National Laboratories

New Mexico officially amended the rules governing legacy nuclear-waste remediation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory late Friday, shifting to a so-called “campaign approach” that focuses on one cleanup project at a time, rather than setting a deadline for site-wide remediation. New Mexico unveiled the draft revised consent order on March 31. Remaining LANL cleanup work, DOE […]

The head of the management and operations contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site said this week he expects a seamless transition to a new M&O contract – an award for which is soon to be announced. James Holt, president of National Security Technologies (NSTec), the contractor that has run the […]

A worker lost part of his finger during routine maintenance of the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a notice the Department of Energy posted online. The cause was a loop of wire the worker ran through the shaft of a drill socket, which was affixed to a handheld drill. As […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is inviting national and international businesses to participate in preventive radiological and nuclear detection equipment vendor rodeo and capability demonstration events throughout the year, according to a notice posted this week. Each vendor will give a closed-door briefing of technical capabilities and showcase technologies with law enforcement and […]

A worker lost part of his finger during routine maintenance of the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a notice the Department of Energy posted online. The cause was a loop of wire the worker ran through the shaft of a drill socket, which was affixed to a handheld drill. As […]

The Department of Energy and contractor Los Alamos National Security have until July 19 to respond to a lawsuit from the advocacy group Nuclear Watch New Mexico, which alleges the federal agency owes the state millions of dollars after it blew a 2015 deadline to clean up a large cache of Cold War-era nuclear waste at the […]

Storing transuranic waste in certain containers near the border of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) campus may be riskier than site management believes, according to a report released late Friday by the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). EA personnel visited the Livermore, Calif., lab’s Building 332 Plutonium Facility and Waste Storage Facility from […]

Storing transuranic waste in certain containers near the border of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) campus may be riskier than site management believes, according to a report released late Friday by the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). EA personnel visited the Livermore, Calif., lab’s Building 332 Plutonium Facility and Waste Storage Facility from […]

Kenneth R. Tarcza, a retired Army officer, has been named manager of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office in Tennessee as of May 3. He will oversee the Integrated Support Center, which provides services to multiple national laboratories and Office of Science sites. The appointment was announced Monday by the DOE’s Office of Science. […]

Even at almost $4 billion, the Department of Energy underestimates the cost of cleaning up decades worth of accumulated defense nuclear waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), New Mexico’s Environment Department said Thursday. “DOE’s lifecycle baseline estimate is $3.8 billion, which we believe to be conservative,” a spokesperson for state Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn […]

Kenneth R. Tarcza, a retired Army officer, has been named manager of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office in Tennessee as of May 3. He will oversee the Integrated Support Center, which provides services to multiple national laboratories and Office of Science sites. The appointment was announced Monday by the DOE’s Office of Science. […]

Incumbent Lockheed Martin on Thursday confirmed its intent to bid to retain the management and operations contract for the Sandia National Laboratories. “We’re proud of our 23-year partnership with the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration,” company spokesman Matt Kramer said in an email statement. “Lockheed Martin has helped Sandia maintain a steadfast focus […]

The public comment period closed Tuesday evening on an expansive new set of rules governing federal cleanup of legacy defense nuclear waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The draft revised consent order between the Energy Department and the state of New Mexico would amend a 2005 agreement that remains in force until DOE and […]

Using goal and sunlight, scientists at the National Energy Technology Laboratory have developed a process to turn carbon dioxide into fuel. The process, which uses gold nanoparticles, uses more CO2 than it emits, making it carbon negative, according to a Department of Energy blog post. The process can be powered by renewable energy. According to […]

Contractors Battelle and Boeing have signed an agreement to bid as a team for the Sandia National Laboratories’ management and operation contract, Battelle announced Tuesday. Team members include the University of New Mexico (UNM), the Texas A&M University System, and the University of Texas System. The partnership is the first to formally announce its bid […]

Contractors Battelle and Boeing have signed an agreement to bid as a team for the Sandia National Laboratories’ management and operation contract, Battelle announced Tuesday. Team members include the University of New Mexico (UNM), the Texas A&M University System, and the University of Texas System. The Sandia National Laboratories produce nonnuclear weapon components and develop […]

About a year after the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) stood up a field office at the 70-year-old nuclear-weapons lab, the agency has launched a dedicated website for legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. The Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) website is located here, […]

Battelle Energy Alliance has paid the Energy Department $60,000 to settle an electrical accident that happened last year at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a company spokesperson confirmed this week. “The DOE Office of Enforcement received the BEA-signed copy of Consent Order WCO-2016-01, and payment for the monetary remedy, on May 5, 2016,” a spokesperson […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), the management and operations contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, 89 percent of its award fee – $20.98 million of the available $23.63 million – for its performance in fiscal 2015. The contractor received an “Excellent” rating on four of […]

A long-running disagreement between the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy resurfaced last week when DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery forwarded a staff issue report with a transmittal letter warning National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz of unresolved safety problems at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility.  The issues concern […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday released the request for proposals for the Sandia National Laboratories management and operations contract. The current contract is held by Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sandia Corp. and expires on April 30, 2017. It covers Sandia campuses in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., along with smaller operations in Hawaii, Nevada, […]

After a highly troubling performance evaluation last year, the manager of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico received significantly higher marks for its work in fiscal 2015, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration performance evaluation report released on May 13. Nonetheless, Los Alamos National Security’s (LANS) contract will expire in fiscal 2018, several years before the […]

The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest Site Office plans to negotiate a five-year extension to Battelle Memorial Institute’s contract to operate the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., rather than competing the contract. About a third of the lab’s total annual budget of close to $1 billion is for nuclear security and nonproliferation work, […]

Six weeks after introducing a draft revised consent order that will govern future hazardous waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn returned to the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board (NNMCAB) on Wednesday to sound out some new ideas. While announcing he was extending the public comment period […]

Carbon dioxide binding organic liquids (CO2BOLs) in a neutral acid form could be used for carbon capture, avoiding a common thickening problem with the substance, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state have discovered. “Nobody was considering the neutral acid form for these systems before. The conventional idea was that CO2BOLs would […]

The Sandia National Laboratories’ California campus on Saturday will celebrate its 60th birthday with a look back at its history and a look forward at its continuing contributions to national security. The Livermore site is the primary offshoot of Sandia’s main location in Albuquerque, N.M. “We take great pride in all that has been accomplished […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), the M&O contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, 89 percent of its award fee – $20.98 million of the available $23.63 million – for its performance in fiscal 2015. The contractor received an “Excellent” rating on four of the six […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday released the request for proposals for the Sandia National Laboratories management and operations contract. The current contract is held by Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sandia Corp. and expires on April 30, 2017. It covers Sandia campuses in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., along with smaller operations in Hawaii, Nevada, […]

Battelle Energy Alliance has paid the Energy Department $60,000 to settle an electrical accident that happened last year at the Idaho National Laboratory, a company spokesperson confirmed May 16. “The DOE Office of Enforcement received the BEA-signed copy of Consent Order WCO-2016-01, and payment for the monetary remedy, on May 5, 2016,” a spokesperson for Battelle said […]

With significant improvements in operations and infrastructure for fiscal 2015, the manager of the Sandia National Laboratories received an overall grade of “outstanding” in its latest performance evaluation report from the National Nuclear Security Administration. That came despite a sharp drop in its rating for leadership, from “Very Good” to “Satisfactory,” which the report attributed […]