Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has identified “systemic deficiencies” in safety strategies developed for nuclear operations at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Board said in a recent letter to National Nuclear Security Administration chief Tom D’Agostino. DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur outlined several areas of concern in an Aug. 30 letter to D’Agostino, including lingering […]

The Department of Energy appears to be on track to release a new Request for Proposals Friday for its stripped down Oak Ridge protective force contract. The agency yesterday released questions and answers on its draft performance work statement, signaling that there are no delays to plans to release the RFP on Friday. The majority […]

Officials from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge office met with Secretary Steven Chu yesterday to discuss the status of efforts to remove uranium-233 being stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oak Ridge acting Assistant Manager for Environmental Management Sue Cange and U-233 Federal Project Director John Krueger traveled to DOE headquarters to give an […]

Contractors at four Department of Energy sites aren’t properly handling and storing explosives used in research experiments, the DOE’s Inspector General said in an inspection report released yesterday. The DOE watchdog examined explosives handling procedures at four sites—Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Savannah River Site, and Idaho National Laboratory—and found that DOE […]

With Y-12 workers facing uncertainty with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s looming decision on the combined Y-12/Pantex procurement, B&W Y-12 Deputy General Manager Bill Klemm said yesterday the contractor has gotten through that “enormous challenge” by rallying around safety. “The words in this contract are not conducive to stability. So people are truly worried about […]

The Obama Administration may disagree with the National Nuclear Security Administration reform approach taken by House authorizers, but NNSA Defense Programs chief Don Cook suggested yesterday that it is nonetheless time to look at how the NNSA oversees its contractors. Speaking at the Capitol Hill Club yesterday, Cook said he favored a “partnership” approach between […]

With numerous subcontract awards related to construction of the Uranium Processing Facility scheduled for Fiscal Year 2013, B&W Y-12 officials yesterday urged small businesses yesterday to initiate discussions with the contractor. “Now is the time to be talking to us about what your capabilities are to help us line you up with the package and […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which has raised concerns about the relaxed oversight across the weapons complex and contractor assurance systems across the National Nuclear Security Administration, is holding a hearing on the topic at 9:30 a.m. Friday in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The subcommittee hasn’t […]

Bidders for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s combined Oak Ridge/Y-12/Pantex protective force contract now have a couple more hours to submit their proposals. The NNSA issued the first amendment to the procurement’s Request for Proposals late Friday, making minor adjustments to the solicitation. The changes included making proposals due by 12 p.m. Mountain Time on […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration may have its share of governance issues, but they’re not affecting the quality of science and engineering at the agency’s laboratories, according to Defense Programs chief Don Cook. Speaking yesterday on the sidelines of a public meeting of a National Academy of Sciences panel examining the quality of science and […]

Former Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Sig Hecker told the Albuquerque Journal this week that he’s still not comfortable with the nation’s understanding of the lifetime of plutonium pits, and in an article that was published yesterday, he pointed a finger at the burdensome requirements that the NNSA has placed on its nuclear weapons laboratories. […]

Don’t expect to see any weapons complex protective force officers at the London Summer Olympics. Despite embarrassing revelations that London security contractor G4S won’t be able to provide the allotment of guards it promised for the summer games, John Burleson, the Senior Vice President and Executive General Manager of Department of Energy Operations for G4S-Government […]

The House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing Friday on oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration will include testimony from three high-ranking DOE officials as well as the Department’s Inspector General and the head of the Government Accountability Office’s Natural Resources and Environment Department. According to a witness list released by the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration told the House Armed Services Committee that it is already doing enough to address oversight and management issues plaguing the agency, suggesting that the panel’s reform legislation was unnecessary. In a six-page letter to Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) earlier this month, NNSA […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is asking the three bidders for its combined Y-12/Pantex management and operating contract to revise their proposals by next week, industry officials with knowledge of the agency’s actions confirmed this week. In letters to teams led by Babcock & Wilcox, Bechtel and Fluor late last week, the NNSA supplied questions […]

Longtime Pentagon nuclear weapons official Steve Henry is leaving the Department of Defense to become the Director of Global Security for Nevada National Security Site contractor National Security Technologies, LLC. Henry, who has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters since 2003, will head up a new directorate at the test […]

NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino met with Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) yesterday, providing the first of what is expected to be twice yearly briefings on the Uranium Processing Facility and other major NNSA projects, Alexander spokesman Jim Jeffries confirmed. Feinstein and Alexander, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and […]

Bruce Rogers has joined the management consulting firm Longenecker & Associates as a Senior Security Project Manager. Rogers is the founder of World Security Group, LLC, and has “more than 40 years’ experience in managing government security operations,” according to an L&A release issued earlier this week. Rogers’ previous positions include Senior Vice President and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration released another set of questions and answers for its combined Oak Ridge/Y-12/Pantex protective force contract yesterday, the third since it released a final Request for Proposals for the contract earlier this month. The NNSA also released a “summary of employee leave” to help bidders prepare their proposals. Bids are due […]

In a stunning security embarrassment at the Y-12 National Security Complex, three peace activists—including an 82-year-old nun—sneaked into the Oak Ridge plant’s highest-security zone during the middle of the night and spray-painted messages on the walls of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, draped banners and splashed human blood onto the premises as a protest […]

Protective force workers in Oak Ridge ratified a six-year collective bargaining agreement with security contractor WSI-Oak Ridge late last week that would phase out the lucrative defined benefit pension plan enjoyed by the guards at the site. The new contract will take effect Aug. 15, and under its terms, guards from the International Guards Union […]

Three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex’s highest security area over the weekend were arraigned yesterday in an Eastern Tennessee district court and are facing a $100,000 fine and up to a year in jail connected to federal trespassing charges. The activists dubbed the “Transform Now Plowshares”—Michael R. Walli, 63, of Washington, […]

Buoyed by widespread weapons complex modernization efforts, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget is receiving unprecedented scrutiny, but a new report from the Government Accountability Office throws into question the credibility of the agency’s budget planning processes. In a report released yesterday, “Modernizing the Nuclear Security Enterprise: NNSA’s Reviews of Budget Estimates and Decisions on […]

Y-12 National Security Complex contractor B&W Y-12 has ordered a stop to all production work at the site as part of a “security stand-down” in the wake of the embarrassing break-in at the facility over the weekend. The National Nuclear Security Administration said the stand-down is expected to last for approximately one week as all […]

Senior Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee continue to believe that they must intervene to reform the National Nuclear Security Administration, and in a letter yesterday to NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino, Reps. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and Michael Turner (R-Ohio) rebuffed the agency’s suggestion that its own reform efforts would address management problems plaguing the […]

House authorizers went too far in drafting language that would move the National Nuclear Security Administration’s two biggest projects, the Uranium Processing Facility and the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, to the Pentagon, according to a senior Department of Defense official. Speaking at a Capitol Hill Club breakfast event yesterday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of […]

The unprecedented security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex has led to the departure of top contractor officials at protective force contractor WSI-Oak Ridge and management and operating contractor B&W Y-12. NW&M Monitor has learned that WSI-Oak Ridge protective force General Manager Lee Brooks, WSI Director of Protective Force Operations Gary Brandon, and B&W […]

Oak Ridge protective force contractor WSI-Oak Ridge is bringing in executive Steve Hafner from the Hanford Reservation to head up security work at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The move, announced by WSI yesterday, comes in the wake of last weekend’s stunning security breach that led to the removal of two top WSI site officials. […]

Details of the Y-12 security breach continued to emerge yesterday as documents were filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. A sworn affidavit filed by a Department of Energy Inspector General special agent revealed that the three peace activists entered the plant from the north side of the facility during the evening of July 28, […]

The House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee has rescheduled its hearing on NNSA governance for Sept. 12 at 10 a.m., and has added one item to its agenda: the recent security breach at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The subcommittee said yesterday that the hearing would examine “a range of management and administrative […]