Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

While it has made progress, the Department of Energy still needs to more fully address priority recommendations to improve performance in its nuclear security and cleanup missions, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. In an annual update, the congressional auditor said it has 20 priority recommendations across the Energy Department, including eight recommendations new […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily halted most physical work on major waste projects scheduled to come online this year at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory and Savannah River Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Reductions in on-site staffing triggered by DOE efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus have suspended virtually all physical […]

The Air Force might deploy its Long-Range Standoff Weapon cruise missile earlier than anticipated, while the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile should be ready on time, the head of the service’s Global Strike Command said Wednesday. Raytheon will build the Long-Range Standoff missile (LRSO), while Northrop Grumman looks all but certain to win […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is willing to let Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) personnel attend meetings of the secretive Nuclear Explosives Safety Study Group at the Pantex Plant in Texas on a “trial” basis, according to a letter published this week. The two federal agencies have fought since 2018 over whether DNFSB […]

Vice presidents at Department of Energy contractor Bechtel are taking pay cuts of up to 25% over 90 days during the COVID-19 crisis The one-quarter reduction applies to senior vice presidents, while principal vice presidents at the Reston, Va.-based company are receiving a 10% reduction, management told employees on April 6. The measure is a […]

While it has made progress, the Department of Energy still needs to more fully address priority recommendations to improve performance in its nuclear security and cleanup missions, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. In an annual update, the congressional auditor said it has 20 priority recommendations across the Energy Department, including eight recommendations new […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might lose political support in Congress if the U.S.-Russia New START nuclear arms control treaty lapses, the immediate past head of the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said Wednesday. About 80% of lawmakers on Capitol Hill support both nuclear arms modernization and international nuclear arms control, retired Lt. Air Force […]

The host states of the Department of Energy’s three main nuclear weapons production sites are among those planning early, partial reopenings after weeks or months of shuttering most businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19. Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri, host states to the Y-12 National Security Complex, the Pantex Plant and the Kansas City National […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Pantex Plant in Texas said Monday it assembled the “first production capability unit” of the W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched nuclear warhead, a precursor to the first production unit intended to prove the entire warhead design is ready for mass manufacturing. The phrase “first production capability unit” officially debuted in February […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it had issued a roughly $240,000 fixed-price contract to a small business in Georgia to provide almost a quarter-million, Chinese-made, KN95-style respirator masks for its contractor and federal employees. “This order is to procure masks for NNSA to meet expected demand when employees return to work,” an agency […]

New Mexico’s delegation to the U.S. Senate last week asked the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to further delay into mid-June the public comment period on an environmental review of pit production at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich (both D-N.M.). wrote to NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty on April 22. […]

Reduced staffing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Department of Energy to suspend construction of the Saltstone Disposal Unit 7 (SDU 7) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a recent report. The April 3 staff report filed with DNFSB Technical Director Christopher Roscetti […]

Air Force Selects Raytheon to Build Next-Gen Nuclear Weapon The Air Force plans to continue building its next nuclear cruise missile, the Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO), with Raytheon as the sole-source contractor, according to an April 17 release. The announcement arrives years ahead of an expected down-select. Both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have been developing […]

By Calvin Bisecker Defense Daily Lockheed Martin this week reported solid first-quarter financial results with strong sales and cash flow, but flat earnings, results it said were not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the outlook for the rest of the year is “uncertain” and is dependent in part on the “duration and spread” of […]

John Gordon, the retired Air Force general who was deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency before becoming the first-ever administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), died Sunday. He was 73. Current NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty — no relation — was among those remembering the agency’s first leader Monday on Twitter. Sources with knowledge of […]

Citing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic response raised by anti-nuclear activists, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has extended by 15 days a public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement for making plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency notified the the citizen watchdog group Savannah River Site […]

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about connections to a paid Chinese talent-recruiting program wants his sentencing date postponed because of COVID-19-related health concerns, court papers show. Turab Lookman, who pleaded guilty in January to one count of lying to federal authorities, is now nearly “70 years old and […]

BWX Technologies said Monday it has appointed Robb LeMasters as senior vice president and chief strategy officer. He is scheduled to start work on July 13. LeMasters, 42, was most since 2011 the managing director at hedge fund Blue Harbour Group, whose owner announced its closure in February. LeMasters since 2015 has served on BWXT’s […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has lost its game of chicken with the Pantex Plant in Texas, where personnel recently blocked a board inspector from attending a meeting of the secretive Nuclear Explosive Safety Study Group, according to a letter posted online. An employee for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) blocked the […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex mistakenly sent improperly packaged radioactive waste to Nevada for six years because no one at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., site wrote strict rules for disposing of weapon-related materials, according to a new Department of Energy report. From 2013 through December 2018, the National Nuclear Security Administration facility sent nine shipments containing […]

There were about as many active COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nationwide complex this week as last week, with most sites still admitting only personnel working on top-priority weapons missions. At deadline Friday, agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., said a total of 65 people had tested positive for infection by novel coronavirus […]

Federal agencies will gradually return to normal operations in parallel with the White House’s three-phase plan to reactivate the national economy as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, the Trump administration said Monday. The new guidance does not provide any set schedule for the process, but rather says managers must make decisions on reducing telework and staffing […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week cleared its prime contractors to bill the government for paid time off for workers who cannot do their jobs because of COVID-19, and told the primes to start figuring out how to let subcontractors do the same. The relief is based on Section 3610 of the CARES Act, […]

The Energy Department assured the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on April 16 it would oversee remediation of recently discovered radioactive waste on former federal land near the site of a planned housing complex in Los Alamos County. Top brass for the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration at the […]

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Defence wants to buy American for the future of the country’s nuclear security-sharing mission with the United States, urging lawmakers to approve the purchase of 30 Boeing F/A-18 aircraft to carry future B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs. The German publication Der Spiegel on Sunday reported that Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer informed Secretary […]

Sandia National Laboratories has been cleared to start processing COVID-19 tests for the general public, according to U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The nuclear-weapon engineering lab started testing its own employees for the viral disease on April 7 at its Albuquerque, N.M., headquarters, and on April 15 at its Livermore, Calif., campus. On Tuesday, according […]

The Anderson County Department of Health is scheduled Sunday to offer free COVID-19 tests in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The department, part of the government for the host county of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site and Y-12 National Security Complex, will offer tests from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time at Roane State […]

Citing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic response raised by anti-nuclear activists, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has extended by 15 days a public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement for making plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency notified the the citizen watchdog group Savannah River Site […]

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about connections to a paid Chinese talent-recruiting program wants his sentencing date postponed because of COVID-19-related health concerns, court papers show. Turab Lookman, who pleaded guilty in January to one count of lying to federal authorities, is now nearly “70 years old and […]

The Air Force plans to continue building its next nuclear cruise missile, the Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO), with Raytheon [RTN] as the sole-source contractor, according to an April 17 release. The announcement arrives years ahead of an expected down-select. Both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have been developing LRSO designs under technology maturation and risk reduction (TMRR) phase contracts, awarded […]