Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Maryland-based Amentum, a leading government contractor for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, announced the addition of two new senior managers June 30. Amentum, which leads multibillion-dollar joint ventures across the DOE weapons complex, announced the personnel additions in a June 30 press release. Sean Mullen was appointed executive vice president for business […]

The Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories said in a Tuesday filing a wrongful firing suit brought against it by a scientist who worked on data for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should remain in federal court. National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia said the wrongful termination suit brought by […]

House appropriators want to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration with all the funding it requested in 2023 to build plutonium pit factories in New Mexico and South Carolina and fund a megaton-capable bomb the White House wanted to kill. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act approved this week on a party line […]

The House Appropriations this week approved a 2023 spending bill that included roughly the requested funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, one of which should get almost double the funding it will receive under the bill, a Republican Congressman said. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act should be “[r]aising the amount […]

The House Appropriations on Tuesday approved a 2023 spending bill that included roughly the requested funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, one of which should get almost double the funding it will receive under the bill, a Republican Congressman said. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act should be “[r]aising the amount […]

House appropriators want to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration with all the funding it requested in 2023 to build plutonium pit factories in New Mexico and South Carolina and fund a megaton-capable bomb the White House wanted to kill. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act, slated for a vote in the House […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee approved Tuesday. For the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency, the subcommittee proposed about $21.2 billion, short of the request by almost $180 million, or […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee planned to debate on Tuesday. Meanwhile, under the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s recently unveiled bill, the budget for cleanup of shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites handled […]

A Savannah River Nuclear Solutions employee got an award from the company for pulling a small child out of a busy road in November, the company wrote in a press release. Sarah Prosser found the toddler wandering down “a busy four-lane highway) on Nov. 30, 2021, according to the release from the Department of Energy’s […]

Three uranium processing systems for nuclear weapons at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will be delayed for six months or more, a federal nuclear safety agency reported last week. Y-12’s electrorefining and direct chip melt front-loading furnace projects each will be delayed six months, according to a recent report by the […]

Continuing its investigation of a fatal fire nearly two years ago at BWX Technologies’ Lynchburg, Va., plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning a public, predecisional enforcement conference at its Rockville, Md., headquarters with the company. “We will contact you promptly to determine a mutually agreeable date and time” for the conference, the NRC wrote […]

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a two-year extension of a law providing financial compensation to certain people sickened by radioactivity from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Extension Act of 2022 is a clean, two-year extension for the federal program, which is open to atmospheric test participants, certain uranium miners […]

The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee approved its contributions to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, kicking up to the full committee a package of reforms for the Nuclear Weapons Council and an order to study modernization of the Pantex Plant, among other things. The subcommittee completed its markup without debate […]

The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee approved its contributions to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, kicking up to the full committee a package of reforms for the Nuclear Weapons Council and an order to study modernization of the Pantex Plant, among other things.  The subcommittee completed its markup without debate […]

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a two-year extension of a law providing financial compensation to certain people sickened by radioactivity from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Extension Act of 2022 is a clean, two-year extension for the federal program, which is open to atmospheric test participants, certain uranium miners […]

Legislation unveiled Tuesday would put the deputy secretary of defense on the Nuclear Weapons Council once a year and attempt to put the Pentagon on the hook for some risk management in the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons enterprise. The proposal by the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is part of the National Defense Authorization […]

The annual defense appropriations process was set to begin in earnest Tuesday, when the House Armed Services Committee planned to reveal early details of its plans for the civilian nuclear weapons complex in 2023. The strategic forces subcommittee was set to unveil the text of its portion of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) […]

Confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 among contractors and civil servants working on site at National Nuclear Security Administration facilities more than quadrupled over the month of May, according to data provided Friday by a spokesperson at agency headquarters in Washington. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency had 547 confirmed cases, up from 132 confirmed […]

The Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week wrapped up key details of a memorandum of understanding they inked in February pledging full cooperation on safety at federal nuclear-weapons installations. The 19-page supplement announced by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in a Wednesday press release fleshes out specifics […]

In a virtual address to a gathering of nuclear weapons professionals on Thursday, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration touted the White House’s Nuclear Posture Review for its support of civilian nuclear weapon programs, advocated for more exports of peaceful nuclear-energy technology and said that Russia’s war in Ukraine has resurrected old nonproliferation […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration could do a better job tracking the performance of some $300 million worth of research and development activities in its Advanced Manufacturing Development program, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report published May 20. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency “may be using inconsistent measures across individual […]

Andrew Kline joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday as an on-site inspector for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the board announced Monday. Kline was previously a design engineer, operations process manager and project manager at the Savannah River Site, a former Cold War plutonium production complex with […]

Andrew Kline joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday as an on-site inspector for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the board announced Monday. Kline was previously a design engineer, operations process manager and project manager at the Savannah River Site, a former Cold War plutonium production complex with […]

Andrew Kline joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday as an on-site inspector for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the board announced Monday. Kline was previously a design engineer, operations process manager and project manager at the Savannah River Site, a former Cold War plutonium production complex with […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration could do a better job tracking the performance of some $300 million worth of research and development activities in its Advanced Manufacturing Development program, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report published Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency “may be using inconsistent measures across individual projects […]

Carlos Alvardo will temporarily step in as the No. 2 fed at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, with Gabriel Pugh, the plant’s most recent deputy manager, leaving for the Department of Energy’s National Training Center, according to an internal email. Sunday was Alvardo’s first day as acting deputy manager at […]

In a blow to Fluor and Amentum, the National Nuclear Security Administration this week canceled a potentially 10-year, $28-billion contract for a joint venture of the two companies to manage the agency’s main nuclear-weapon production sites. At the same time, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency announced it would extend the Bechtel-led incumbent […]

The NNSA’s new facility for manufacturing nuclear-weapon secondary stages will not be completed until August 2026: eight months later than expected, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told Senators Wednesday in a hearing. Bechtel National, under contract to the Bechtel-led site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security, has been building the current incarnation of the […]

The NNSA’s new facility for manufacturing nuclear-weapon secondary stages will not be completed until August 2026: eight months later than expected, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told Senators Wednesday in a hearing. Bechtel National, under contract to the Bechtel-led site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security, has been building the current incarnation of the […]

National Nuclear Security Administrator Jill Hruby and the senior leadership of the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous nuclear weapons agency were set to testify before Senate appropriators at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday morning.  The scheduled hearing before the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee will be among the final hearings of the season […]