National Laboratories

Staff reports NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason said he’d received positive feedback on the work of the Red Team that recommended major changes in the strategy to secure the future of uranium missions at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. Mason headed up the effort and initially briefing […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 5/16/2014 Bechtel’s Systems and Infrastructure unit, responsible for the company’s government businesses, is undergoing a reorganization to consolidate “five regionally focused business lines to three global business lines”—Nuclear Security & Operations (NS&O), Environmental (ENV), and Defense & Security (D&S), according to a message sent to employees last week. The reorganization, set […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 Bechtel’s Systems and Infrastructure unit, responsible for the company’s government businesses, is undergoing a reorganization to consolidate “five regionally focused business lines to three global business lines”—Nuclear Security & Operations (NS&O), Environmental (ENV), and Defense & Security (D&S), according to a message sent to employees last week. The reorganization, set […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 Efficiencies outlined in a key National Nuclear Security Administration report to Congress don’t adequately assess opportunities for cost savings, according to a Government Accountability Office report released late this week. The GAO analysis criticizes the November 2013 NNSA report, which outlines seven opportunities for efficiencies, for being vague and questions […]

NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY George Dials has joined the staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory as a senior executive advisor, NS&D Monitor has learned. Dials previously headed up B&W Conversion Services, LLC, which manages the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants, from late 2010 until he left Babcock & Wilcox […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 In a move that could foreshadow its strategy for a new Sandia National Laboratories contract, the National Nuclear Security Administration is upping the fixed fee lab manager Lockheed Martin is guaranteed under the contract in a two-year extension  that took effect May 1. Details of the contract were released for […]

Roger Snodgrass For NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—New National Security Administration chief Frank Klotz said a recent suggestion by a Uranium Processing Facility Red Team that the agency scale back its plans to modernize its uranium processing activities at the Y-12 National Security Complex is “an approach we ought to consider,” but he was less […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 In a surprising move that raises questions about competition for the new Brookhaven National Laboratory management and operating contract, Southeastern Universities Research Association said late this week that it was taking a pass on bidding for management of the Long Island laboratory. Days after it appeared that SURA was preparing […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 IN THE DNFSB The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is closing a decade-old recommendation on oversight of complex, high-hazard nuclear operations, but it says it will continue to keep tabs on the Department’s progress in strengthening federal safety assurance. The recommendation, originally issued May 21, 2004, helped revitalize the implementation of Integrated […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration has wrapped up negotiations with the Lockheed Martin-run Sandia Corporation on a two-year extension to its management and operating contract to run Sandia National Laboratories, but it hasn’t released any details of the contract. NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha confirmed late last week that the Sandia […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is pressing the National Nuclear Security Administration to not let oversight slip with transition activities to a new contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants ongoing. In an April 30 letter to new NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz, DNFSB Chairman […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Consolidated Nuclear Security this week revealed its plans for changing the benefits packages at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants and said the changes would help reduce costs and help sustain future operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration facilities. The incoming contractor at Y-12 and Pantex posted the plans on […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Lab Seeking Industry Collaborators for New Supercomputer Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is opening up a recently commissioned supercomputer for industry collaborators to test big data technologies, architectures and applications. A high performance computing cluster dubbed Catalyst—a collaboration between Livermore, Intel and Cray—came on line at Livermore last fall, and the lab’s High […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Jury Awards Business $3.64m in Contract Dispute with Lab An Albuquerque District Court jury has awarded a New Mexico-based business $3.64 million in a case that pitted the company against Los Alamos National Laboratory contractor Los Alamos National Security, LLC, in a dispute over a contract originally awarded five years ago. Orion […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Y-12 Voluntary Layoff Program Expanded Security was off-limits in the initial round of job reductions planned as part of the Voluntary Separation Program at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, but that has changed. Federal and contractor officials confirmed that the VSP has been expanded to include some security personnel at Y-12, although it […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 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 […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 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 this week. Budil takes over for Glenn Mara, who announced his retirement last year and stepped down April 30. In her new role, […]

NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Y-12 UNION APPROVES ONE-YEAR EXTENSION Y-12’s union workers approved a one-year extension of the existing collective bargaining agreement on May 1, setting the stage for the transition of contractors at the Oak Ridge plant. “We’re glad to have this behind us,” Jones said. The extension includes a 2.5 percent wage increase and […]

Y-12 Union Tentatively Agrees to One-Year Extension NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 The collective bargaining agreement between the Atomic Trades and Labor Council and B&W Y-12 is expected to be extended for one year after the union announced a “tentative” agreement on the extension this week. The ATLC agreement at Y-12 runs out June 22, and with […]

IWTU Enters Planned Outage Period WC Monitor 4/25/2014 The Idaho Integrated Waste Treatment Unit has entered into a planned outage period as the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M-WG Idaho get ready for the next stage of getting the facility ready to begin actual waste treatment. The outage period is expected to last approximately a […]

Questions Persist over Subcontractor Raid Three months after federal law enforcement agents raided the office of a subcontractor to URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC (UCOR), the purpose of the raid remains unclear. On Jan. 16, agents with the FBI and the Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office removed records from the office of Transportation, Operations and […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/18/2014   With about two months left before proposals are due for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Brookhaven National Laboratory procurement, no clear-cut competitor to incumbent Brookhaven Science Associates has emerged and industry officials are questioning whether that will happen at all. Brookhaven is the first Office of Science […]

One-year Extension of Y-12 Labor Agreement Expected It appears that a one-year extension of the labor agreement at the Y-12 National Security Complex may be close at hand. Consolidated Nuclear Security, the incoming contractor now in transition at Y-12 and Pantex, has given its approval for a limited extension of the current agreement with the […]

B61-12 Undergoes Successful Wind Tunnel Test The National Nuclear Security Administration’s B61-12 life extension program has reached another milestone as officials at Sandia National Laboratories successfully conducted the first wind tunnel test of the refurbished nuclear bomb. The eight days of testing at the largest wind tunnel that could accommodate the warhead, the Air Force’s […]

DOE Puts out RFP for Extreme Scale Supercomputing R&D 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 this week for contracts that could total approximately $100 million. Proposals under the […]

Will WAI Have Unfair Advantage for Sludge Contract? Some potential bidders on the new contract to provide architect and engineering services for design of the Sludge Processing Facility Buildouts Project at the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center appear to be concerned that Wastren Advantage may have an unfair advantage, according to a set of […]

Mcmillan Lays out Needs for Pu Strategy 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 this week outlined key requirements for the lab’s plutonium strategy. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, McMillan said […]

Security Upgrade Project Wrapped up at Y-12 The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week that a project to upgrade the security infrastructure at the Y-12 National Security Complex was completed ahead of schedule and approximately $20 million less than its initial $72 million budget. The Security Improvements Project (SIP), which the NNSA said cost […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has cancelled an ambitious laser fusion energy program aimed at marketing and commercializing National Ignition Facility technology in the face of Congressional scrutiny and questions about the utility of the program

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 3/14/2014 The Department of Energy has found no significant environmental impact to conducting transient testing of nuclear fuels and materials at the Idaho National Laboratory. The results clear the way for DOE to resume its work with the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) reactor, which according to DOE, “involves placing […]