Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced on Feb. 26 it had finished dismantling canned subassemblies for the W69 warhead at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The canned subassembly, along with the plutonium pit, is part of the warhead’s nuclear explosive package. During the warhead dismantlement process, plutonium pits are stored […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security said this week it has sealed a new collective bargaining agreement with Pantex Plant workers represented by the West Texas Building Trades and Construction Council. The new three-year deal was the result of several weeks of negotiations beginning on Jan. 6, according to the contractor. It went into effect as of Feb. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons dismantlement activities may offer additional benefits – in addition to nonproliferation and arms control – that involve the nuclear enterprise workforce, according to NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz. The NNSA’s fiscal 2017 budget request includes $69 million to meet Secretary of State John Kerry’s commitment announced last year […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is allowing nuclear criticality safety annual reporting requirement to allow the Department of Energy (DOE) to submit an annual metrics table instead of a full report on criticality safety at defense nuclear facilities. In a Feb. 26 letter to the Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, DNFSB Chairman Joyce […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Friday announced that it had finished dismantling W69 warhead canned subassemblies at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. The W69, a warhead that topped short-range attack missiles, was pulled from the nuclear arsenal in 1992. All W69s had been disassembled by 1999, according to a press release. “The […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has yet to finish a congressionally mandated life-cycle physical security infrastructure management plan for its facilities, according to a senior Government Accountability Office official. There was no immediate word this week on the status of the document lawmakers first requested nearly a decade ago. The fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization […]

Ineffective hazardous chemical management and chemical safety training processes precipitated a chemical waste drum fire at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) a year after an explosion at the site, according to a Feb. 22 enforcement letter from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments to NNSS managing contractor National Security Technologies (NSTec). […]

Michelle Reichert has been promised to the No. 2 position on the management team at Consolidated Nuclear Security, the government’s management and operations contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons facilities. According to Monday’s announcement by CNS President and CEO Morgan Smith, Todd Ailes will succeed Reichert as the site manager at the Pantex […]

DOE Seeking Sources for Pantex Demolition and Construction Project The Department of Energy said Tuesday it is seeking sources for a demolition and construction project at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. The project is for demolition and new work construction “to accommodate the installation of new workstations,” the solicitation said. Work at the nuclear […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said it has identified some “other sources” of purified lithium-6 needed for nuclear warhead refurbishment, perhaps easing concerns raised in recent months by the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General. In a budget briefing with reporters on Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Stephen Davis, the NNSA’s […]

National Security Technologies (NSTec), the managing and operating contractor at the Nevada National Security Site, has named Roy Bridges and Raffi Papazian as vice presidents. Bridges, previously vice president for strategic management, is now NSTec’s vice president for operations. Papazian, previously the director of defense experimentation and stockpile stewardship (DE&SS), is now the vice president […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it is seeking sources for a demolition and construction project at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. The project is for demolition and new work construction “to accommodate the installation of new workstations,” the solicitation said. Work at the nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly plant will include wall penetrations, […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 The National Nuclear Security Administration this week finally spelled out some of the details of a 2014 “security event” involving the mishandling of classified information at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Most of the blame went to former site contractor B&W Y-12, but the NNSA waived […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 Significant cuts to the U.S. nuclear modernization program, including the cancellation of the B61 gravity bomb consolidation and new cruise missile programs, could save the U.S. $120 billion over the next 30 years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress. The report noted that the […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 Casting operations with highly enriched uranium were temporarily “paused” last month because of a perceived “deficiency” in nuclear criticality safety in a part of Building 9212 at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. The issue was reported in an area associated with Stack 110, which is the primary ventilation […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Thursday said that program management and integrated schedule systems might improve implementation of the B61-12 life-extension program (LEP) and called for an increase in the number of federal staff to better oversee progress. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Department of Defense […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 Morgan Smith took the reins Monday as president and chief executive officer at Consolidated Nuclear Security, the government’s managing contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants, and he promised the nearly 8,000 employees that he would be an advocate for their interests and would support them in every […]

NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016  IN THE INDUSTRY National Security Technologies (NSTec), the managing contractor for the Nevada National Security Site, said this week that acting President James Holt would take the position on a permanent basis. Holt has been acting president since November 2015 and previously served in various positions within the company, including as vice […]

Workers at the Y-12 National Security Complex in 2014 discarded classified documents in unclassified waste shipping containers in violation of classified information security requirements, according to a Department of Energy investigation released this week. A Jan. 28 preliminary notice of violation (PNOV) from the National Nuclear Security Administration to Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12 […]

Significant cuts to the U.S. nuclear modernization program, including the cancellation of the B61 gravity bomb consolidation and new cruise missile programs, could save the U.S. $120 billion over the next 30 years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for American Progress. The report noted that the cost of the U.S. nuclear deterrent […]

National Security Technologies (NSTec), the managing contractor for the Nevada National Security Site, said yesterday that acting President James Holt would take the position on a permanent basis.   Holt has been acting president since November 2015 and previously served in various positions within the company, including as vice president for operations, vice president for […]

In fiscal 2015, the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., had a budget approaching $1.5 billion, with most – but not all – coming from the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The Oak Ridge plant’s budget also included about $51.1 million of work under the Strategic Partnerships Program – previously called […]

NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 IN THE INDUSTRY   Chris Gentile, president of the Honeywell subsidiary that manages and operates the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Security Campus at Kansas City, Mo., will retire on March 18, the site announced this week. As part of his 26-year career at the company, Gentile served as head of Honeywell […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Emergency Operations revamped the agency’s mobile Emergency Communications Network (ECN) systems last year. The size of the ECN systems was cut by about 88 percent and the cost was cut by 60 percent, while communications pathways were increased by 300 percent, the […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., for a violation involving the improper export of uranium to Jamaica as part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation program. According to the notice of violation, the shipment of low-enriched uranium to Jamaica last […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The National Nuclear Security Administration said it is working to address Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board questions and concerns about the Electrorefining Project that is supposed to replace some existing uranium recovery processes at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. However, the Jan. 7 response from NNSA Administrator Frank G. Klotz […]

Chris Gentile, president of the Honeywell subsidiary that manages and operates the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Security Campus at Kansas City, Mo., will retire on March 18, the site announced this week. As part of his 26-year career at the company, Gentile served as head of Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies and “led the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Emergency Operations revamped the agency’s mobile Emergency Communications Network (ECN) systems last year. The size of the ECN systems were cut by about 88 percent and the cost was cut by 60 percent, while communications pathways were increased by 300 percent, the NNSA said in a Jan. […]

Staff Reports WC Monitor 1/22/2016 The Y-12 site’s Alpha-5 Building has been characterized as the “worst of the worst” of the excess facilities awaiting cleanup at Department of Energy sites around the country, and deactivation and decommissioning of the highly contaminated, highly deteriorated site is still years from happening. However, Consolidated Nuclear Security – the […]

Y-12 UPF Gets Permanent Federal Project Chief Dale Christenson, who has served as federal project director of the Y-12 site’s Uranium Processing Facility since last spring when John Eschenberg stepped down, has been named to the top position on a permanent basis following a months-long search. Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security […]