Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

A day after the National Nuclear Security Administration announced it would not pick up the remaining options on the existing management deal for its Y-12 and Pantex sites, the Government Accountability Office on Wednesday urged the agency to study whether the outgoing contractor’s cost-saving methods could work at other nuclear-weapon sites. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday reported out two nominations to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) via voice vote. The nominations of serving DNFSB member Joyce Connery and new nominee Thomas Summers now advance to the full Senate, which had not scheduled a floor vote at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & […]

The Department of Energy will not pick up the remaining options on Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and Pantex Plant in Texas, which now will expire after Sept. 30, 2021. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) will leave three years’ worth of options on the table, under […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was tracking fewer active cases of COVID-19 across the civilian nuclear weapons complex this week, but the agency revised its tally to exclude Department of Energy employees in other branches. That cut 26 cases out of the agency’s weekly tally, which the NNSA  has shared with Nuclear Security & […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday reported out two nominations to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) via voice vote. The nominations of serving DNFSB member Joyce Connery and new nominee Thomas Summers now advance to the full Senate, which had not scheduled a floor vote at deadline Friday for Weapons Complex Monitor. […]

There were seven confirmed new cases of COVID-19 across the U.S. civilian nuclear weapons complex last week, a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Friday. That makes for a total of 119 cases since confirmation in January of the first U.S. case of the viral disease, which is caused by the novel […]

Department of Energy contractor Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) has hired industry veteran Matthew Nuckols for the newly created position of executive vice president. A civil engineer, Nuckols has 25 years of project and program management experience at sites within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) complexes, […]

The Department of Energy is close to finalizing revisions to the federal regulation governing nuclear safety management at its facilities, according to a letter the agency recently sent to the federal government’s independent health and safety watchdog. The agency sent the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) a copy of the draft final rule on […]

In an official report to Congress about tritium-safety oversight, the Department of Energy again sought to avoid a legal fight about whether its workforce is subject to recommendations from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The independent federal agency feared the Energy Department might have rejected a 2019 recommendation to bolster the Savannah River Site’s […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security in 2017 took a paycheck’s worth of wages from thousands of employees at Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, three employees alleged in a federal lawsuit. The short, estimated to be at least $10 million across the affected group, happened after the Bechtel National-led site management contractor shifted to […]

The Department of Energy is close to finalizing revisions to the federal regulation governing nuclear safety management, according to a letter the agency recently sent to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The federal government’s independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog received the draft final document on June 9, DOE said two days afterward in a letter […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security in 2017 took a paycheck’s worth of pay from certain employees at Department of Enegy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, three employees alleged in a federal lawsuit. The short happened after the Bechtel National-led site management contractor shifted to a biweekly pay schedule in 2015 from a monthly pay schedule, according […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Thursday. The ExchangeMonitor will publish its weekly newsletters on Thursday, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday Friday. Look for the next issue of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing in your inbox on Monday, June 22.

A story in Monday’s Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, NNSA Closes Out Westinghouse Excess Uranium Contract, should have said BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services has a contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

In an official report to Congress about tritium-safety oversight, the Department of Energy again sought to avoid a legal fight about whether its workforce is subject to recommendations from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The independent federal agency feared DOE might have rejected a 2019 recommendation to bolster the Savannah River Site’s ability […]

There were eight new cases of COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons complex this week, as agency headquarters remobilized additional personnel sent home during the pandemic and the Pantex Plant in Texas prepared to do the same. That makes for a total of 107 cases at the NNSA since January, when officials […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has re-elected Huntington Ingalls Industries nuclear and environmental group President Michael Lempke as chairman of its Board of Directors for another year. Sandra Fairchild, project services and support director of Energy Department Savannah River Site cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation, was elected vice chair of the organization that represents […]

Nikki Grover was on June 12 to become chief financial officer for the Bechtel-led team managing the Department of Energy’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The chief financial officer for Consolidated Nuclear Security “oversees the financial activities at both sites,” according to the contractor’s website. Grover […]

As part of what it has dubbed a good-faith effort to better cooperate with the federal government’s independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this month delivered an updated plan for implementing safety recommendations for the Pantex Plant in Texas. Whether the changes will convince the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

Nikki Grover will on Friday become chief financial officer for the Bechtel-led team managing the Department of Energy’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The chief financial officer for Consolidated Nuclear Security “oversees the financial activities at both sites,” according to the contractor’s website. Grover was […]

A very small percentage of the Department of Energy’s federal employees were scheduled to report back to work in the Washington region today, even as the agency reported one more  case of COVID-19 among its headquarters workforce. The latest positive case, disclosed Friday in a statement from Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, brings the total […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has re-elected Huntington Ingalls Industries nuclear and environmental group President Michael Lempke as chairman of its Board of Directors for another year, according to a Friday statement. Sandra Fairchild, project services and support director of Energy Department Savannah River Site cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation, was elected vice chair […]

Due “in part to a discrepancy in one site’s data,” the number of active COVID-19 cases among the National Nuclear Security Administration’s network of facilities rose to 33 this week from 23 a week ago, an agency spokesperson said Friday. That brings the total number of cases at the nuclear weapons agency to 99, since […]

Good news for those who might want a job with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): Although an in-person job fair scheduled for July is officially canceled, the agency will host a virtual event online. “Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be hosting an in-person job fair in July [but] will be hosting […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week gave the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee the all-clear to start building a key piece of equipment needed to move uranium secondary-stage work out of the aging Building 9212 and into the under-construction Uranium Processing Facility. The new calciner, to be built in 9212, reached its […]

A radiation-sensing helicopter owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) flew over mass protests in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, but was not part of the federal government’s response to the activity on the ground, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday morning. “NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) rotary-wing aircraft conducted a routine proficiency flight on Tuesday […]

A radiation-sensing helicopter owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) flew over mass protests in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, but was not part of the federal government’s response to the activity on the ground, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday morning. “NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) rotary-wing aircraft conducted a routine proficiency flight on […]

Department of Energy headquarters plans to partially reopen on June 8, when about 250 federal employees will be asked to return to the Forrestal Building in Washington and the agency’s Germantown facility in Maryland, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Monday. The initial reopening will apply only to federal employees doing mission-critical work at headquarters, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still has not received the nearly quarter-million personal respirators it ordered from a small business in Georgia, due to “order and shipping backlogs,” an agency spokesperson said Friday. Under a fixed-price contract, signed April 27 and now valued at $415,000, American Dream Builders LLC was by May 29 to […]

The Department of Energy confirmed Friday three more cases of COVID-19 among the workforce at its Washington, D.C., headquarters. Two of those three people had not been in the Forrestal Building in downtown Washington since “early March,” and a third was last on-site on May 22, according to a notice from Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. […]