Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

If any of the factors that led to the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee shipping mislabeled radioactive waste to Nevada are present elsewhere in the Department of Energy complex, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments did not find them in a year of looking, according to a recent report. The complex-wide evaluation“did not find […]

A building at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico used for performance tests on non-nuclear nuclear-weapon components opened back up for its regular work schedule Monday, following a a COVID-19 deep-cleaning. Sandia announced last week that one person in Building 720, home of the Ion Beam Laboratory, tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease […]

The ExchangeMonitor is heading into its annual August recess, and Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published during the second and third full weeks of the month. We’ll still be working, so keep the news tips coming, and look for the next weekly newsletter in your inbox on Friday, Aug. 28.

Michelle Reichert will next week become president and CEO of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the outgoing management and operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Bechtel National-led company said Friday. Reichert, currently chief operating officer for the prime, will replace Morgan Smith, who is retiring after […]

An employee at the Nevada National Security Site died of COVID-19, an agency spokesperson reported this week, marking the second confirmed fatality attributable to the viral disease among civilian nuclear-weapons workers. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spokesperson declined to identify the individual, or say what job this person did at Nevada.  However, the spokesperson […]

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee used a Thursday nomination hearing to spotlight his opposition to House legislation that would made it harder for the Department of Energy to collaborate with the Pentagon on future nuclear weapons budget requests. That result is something “some people … in the Department of Energy” would like, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it plans to conduct a new, broad environmental review of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Livermore’s last such review, officially known as a site-wide environmental impact statement, was in 2005. The new review will cover operations for the next 15 years. In that time, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will continue to bundle management of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas in the post Consolidated Nuclear Security era, according to a pre-procurement note posted on July 31. The single contract would be worth up to $28 billion over 10 years, including […]

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office repeated what some nuke-doubters in and out of Congress have been saying for a while: the bigger budget the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it needs to keep current and planned programs on track could eat other defense programs’ lunch. “Such an increase may require cuts […]

South Carolina and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be about to cut a deal in the state’s $200 million lawsuit over the federal government’s failure to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site, court papers show. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a joint motion to stay the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it plans to conduct a new, broad environmental review of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Livermore’s last such review, officially known as a site-wide environmental impact statement, was in 2005. The new review will cover operations for the next 15 years. In that time, […]

A day after the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico had mostly reopened Building 823 after a case of COVID-19 among its workforce, the Department of Energy facility had to close down Building 720 after the disease caused by the novel coronavirus 2019 popped up there as well. Building 720, which houses the Ion Beam […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the ExchangeMonitor’s publishing recess in the second and third full weeks of August. The regular daily publishing schedule will resume on Monday, Aug. 24.

South Carolina and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be about to cut a deal in the state’s $200 million lawsuit over the federal government’s failure to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site, court papers show. In a joint motion filed Thursday, lawyers for the two sides said settlement negotiations are ongoing and asked […]

The Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories said Monday it evacuated and closed Building 823 at its Albuquerque, N.M., facility after confirming a case of COVID-19 among the workforce there.  Sandia will now disinfect the building, which houses laboratory space used by Sandia’s geosciences program and others, and track down anybody there who had close contact […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will continue to bundle management of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas in the post Consolidated Nuclear Security era, according to a pre-procurement note posted online Friday. The single contract would be worth up to $28 billion over 10 years, including a […]

The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in October 2019. Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending 6 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported contained Wednesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon site. The site is investigating the cause of the fire, which was […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)  still plans to produce the first copy of a refurbished Navy submarine warhead in 2021, and the first copy of a refurbished nuclear gravity bomb for the Air Force in 2022, a senior official with the civilian nuclear-weapon agency said Wednesday. Those were the new dates, announced in February, […]

There were 15 fewer active cases of COVID-19 this week than last among National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees, marking the first week in July that recoveries outpaced new infections in the complex, according to an agency spokesperson. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency was tracking 114 active cases at deadline Friday, down […]

The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in October 2019. Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending 6 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were […]

“Many” of the nearly 250 National Nuclear Security Administration employees confirmed to have caught COVID-19 are believed to have been infected while teleworking, the head of the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency said Tuesday. While NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty did not say how many of the confirmed cases involved transmissions outside of an agency site, each […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported close to “100 percent containment” late Tuesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon complex. The site first acknowledged the fire […]

The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in 2019. Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were paused last year for an extensive maintenance […]

Air Force Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser has joined the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) as principal assistant deputy administrator for military application in the Office of Defense Programs, where she will oversee weapons modernization and testing, and serve as the military’s point of contact for these civilian-run programs. Huser will run “stockpile management activities, […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated a former staff member at the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) to become a member of the panel. Matthew Moury has since June 2017 served as Energy Department associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security. His nomination to the DNFSB will be considered first by the Senate […]

In a revised order, the Department of Energy has relaxed the firewall it attempted to erect between personnel at nuclear-weapon sites and the federal agency responsible for sniffing out potential threats to public safety from those operations. The Energy Department shared a draft of the revised Order 140.1 with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week finalized environmental paperwork that completes a court-ordered re-review of earthquake risks at the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. — but environmental groups with a live lawsuit over the plan are complaining that the agency’s second look was not adequate. The finalized supplement analysis, published July […]

Active cases of COVID-19 at civilian nuclear-weapon sites jumped by 34 this week in the largest week-over-week increase the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has acknowledged since it began sharing data about confirmed infections. That makes for a total of 129 active cases among federal employees and contractors at the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated a former staff member at the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) to become a member of the panel. Matthew Moury has since June 2017 served as Energy Department associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security. His nomination to the DNFSB will be considered first by the Senate […]