted online. An employee for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) blocked the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has lost its game of chicken with the Pantex Plant in Texas, where personnel recently blocked a board inspector from attending a meeting of the secretive Nuclear Explosive Safety Study Group, according to a letter posted online. An employee for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) blocked the […]

Not much sooner than Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette provided the guidance for doing so, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) added language to its prime contracts for major nuclear-weapon sites for billing the government for paid time off given to workers who couldn’t do their job because of COVID-19. The agency had not posted […]

All but one of the main Department of Energy nuclear weapons production sites have now hunkered down into minimum mission-critical operations because of COVID-19, keeping only the personnel needed to assemble nuclear weapons and components, maintain key infrastructure, or provide security. The Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak […]

Because of COVID-19, the management and operations contractor for two of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapon-production sites may not know until June whether it will be kept on the job into 2023 and what fee it earned last year. “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 national emergency, the contractor notification date for the CNS […]

There is at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 among the workforce of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, where the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) assembles and disassembles nuclear weapons for maintenance and modernization. In a statement, Pantex said the employee became ill at work on March 25. The site said it did not […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Higher taxes led Leidos to report a slight dip in its fourth quarter earnings, but sales were strong and adjusted earnings easily topped analysts’ estimates. Net income in the quarter fell nearly 4% to $181 million, $1.26 earnings a share, from $188 million, or $1.25 a share, a year ago. Per-share […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is revising its plan to implement recommendations the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board made this year about the Pantex nuclear-weapon servicing plant in Texas. “The Department of Energy has accepted the need to revise and update our implementation plan,” James McConnell, NNSA associate administrator for safety, infrastructure, and […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is revising its plan to implement recommendations the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board made this year about the Pantex nuclear-weapon servicing plant. “The Department of Energy has accepted the need to revise and update our implementation plan,” James McConnell, NNSA associate administrator for safety, infrastructure, and operations, said […]

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the top-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said Monday he will retire from Congress after 26 years. Thornberry will not stand for re-election in 2020, but will serve out the remainder of his term, slated to end Jan. 3, 2021, he announced on his website and Twitter. He will leave […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security confirmed Wednesday it is investigating “potential discrepancies” between the hours employees at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, say they worked and the hours recorded by badge readers at the nation’s only nuclear-weapons assembly site. The local NBC affiliate, KAMR-TV, first reported the news. The Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) in […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security confirmed Wednesday it is is investigating “potential discrepancies” between the hours employees at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, say they worked and the hours recorded by badge readers at the nation’s only nuclear-weapons assembly site. The local NBC affiliate, KAMR-TV, first reported the news. The Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has until late September to either accept or reject the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) recommendation that the agency fix perceived safety defects at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, the board said in a recent letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. According to the Aug. 22 letter, newly […]

Calling the Department of Energy’s 2018 shipment of plutonium to Nevada a “nuclear incident” and a nuisance, the state is asking a federal judge to boot half a metric ton of the fissile material out of the Nevada National Security Site (NSS) and prohibit further shipments. The draft amended complaint filed Friday is the latest change of legal […]

As expected, Northrop Grumman on Tuesday said that its board has elected Kathy Warden as its chairman effective Aug. 1, adding to her current duties of president and CEO of the $30 billion defense company. Warden succeeds Wes Bush, who has been the company’s chairman since July 2011. Bush will resign from the board effective July […]

The U.S. Department of Energy remains on track to remove a remaining half-metric of plutonium from the Savannah River Site and the state of South Carolina by the end of the year, thereby meeting an order in a federal lawsuit from 2016, according to a June 13 status report. South Carolina sued the federal government […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has given the go-ahead for the roughly $145 million High Explosives Pressing Facility at the Pantex Plant in Texas to begin full-scale operations. The facility can press some 2,500 pounds of conventional high explosives a year, and shape up to 500 explosive hemispheres, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration gave the go-ahead for the roughly $145 million High Explosive Pressing Facility at the Pantex Plant to begin full-scale operations, according to a Thursday press release from the semi-autonomous DOE nuclear weapons agency. The facility can press some 2,500 pounds of conventional high explosives a year, and up to 500 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week accepted the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) recommendation to improve the safety of nuclear explosives handling at the Pantex weapons service plant in Amarillo, Texas. Some of these tweaks to operations at the Pantex Plant are complete already, NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty wrote in a letter to […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]