National Laboratories

Southeastern Universities Research Association is planning to team with AECOM on a bid for Brookhaven National Laboratory, NS&D Monitor has learned. SURA and AECOM have kept their plans quiet, as neither companies were listed as attendees at an industry day for the procurement in January. The Department of Energy has refused to release a list […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has wrapped up negotiations with the Lockheed Martin-run Sandia Corporation on a two-year extension to its contract to run Sandia National Laboratories, but it hasn’t released any details of the contract. NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha confirmed Friday that the Sandia contract had been extended through April 30, 2016 (with an […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory official Kim Budil is taking over as the University of California’s Vice President for Laboratory Management, University of California President Janet Napolitano said yesterday. Budil takes over for Glenn Mara, who announced his retirement last year and will step down April 30. In her new role, Budil will oversee UC work […]

A laborer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory worker suffered two broken legs and a broken right thumb in a March 31 accident in which a heavy piece of equipment tipped over while being loaded onto a truck and fell onto the worker. ORNL spokesman David Keim confirmed the accident and said the worker was taken […]

It appears that there could be competition for the Brookhaven National Laboratory contract after all. Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) has kept a low profile during the BNL procurement, but industry officials say the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility contractor is strongly considering a bid for the contract. Brookhaven Science Associates, a partnership of Battelle […]

The Department of Energy has amended the Brookhaven National Laboratory Request for Proposals, stripping language that would have required companies to establish a new entity to bid on the contract. The RFP previously required that a new legal entity be created for procurement, but in a pre-proposal conference presentation last week, DOE said that was […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration are offering up another funding opportunity for research into extreme scale supercomputer technology. The agencies issued a joint Request for Proposals yesterday for contracts that could total approximately $100 million. Proposals under the program, dubbed FastForward 2, are due May 9, and the […]

Will there be a challenge to incumbent Brookhaven Science Associates at Brookhaven National Laboratory? An answer to that question could come into sharper focus this week as the Department of Energy holds a pre-proposal conference Thursday for its BNL procurement. The meeting will include a tour of the laboratory as well as insight into the […]

With a 2019 deadline to get out of the aged Chemistry and Metallurgy Research facility looming five years from now, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan yesterday outlined key requirements for the lab’s plutonium strategy. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, McMillan said the lab needed a steady funding stream and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is monitoring changes to Los Alamos National Laboratory’s ethics review process in the wake of a DOE Inspector General report that led to the resignation last month of Deputy Director Beth Sellers, and the agency hasn’t made a decision whether or not to take further action against the lab, according […]

The Department of Energy will hold a pre-proposal conference April 17 for its Brookhaven National Laboratory procurement, it said yesterday. The daylong meeting will take place at the Upton, N.Y., lab and will begin at 9:15 a.m. The meeting will include a tour of the laboratory as well as insight into the recently released Request […]

Battelle Energy Alliance is set to earn less fee for managing the Idaho National Laboratory under a five-year contract extension announced late last week. While BEA was able to earn a maximum of $18.7 million in fee annually during its first five years at INL, for the next five years the contractor can only earn […]

Operations at a Sandia National Laboratories explosives testing facility remain shut down after a worker was burned in December when an experiment malfunctioned, a lab spokesman said late last week. The Dec. 11 incident at the lab’s Site 9920 left a worker with burns to his hand when a detonator unexpectedly initiated in his hand […]

The Department of Energy has had discussions with the companies that run Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories about reducing the fee paid to the companies, acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held confirmed yesterday. Speaking on the sidelines of a Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing that was postponed, Held noted […]

A $48.7 million project to revitalize Sandia National Laboratories’ testing facilities was completed earlier this month, $4 million under its original budget. The Test Capabilities Revitalization Phase 2 project upgraded the lab’s 10,000-foot sled track as well as its mechanical shock, centrifuge, aerosciences, and vibro-acoustic and mass properties facilities. In all, the NNSA said approximately […]

The Los Alamos Study Group, which sued the National Nuclear Security Administration in 2010 and 2011 to halt work on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, has officially dropped its lawsuit now that the NNSA has dropped its plans for the multi-billion-dollar facility. In its lawsuits, the group argued that the NNSA hadn’t adequately […]

An age discrimination lawsuit involving ten former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees is moving forward in a Northern California court. The trial is the third involving a group of 130 employees that were laid off from the lab in 2008, and involves scientists and engineers from the lab that say they were the victims of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration at long last is moving to compete the Sandia National Laboratories management and operating contract, announcing yesterday that it was extending Lockheed Martin’s contract to run the lab for two years (with an option for a third) while it opens up the contract for competition. Lockheed Martin’s current contract to […]

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has made its 18 selections to a Congressionally mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories, and now it’s up to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to whittle that list down to nine. Moniz has until May 1 to make his selections for the […]

Acting Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Bret Knapp is pulling himself out of the running for the permanent position, citing health reasons. In a Friday message to employees, Knapp said he had been diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer that is one of the more common forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. […]

The President’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget released last week proposes terminating $10 million in Department of Energy Office of Science funding for the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has lab officials concerned for the future of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The Lujan Neutron Scattering Center is one of […]

Paul Henry, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Principal Associate Director for Capital Projects, will serve as the lab’s acting Deputy Director with the sudden departure of Beth Sellers, NS&D Monitor has learned. Sellers, a Bechtel executive, abruptly resigned Friday in the wake of an ethics scandal, and will leave the lab at the end of this […]

Could Los Alamos National Laboratory’s latest plans for plutonium infrastructure be scaled back again? That’s one of the main questions raised by a new report from the Congressional Research Service, which suggests that existing facilities at Los Alamos—with some tweaks—could allow for the eventual production of between 50 and 80 pits. Such a move would […]

Seventeen lawmakers—all but one from California—late last week urged President Obama to provide “strong and sustained” funding for the National Ignition Facility and inertial confinement fusion activities at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In a letter to President Obama Friday, the lawmakers, led by Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), noted recent advancements at […]

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore’s National Ignition Facility have reached a major milestone in the quest for ignition, achieving a fuel gain greater than 1 for the first time. The achievement was detailed in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Nature, explaining that the yield performance during a recent series of experiments has shown an […]

A review of criticality safety issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory has revealed widespread problems that led to the ongoing shutdown of its Plutonium Facility last summer, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report released last week. The report describes Los Alamos’ Criticality Safety Infractions Causal Analysis, which identified five “root causal factors” […]

Timothy Hallman, the Associate Director for Nuclear Physics in the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, will serve as the Source Selection Official for the Department’s Brookhaven National Laboratory procurement, officials said at an informational meeting last week. DOE released documents from the industry day this week, revealing the role that will be played by […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory inappropriately used Department of Energy facilities and resources when it participated in a 2011 National Geographic documentary on the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, according to a DOE Inspector General report released yesterday. The lab spent $81,746 in Licensing and Royalty funds to conduct explosive testing and synthesis at the High […]

CNS Community Commitment Plan Coming June 30 NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 Consolidated Nuclear Security, the incoming contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants, plans to release its Community Commitment Plant on June 30—the day before CNS officially takes full responsibility for managing the two sites. Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan said so far, so […]

DNFSB Raps Lab for Conduct of Operations, Maintenance NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 Calling Sandia National Laboratories’ failure to comply with Department of Energy requirements at its Technical Area V nuclear facilities “troubling,” the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week called on lab officials and their federal overseers to strengthen conduct of operations and maintenance programs […]