Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

In a long-awaited legal settlement over six years of mislabeled, radioactive waste shipments to Nevada, the Department of Energy agreed to tighten waste-inspection standards at nuclear weapon sites and overhaul its solid waste permit with the state by early next year, Carson City’s top environmental official said this week. DOE will also have to revise […]

The Secretary of Energy did not deny any written requests for information from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in the six months ended June 30, the chair of the independent federal board reported recently to Congress. “The Board has no denials of access to information to report in the past six months,” Defense Nuclear […]

The Secretary of Energy did not deny any written requests for information from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in the six months ended June 30, the chair of the independent federal board reported recently to Congress. “The Board has no denials of access to information to report in the past six months,” Defense Nuclear […]

Responders at the Nevada National Security Site have completely contained the wildfires that broke out there last week in the site’s western region at Area 16, Area 29 and Area 30, the site said Tuesday. The total estimated burn area was about 275 acres, according to a press release from site management and operations contractor, […]

More wildfires at the Nevada National Security Site, reported a couple weeks after responders contained the 24,000-acre Cherrywood fire, were “successfully controlled” and about 80% contained at deadline Friday, the site said. In a statement Thursday, the Nevada National Security Site estimated that between 260 acres and 275 acres burned in the western section of […]

Another wildfire has started at the Nevada National Security Site, with smoke sighted only a couple weeks after responders contained the 24,000-acre Cherrywood fire that burned for about a month at the test site. In a series of press releases on Wednesday, the site reported “multiple” new fires in the western section of the roughly […]

The Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review will be bundled with a larger national defense strategy to be released in early 2022, but the administration plans to make a “significant signal” about U.S. force structure before that, a senior Pentagon official said this week at a virtual conference. “The Biden administration and the interim national […]

Active COVID-19 cases at the National Nuclear Security Administration fell almost 47% in June as vaccination rates across the country continued to inch upward and life returned to something resembling pre-pandemic normalcy at the start of the summer. Active cases at the DOE nuclear weapons agency had at deadline fallen to 51 in the last […]

The Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review will be bundled with a larger national defense strategy to be released in early 2022, but the administration plans to make a “significant signal” about U.S. force structure before that, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday at a virtual conference. “The Biden administration and the interim national security […]

The federal government’s independent nuclear health and safety watchdog wants to know what the National Nuclear Security Administration is doing to address perceived safety culture issues at the country’s central nuclear-weapons maintenance facility. After a number of technical safety requirement violations in 2019, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) “received multiple concerns from Pantex […]

As far as the Department of Energy could tell this week, the hack of a small, veteran-owned consulting business in Albuquerque, N.M., did not compromise any National Nuclear Security Administration data. “The Department of Energy is aware of the cyberattack against Sol Oriens, a veteran-owned consulting firm whose clients include the Department of Energy/National Nuclear […]

The head of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is dissatisfied with current legal checks on the President’s authority to launch nuclear weapons, he said in a hearing Wednesday, during which he otherwise offered no other indication that he was eager to disrupt current nuclear weapons policy. The President’s sole authority to launch U.S. […]

The head of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is dissatisfied with current legal checks on the President’s authority to launch nuclear weapons, he said in a hearing Wednesday, during which he otherwise offered no other indication that he was eager to disrupt current nuclear weapons policy. The President’s sole authority to launch U.S. […]

Firefighters at the Nevada National Security Site have completely contained the Cherrywood Fire that started burning on May 17 and spread over 26,410 acres of the former test site, the site said Monday. The fire crossed into a contaminated area less than a week after it started burning, but in a statement Monday, the Honeywell-led […]

As far as the Department of Energy could tell at deadline, the hack of a small, veteran-owned consulting business in Albuquerque, N.M., did not compromise any National Nuclear Security Administration data. “The Department of Energy is aware of the cyberattack against Sol Oriens, a veteran-owned consulting firm whose clients include the Department of Energy/National Nuclear […]

The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board told federal contractors Thursday her agency could approve a memorandum of understanding on its “rules of the road” with the Department of Energy as early as next month. “We did have a great conversation with Deputy Secretary [David] Turk earlier this year and “it looks like […]

“The bow wave has arrived” for the civilian nuclear-weapons budget, the Government Accountability Office warned Wednesday in a report that, amid recommendations for streamlining budget and project organization, made room for a we-told-you-so about the effects of deferring upgrades for nuclear weapons and their production infrastructure. “DOE’s appropriation for fiscal year 2021 includes a 23 […]

Personnel at the Pantex Plant are building the first production unit for a major alteration of the larger of the Navy’s two submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads, the acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration told a House Armed Services panel Thursday. “I’m happy to report that as we speak today, the system first production […]

The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board told federal contractors Thursday her agency could approve a memorandum of understanding on its “rules of the road” with the Department of Energy as early as next month. “We did have a great conversation with Deputy Secretary [David] Turk earlier this year and “it looks like […]

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a recently-published report to Congress it found ways to continue acting as a watchdog for defense-nuclear sites owned by the Department of Energy during fiscal year 2020. Resident Inspectors continued to perform on-site safety oversight “within the DOE pandemic constraints at each site,” […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security will remain on the job at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s two big production sites at least two months longer than planned and possibly as many as six, the agency announced Tuesday. The Bechtel National-led prime for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, […]

Once again, the Congressional Budget Office’s biennial cost estimate for the 10 years of nuclear modernization spending arrived just in time for the yearly federal budget debate on Capitol Hill. The latest congressionally mandated report from the non-partisan office covers planned spending from 2021 through 2030, during which Pentagon and Department of Energy programs are […]

National Engineering and Technology Solutions of Sandia, the Honeywell-owned prime for the Sandia National Laboratories, agreed to a $152,000 settlement with the Department of Energy over the unauthorized disclosure of classified information at the lab some time around 2019. The fine was not the only penalty Sandia paid, but other details of the enforcement were […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]

As part of a roughly $20 billion 2022 budget request for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Joe Biden administration on Friday sought about 12% less for civilian nuclear weapons programs than the Donald Trump administration forecast would be necessary for the coming fiscal year. Overall, the 2022 spending request for the National Nuclear Security […]

Confirmed active cases of COVID-19 were well below the one-month acreage across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s federal and contractor workforce this week, falling to 87, or about 40% lower than a month ago, the agency said Friday. Although that’s over four times as many active cases as the civilian nuclear weapon steward reported heading […]

The former Sandia National Laboratories director nominated by President Joe Biden to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration was scheduled for a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Jill Hruby was slated to appear alongside three other Biden administration nominees, including Frank Rose, the man nominated to be her deputy at […]

A wildfire at the Nevada National Security Site moved into an area containing radiological contamination from a Cold War-era test over the weekend and continued to burn as of deadline Monday, according to the former test site. “Estimates provided by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center indicate potential radiological exposures for onsite […]

Bechtel, Reston, Va., and Fluor, Irving, Texas, are leading separate bids for the potentially $10-year, $21.5 billion management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, people familiar with the competitive landscape said this week. Amentum, Germantown, Md., is also in the mix as a partner, one of these people said. The […]

COVID vaccination levels climbed at the Sandia National Laboratories this week and appeared to be headed toward a plateau at National Nuclear Security Administration production sites and the Nevada National Security Site, according to agency data. Across the agency’s federal and contractor workforce, confirmed active cases of COVID-19 — the viral disease caused by the […]