Pantex

A suspicious package triggered an emergency response at the Pantex nuclear-weapon assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, on Jan. 16, but the details are on a strictly need-to-know basis, according to an official report from the Department of Energy. “On January 16, 2018, an operational emergency was declared, and the Emergency Response Organization was activated,” reads […]

A suspicious package triggered an emergency response at the Pantex nuclear-weapon assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, on Jan. 16, but the details are on a strictly need-to-know basis, according to an official report from the Department of Energy. “On January 16, 2018, an operational emergency was declared, and the Emergency Response Organization was activated,” reads […]

Steven Erhart  has been selected as the acting administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, leapfrogging the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch’s highest-ranking career civil servant at the helm until the Senate confirms the White House’s administrator-designate. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced the move Friday at the bottom of a press release acknowledging […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration dinged Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) for delays on a nuclear-bomb life-extension program in fiscal 2017 in a generally positive performance evaluation report published Thursday. Overall, CNS earned about $36 million in fees for managing the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency’s Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex in Tennessee and Pantex Plant in […]

Peggy McCullough, who Bechtel announced Friday would be leaving her post as project director at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, will be replacing John Howanitz as head of the company’s Nuclear Security, and Operations business based in Virginia. Bechtel said Friday that Brian Reilly, who like McCullough […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to consider at least one nuclear safety recommendation to the Department of Energy during closed-door meetings in early December, according to notices published Monday. The specific topics to be discussed by the five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Dec. 6 and Dec. 18 are unknown. In notices posted online, the […]

The Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee, a centrifuge in Texas, and the national heavy water inventory are among the management challenges the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office foresees for the agency in fiscal 2018, according to a Nov. 27 special report. The Inspector General’s (IG) Office fretted that DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

If it holds up under protest, the $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will provide BWX Technologies with one of its bigger wins as a prime contractor in recent years, executives said during a quarterly call on Tuesday. But management said it would […]

Water leaked into a plutonium pit-storage area at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, after an August thunderstorm, the Department of Energy disclosed this month. On Aug. 13 and 14, thunderstorms dumped about 2 inches of rain on the north Texas city, according to data compiled by the National Weather Service. During the storm, “rain […]

Water leaked into a plutonium pit-storage area at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, after an August thunderstorm, the Department of Energy disclosed this month. On Aug. 13 and 14, thunderstorms dumped about 2 inches of rain on the north Texas city, according to data compiled by the National Weather Service. During the storm, “rain […]

The acting head of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup program is due to brief the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week 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 is scheduled to receive one of its periodic briefings from EM-1, […]

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 […]

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 National Nuclear Security Administration field office has identified need for improvement in several operational areas by the management and operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, according to a newly released Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board activity report. The DNFSB document, dated March 13 and […]

The Trump administration’s budget outline for 2018 proposes an 11 percent funding increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration while cutting overall funding for the Department of Energy. The White House released the budget blueprint Thursday, requesting $28 billion for DOE, down $1.7 billion or 5.6 percent from its 2017 annualized level under the continuing […]

The absence of senior leadership at the Trump administration’s Cabinet agencies threatens to leave contractors without clear policy direction on matters including the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons and cleanup complexes, executives said Tuesday. There is no imminent end in sight to this dilemma, they acknowledged. Panelists at the ExchangeMonitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit spoke two […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday approved Critical Decision (CD)-4 for the High Explosives Pressing Facility (HEPF) at the Pantex Plant, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said Wednesday at the ExchangeMonitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington, D.C. CD-4 indicates readiness to operate the facility, following the construction phase. The agency in 2011 began building the […]

The absence of senior leadership at the Trump administration’s Cabinet agencies threatens to leave contractors without clear policy direction on matters including the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons and cleanup complexes, executives said Tuesday. There is no imminent end in sight to this dilemma, they acknowledged. Panelists at the ExchangeMonitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit spoke two […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday approved Critical Decision (CD)-4 for the High Explosives Pressing Facility (HEPF) at the Pantex Plant, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said Wednesday at the ExchangeMonitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington, D.C. CD-4 indicates readiness to operate the facility, following the construction phase. The agency in 2011 began construction of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week authorized the beginning of the W88 Alteration 370 program’s production engineering phase, part of the agency’s work in ensuring the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. The W88 thermonuclear warhead is deployed on the Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile carried on Ohio-class submarines. The warhead, in […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the management and operating contractor for the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, plans to implement a new “market-driven” compensation system once it receives National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) approval, President and CEO Morgan Smith said Wednesday in a memo to employees. The intention is […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the management and operations contractor for the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, plans to implement a new “market-driven” compensation system once it receives National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) approval, President and CEO Morgan Smith said Wednesday in a memo to employees. The intention is […]

The Sandia National Laboratories’ Weapons Evaluation Test Laboratory (WETL) reached its testing baseline for just four of eight U.S. nuclear weapons systems over a three-year period, the Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office said in a report Monday. The primary culprit was unanticipated equipment downtime, along with a new safety program and a change in […]

The management and operations contractor for two key U.S. nuclear arms sites improved its performance significantly in fiscal 2016, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. However, Consolidated Nuclear Security will need to take another step forward to ensure it stays on the job past the initial term of its contract. CNS has since July […]

National Security Technologies (NSTec) and Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technology (FM&T) have received the highest marks across the nuclear complex in newly released National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) contractor performance evaluations for fiscal 2016. Each contractor was rated in six performance areas, each carrying a different weight, which were used to determine the award fees […]

Lyle Cary has been named the new vice president of safeguards, security, and emergency services at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Texas and Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, the sites’ management and operations contractor announced Wednesday. Ken Freeman, currently serving in that role, is set to retire at the end of […]

Lyle Cary has been named the new vice president of safeguards, security, and emergency services at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Texas and Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, the sites’ management and operations contractor announced Wednesday. Ken Freeman, currently serving in that role, is set to retire at the end of […]

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, announced this week as the nominee to become energy secretary in the Donald Trump administration, would be responsible for a massive program to ensure the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, sparking debate about whether he is qualified for the role – and whether management skill and bureaucratic experience matter […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) found deficiencies in Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) procedures to guide employees at the Pantex Plant in Texas on the proper disposal of classified information, resulting in four security incidents in recent years, according to a Nov. 30 enforcement letter to Morgan Smith, CNS president and chief executive. The […]

The Department of Energy’s Enterprise Assessment office found deficiencies in Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) procedures to guide employees on the proper disposal of classified information, resulting in four security incidents over the past few years at the Pantex Plant in Texas, according to a Nov. 30 enforcement letter from to Morgan Smith, CNS president and […]