National Laboratories

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The Sandia National Laboratories increased its year-over-year total spending in fiscal 2015 by about $21 million and its spending on New Mexico businesses by over $19 million, according to an economic impact report released last week. The Department of Energy facility spent approximately $983 million in total on goods and […]

Dan Leone WC Monitor 1/22/2016 Nuclear Watch New Mexico said this week it intends to sue the Energy Department and contractor Los Alamos National Security in federal court for blowing a cleanup deadline at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Under a legally binding 2005 consent order between DOE, the New Mexico Environment Department, and […]

The Sandia National Laboratories increased its year-over-year total spending in fiscal 2015 by about $21 million and its spending on New Mexico businesses by over $19 million, according to an economic impact report released last week. The Department of Energy facility spent approximately $983 million in total on goods and services and more than $381 […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employee Anthony Rivera on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking $5 million in damages for alleged wrongful termination. Rivera is suing LLNL managing contractor Lawrence Livermore National Security “for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy,” against Department of Energy (DOE) […]

A New Mexico watchdog organization said late Wednesday it had submitted an official notice of its intent to file a lawsuit over missed milestones in the cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.   Nuclear Watch New Mexico said the notice to DOE and the lab manager Los Alamos National Security is […]

Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employee Anthony Rivera on Tuesday sued the lab in U.S. District Court seeking $5 million in damages for alleged wrongful termination. Rivera filed the suit in the California Northern District against LLNL managing contractor Lawrence Livermore National Security “for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy,” against Department of […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility (PF-4) could resume all suspended operations by the end of this year, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.   The National Nuclear Security Administration site in 2013 halted work at PF-4 due to concerns over criticality safety and other issues. It subsequently sought to remedy those […]

Livermore Scientists Develop Method to Analyze Nuclear Material Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new mathematical method to evaluate nuclear material by analyzing fission chains, the lab announced late last month. Mathematical tools help reveal the “mass and geometric properties” of unknown material by exploiting the neutron and gamma ray […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/15/2015 The managers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory lost their $2 billion a year contact by the narrowest of margins, leaving $20 billion or so on the table. First came the news on Dec. 17 that the management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory would expire at the end […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) expressed concern over the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) progress in improving its emergency preparedness and response programs in a Jan. 7 letter from DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery to the Department of Energy (DOE). Connery said the DNFSB is “concerned with the pace […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 A former counterintelligence officer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been indicted on second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter charges in the death of his son-in-law last August in North Carolina. Thomas Martens, a retired FBI agent, was indicted by the Davidson County (N.C.) Grand Jury, along with his daughter, […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/15/2015 The managers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory lost their $2 billion a year contact by the narrowest of margins, leaving $20 billion or so on the table. First came the news on Dec. 17 that the management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory would expire at the end […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) expressed concern over the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) progress in improving its emergency preparedness and response programs in a Jan. 7 letter from DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery to the Department of Energy (DOE). Connery said the DNFSB is “concerned with the pace and completeness” of LANL’s drill […]

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new mathematical method to evaluate nuclear material by analyzing fission chains, the lab announced late last month. Mathematical tools help reveal the “mass and geometric properties” of unknown material by exploiting the neutron and gamma ray bursts emitted by special nuclear materials, the lab […]

A former counterintelligence officer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been indicted on second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter charges in the death of his son-in-law last August in North Carolina.   Thomas Martens, a retired FBI agent, was indicted by the Davidson County, N.C., Grand Jury, along with his daughter, Molly Martens Corbett, for […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/8/2015 The New Mexico Environment Department in a recent report said it found 421 instances of noncompliance by the Los Alamos National Laboratory with its state hazardous waste facility permit in fiscal 2015. That was up significantly from 76 instances of noncompliance reported the year before, 193 in fiscal 2013, and […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/8/2016 The Department of Energy is moving to begin containing and cleaning up a growing plume of hexavalent chromium in the regional aquifer under the Los Alamos National Laboratory. After nine years of slow but incremental attention to a complex hydrological puzzle, DOE Environmental Management officials drew up a draft environmental […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/8/2016 The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) work planning and control processes and biosafety programs are largely effective, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said in a review released late last month. The review found that LANL managing contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) “has established the […]

A new panel of experts is being formed to establish a strategy for the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNS) to create technologies for remediation of waste left by U.S. nuclear operations.   Clemson University inked an agreement with the Department of Energy lab this week to establish, manage, and offer administrative assistance to the external […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) work planning and control processes and biosafety programs are largely effective, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said in a review released late last month. The review found that LANL managing contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) “has established the fundamental elements of work control […]

The Department of Energy is moving to begin containing and cleaning up a growing plume of hexavalent chromium in the regional aquifer under the Los Alamos National Laboratory. After nine years of slow but incremental attention to a complex hydrological puzzle, DOE Environmental Management officials drew up a draft environmental analysis for review and public […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) said last week it has combined seismic and gas-flow models to create a new method to detect underground nuclear explosions. This method offers “a more complete picture of how an explosion’s evidence (radionuclide gases) seep to the surface,” LANL said. Radionuclide gases produced by underground nuclear testing may travel […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) said last week it has combined seismic and gas-flow models to create a new method to detect underground nuclear explosions. This method offers “a more complete picture of how an explosion’s evidence (radionuclide gases) seep to the surface,” LANL said. Radionuclide gases produced by underground nuclear testing may travel […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s renewed air quality permit last week withstood a challenge from several nongovernmental entities. The National Nuclear Security Administration facility and its state regulator, the New Mexico Environment Department, persuaded the state Environmental Improvement Board to deny the appeal to the NMED approval from February 2015.   The petitioners sought additional […]

Los Alamos National Security LLC, the partnership that has operated and managed the Los Alamos National Laboratory since 2006, has failed to qualify for an additional year on its contract that expires at the end of fiscal 2017. After receiving the National Nuclear Security Administration’s performance assessment for fiscal 2015, LANL Director Charles McMillan informed […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is seeking a contractor for architectural engineering and construction management services, according to a solicitation posted last week. Services to be provided include “architectural-engineering, procurement and construction management services and skilled construction craft labor, supervisory and safety personnel, associated support services, materials, equipment and possible […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/18/2015 The Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office faulted the Los Alamos Field Office for ineffective implementation of an issues management program during a five-year period starting in 2009. In a report issued on Dec. 7, the IG identified a number of deficiencies in the way the office has reported, addressed, […]

Sandia Seeking Security Operation Services Contractor for California Site The Sandia National Laboratories is seeking a contractor for security operation services at its Livermore, Calif., site, a 400-acre area that includes national security research and development laboratories and facilities. Both large and small businesses are eligible to bid on the contract for an estimated five-year […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 12/11/2015 Officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have known more than two years that the facility would not meet a key deadline in a fence-to-fence cleanup of radioactive and hazardous waste that their predecessors agreed to more than a decade ago under a binding court-ordered consent decree. A settlement for […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/11/2015 Deficiencies in the issues management program at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Los Alamos Field Office has led to ineffective tracking of corrective actions and inconsistent documentation, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General (IG) said this week. A Dec. 7 letter and audit report from the IG to the […]