Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The government shutdown hasn’t stopped criticism of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s project management record, and the Albuquerque Journal weighed in yesterday, suggesting that top NNSA officials should be furloughed because of their project management woes. “Runaway regulation, excessive bureaucratic red tape and incompetence are so clogging the work pipeline that the lab and the […]

Close to 4,000 workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant may be furloughed, beginning late next week, if some type of budget resolution isn’t reached in the next several days. That was one of the messages delivered Tuesday at B&W Y-12’s all-hands meeting, which featured talks by President and General Manager Chuck Spencer, human resources executives, […]

The government shutdown has claimed another victim as the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has postponed its Oct. 22 public hearing in Knoxville on nuclear safety. In a statement on its website, the Board said delaying the meeting was “appropriate and in the best interest of all parties concerned due to the government shutdown.” The […]

The solution to the problems plaguing National Nuclear Security Administration aren’t likely to be solved by a radical makeover for the agency, the co-chairman of a Congressionally created NNSA governance panel said yesterday. The 12-member panel began its work in September, and in his first public comments, panel co-chairman Adm. Richard Mies, the former commander […]

The Obama Administration should drastically scale back its plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal and scuttle plans to build major facilities and pursue a new warhead modernization strategy, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. The recommendations in the 81-page report, “Making Smart Security Choices,” would mark […]

There don’t appear to be any safety-related showstoppers that would prevent the National Nuclear Security Administration from completing design of the Uranium Processing Facility in 2015, the Government Accountability Office said in its latest report on the multi-billion-dollar facility. In what largely amounted to a review of previously available information, the GAO noted that the […]

There could be a decision on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12/Pantex procurement in “early November,” NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha said in a statement yesterday confirming that the agency’s technical experts have completed their evaluation of revised bids. The Source Selection Authority on the procurement, who the agency has not disclosed, will make a decision […]

Longtime Y-12 National Security Complex official Bill Reis is taking over as contractor B&W Y-12’s Vice President for Public and Governmental Affairs. Reis most recently served as B&W Y-12’s Vice President for Environment, Safety and Health, where he helped the contractor reach “star status” in the Department of Energy’s Voluntary Protection Program and reduced the […]

A safety culture study conducted by the National Nuclear Security Administration this summer on its federal staff found a “lack of trust” among the agency’s employees, problems with communication and a “fear of reprisal” for raising concerns. The safety culture study obtained by NW&M Monitor follows reports that have been critical of the safety culture […]

The Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board added two new areas of concern to its annual submission to Congress, highlighting the aging double-shell tanks at the Hanford Reservation and degrading fire protection pumps and tanks at the Savannah River Site’s A Area. The two issues were the only new entries on the Defense Board’s annual report, […]

The three bidders vying for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s combined Y-12/Pantex management and operating contract will each be debriefed on the agency’s selection of Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security on Nov. 15, NNSA spokeswoman Keri Fulton confirmed to NW&M Monitor. The debriefings would start the clock on a 10-day window for teams to protest the […]

Gen. Robert Kehler, the outgoing head of U.S. Strategic Command, said the nation needs to “control our appetites” as budget belt-tightening encroaches on efforts to modernize the nation’s nuclear deterrent. Speaking at the “Sustaining the Triad Conference” at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay (Ga.) Friday, Kehler emphasized—as he has during his three-year tenure at StratCom—the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has rescheduled a hearing on nuclear safety at the Y-12 National Security Complex for Dec. 10. The DNFSB postponed the Oct. 22 hearing because of the government shutdown, but it said in a Federal Register notice released yesterday that the rescheduled hearing would remain focused on the same issues […]

The Obama Administration’s “3+2” strategy for modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile ovrt the coming decades is expected to bring a more extensive workload to the weapons complex, and especially at Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administration chief Don Cook said yesterday. Speaking at the lab’s second “Primer” conference to commemorate its 70th anniversary, […]

B&W executive Michelle Reichert has been named the Deputy General Manager at the Pantex Plant after nearly two years as the B&W’s number two official on the Department of Energy’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion project. Reichert last week replaced retired Gen. Rod Johnson, who moved to Y-12 in the wake of the security breach there […]

New acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held is heading up a security task force established by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and he’ll visit the Y-12 National Security Complex today in an effort to better familiarize himself with the location of one of the most high-profile security breaches in recent NNSA history. Held, who […]

As the Department of Energy begins moving forward with a new reorganization effort, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman gave one of the strong indications to date yesterday that changes may be in store for the Department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security. There has been speculation in recent weeks that new DOE Secretary Ernest […]

On Sunday, the one-year anniversary of the worst security breach in the history of the Y-12 National Security Complex, there was yet another security mishap at the Oak Ridge plant that has come under great scrutiny and review. Steven Wyatt, a federal spokesman at Y-12, confirmed that two security police officers were wounded by the […]

Gary Wisdom, the top federal security official at the NNSA Production Office, retired Friday and is being replaced by Arnold Guevara, the director of DOE’s Office of Headquarters Security Operations in Washington, D.C. Wisdom served as the Assistant Manager for Safeguards and Security since the production office was established to oversee the Y-12 National Security […]

Adm. Cecil Haney, the Obama Administration’s pick to be the next commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said during his confirmation hearing yesterday that he supports efforts to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal and weapons complex and said he would oppose unilateral reductions to the nuclear arsenal. President Obama in June outlined a plan to reduce […]

Kansas City Plant officials have established plans to ensure that non-nuclear components needed to support the stockpile are available throughout the relocation to the plant’s new home at the newly constructed National Security Campus, a new Office of Inspector General report concludes, though the review did identify one issue “that could impact” planned production. “Our review […]

B&W has continued to fight the National Nuclear Security Administration on its selection of a Bechtel-led team for its combined Y-12/Pantex contract, but B&W President and CEO Jim Ferland said last week that he didn’t envision the procurement battle impacting the NNSA’s other looming opportunity, for Sandia National Laboratories. “An awful lot of the background […]

Construction on an 11.5-megawatt wind farm at the Pantex Plant will begin on Monday, but officials at the weapons production and dismantlement site will celebrate the project’s groundbreaking with a ceremony today. Officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and construction contractor Siemens Government Technologies are expected to gather […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is strengthening how it documents risks that underpin its recommendations to the Department of Energy in response to language in the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act. Lawmakers directed the Board to account for risk in its recommendations in the bill in an attempt to reform the Board, which […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is heading back to the Y-12 National Security Complex, returning to the site in October for its second public meeting in a year. In a notice last week announcing the Oct. 22 meeting, the Board said it would discuss the safety-related risks that go along with continuing to run […]

The 12-member panel assembled to study governance options for the National Nuclear Security Administration will meet for the first time in early September, study co-chairman Norm Augustine told NW&M Monitor. The long-delayed study’s first meeting will take place in Washington, D.C., but the final date has not been set, Augustine, the former Lockheed Martin CEO, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board yesterday announced the appointment of Richard Reback as the Board’s deputy general counsel. Reback most recently served as counsel to the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General, and previously served in the IG offices at the Department of State and Broadcasting Board of Governors. He also has worked in […]

While acknowledging there’s been progress made in incorporating safety into the design of the Uranium Processing Facility, the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board said there are still a bunch of open issues to be resolved and it wants the National Nuclear Security Administration to address those concerns—with a report and briefing—within the next two months. […]

The Department of Energy is asking to close out a 2002 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommendation regarding administrative controls put in place in the case of potential accidents. DOE has now completed all actions in its implementation plan developed in response to the Board’s concerns, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz wrote in a letter to […]

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz raised the possibility during a visit yesterday to New Mexico that the Administration might seek an “anomaly” for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program in upcoming discussions about a Continuing Resolution to fund federal work after Oct. 1. “In the end Congress has to pass budgets, otherwise we’ll just have […]