Innovation & Infrastructure

A cyber security breach that occurred at the Department of Energy in late July impacted significantly more employees than initially believed, according to a message DOE sent employees late last week. 

With the National Nuclear Security Administration considering alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility, project officials are scaling back and restructuring current work on the facility, according to a recent memo from UPF Project Director Carl Strock. The Feb. 12 memo, obtained by NS&D Monitor, suggests that project officials will focus on “high-equity activities that would […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services announced yesterday that it would form a wholly-owned subsidiary company, Perma-Fix Medical Corporation, which will focus on the production of the medical isotope Technetium-99 (Tc-99m). With Canada set to stop government spending in 2016 on the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Canada, one of the world’s largest suppliers of Tc-99m, the […]

Mott MacDonald announced yesterday that Andrew Taylor will take over as a projects director in the company’s program and commercial management team. Taylor will work on nuclear decommissioning projects and new nuclear power station construction along with Paul Roberts, the nuclear program director, the company said.  “Andrew is a great addition to our team and […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has launched a new interactive timeline tracing the history of DOE’s cleanup efforts. The timeline stretches from the beginning of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s to the closure of underground waste tanks at the Savannah River Site last year. “Our Internet-savvy timeline is another example of […]

The difficulties encountered to date in getting the Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit up and running appear to have played a role in Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security’s win of the new Y-12/Pantex management contract, according to information the Government Accountability Office released yesterday. The IWTU’s impact on how the National Nuclear Security Administration evaluated the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is awarding NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC, with a second tranche of funding aimed at accelerating production of Molybdenum-99, a critical medical isotope. The NNSA said yesterday that it is providing $10.9 million to NorthStar under a cooperative agreement that will be matched by the company. NNSA already provided $4 million […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is still analyzing whether portions of the Uranium Processing Facility can withstand an aircraft crash without a release of radiological material, according to a letter recently sent from acting NNSA Administrator Bruce Held to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board detailing the agency’s response to the Board’s UPF safety concerns. […]

A modular plutonium strategy planned for Los Alamos National Laboratory is expected to be a significantly cheaper alternative to the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, but the price tag for the Uranium Processing Facility could be growing, according to a recent analysis by the Department of Defense’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation group. The […]

Even under the most optimistic scenario, officials with knowledge of a Department of Defense cost study on the Uranium Processing Facility are beginning to find it hard to imagine it being built as one massive standalone facility. DoD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation group recently completed a study on the facility that suggested it could […]

Modernizing the Y-12 National Security Complex and building the Uranium Processing Facility received a vote of support from the Association of Tennessee Valley Governments last week. The association, which includes more than 200 local Tennessee Valley governments and municipalities, included its endorsement of Y-12 and UPF in a letter to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety […]

The industry group United States Nuclear Infrastructure Council has re-elected URS executive Eric Knox to a third term as chairman of its executive committee, the group announced late last week. Knox, the Operations Manager for Global Management and Operations Services for URS, also previously served in the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will continue to push toward reaching the 90 percent design threshold for the Uranium Processing Facility despite a recent report from the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation group that suggests the facility could cost billions more than the agency’s previous estimate. The recent CAPE report, which said the facility […]

The High Explosives Pressing Facility being built at the Pantex Plant is on schedule to be completed next summer and begin operating in September of 2016, the National Nuclear Security Administration said yesterday. The agency said the $65 million facility surpassed the 85 percent construction completion threshold this month, with work to install overhead cranes, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has begun to take the first steps toward scaling back its plans for the Uranium Processing Facility, saying yesterday that it is developing “alternative mission delivery scenarios” that focus on replacing the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Building 9212 complex. In a statement, NNSA spokesman Keri Fulton said the agency would […]

Project officials on the Uranium Processing Facility are planning to submit a design package for the massive construction effort by October of 2014 and begin construction in October of 2015, according to a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In its Aug. 23 site representative report, which was released this week, the […]

The Project on Government Oversight has released a new report calling for the government to stop pouring money into the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge until the project’s need has been better documented and other, far-less-expensive options have been explored. POGO noted that the cost of UPF has skyrocketed from $600 million to current […]

Faulty welds have led to cracks in HVAC filter housings supplied by a vendor for installation in the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, according to a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week by construction contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services. “The filter housings are credited for the confinement of radioactive material. There is a […]

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is looking for a contractor to provide a remote monitoring system for Global Threat Reduction Initiative work around the world, according to an Oct. 22 Request for Information. PNNL, which is one of the main labs supporting the National Nuclear Security Administration’s GTRI program, said it is looking to strengthen […]

There don’t appear to be any safety-related showstoppers that would prevent the National Nuclear Security Administration from completing design of the Uranium Processing Facility in 2015, the Government Accountability Office said in its latest report on the multi-billion-dollar facility. In what largely amounted to a review of previously available information, the GAO noted that the […]

An alleged British hacker was arrested late last week in connection with a cyber security breach that occurred at the Department of Energy that put the personal information of tens of thousands of employees at risk. Lauri Love, 28, has been charged in a criminal complaint filed by the U.S Attorney for the Eastern District […]

Construction on an 11.5-megawatt wind farm at the Pantex Plant will begin on Monday, but officials at the weapons production and dismantlement site will celebrate the project’s groundbreaking with a ceremony today. Officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and construction contractor Siemens Government Technologies are expected to gather […]

A “cyber incident” that occurred at the end of July may have put the personal information of as many as 14,000 current and former Department of Energy employees at risk of theft, according to a DOE memorandum issued last week. While the incident resulted in “the unauthorized disclosure of federal employee Personally Identifiable Information,” no […]

A lack of oversight and planning at the Department of Energy’s new biomass facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could cause more than $67 million in unnecessary costs over the life of the project, according to a DOE Office of Inspector General report released yesterday. Last year DOE began operating biomass plants at Oak Ridge […]

While acknowledging there’s been progress made in incorporating safety into the design of the Uranium Processing Facility, the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board said there are still a bunch of open issues to be resolved and it wants the National Nuclear Security Administration to address those concerns—with a report and briefing—within the next two months. […]

A program that supports Sandia National Laboratories’ life extension work received a clean bill of health from the Department of Energy’s Inspector General, though the IG highlighted a host of potential challenges facing the program in the future. In a report released Friday, the IG noted that Sandia’s Readiness in Technical Base and Facilities (RTBF) […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory suffered flooding and storm damage to infrastructure and monitoring stations after record rainfall inundated the site earlier this month. “We experienced an epic event,” Dave McInroy, the laboratory’s program director for environmental corrective actions, said in a statement. “We received more than 7-and-a-half inches of rain in a four-day period and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is planning to expand the use of direct federal contracting for capital projects, and Acquisition and Project Management chief Bob Raines said yesterday that the agency is expecting 40 percent of its major projects to be performed outside its management and operating contractors over the next five years. Currently, two […]

Kurion Chairman and CEO Ralph DiSibio is calling on the Department of Energy to develop new contracting approaches to make it easier to use new technologies to help clean up Hanford. In a column published by The Hill on its website yesterday, DiSibio wrote that new Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz should form an independent […]

Responding formally to a recent Government Accountability Office report that sounded alarms about the growing price tag for the Uranium Processing Facility, the National Nuclear Security Administration said it has made significant efforts to improve estimating and project execution on the multi-billion-dollar project that will increase credibility when the agency eventually commits to a baseline. […]