Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Honeywell executive Eric Wollerman on April 30 will become president of the subsidary that manages the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Kansas City, Mo., National Security Campus. At the end of the month, the buck will stops with Wollerman at the NNSA-owned manufacturing hub for the non-nuclear parts of nuclear weapons. The Honeywell Federal Manufacturing […]

Essential federal workers, including those at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plants that have not paused operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, should have access to protective equipment and daily testing for the virus, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said this week. “Every day, if you go to work at the White House, […]

All but one of the main Department of Energy nuclear weapons production sites have now hunkered down into minimum mission-critical operations because of COVID-19, keeping only the personnel needed to assemble nuclear weapons and components, maintain key infrastructure, or provide security. The Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak […]

Because of COVID-19, the management and operations contractor for two of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapon-production sites may not know until June whether it will be kept on the job into 2023 and what fee it earned last year. “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 national emergency, the contractor notification date for the CNS [Consolidated […]

The members of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday unanimously approved the next steps in revising state regulations to reduce one charge for disposal of low-level radioactive waste in a state-owned facility operated by Waste Control Specialists. The vote by the three-member panel sets up publication and a hearing on the amendment to […]

The state of Montana has delayed until May final publication of new rules on landfill disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste in landfills. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality had planned to issue its notice of adoption this month, but has pushed that back to May 29 due to the COVID-19 […]

With COVID-19 cases in and around the sites on the rise, the Y-12 National Security Complex and Pantex Plant are transitioning to mission critical operations and kicking out just about everyone who wasn’t already teleworking. There are at least two confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Y-12, the Oak Ridge, Tenn., defense-uranium hub where contractor Consolidated Nuclear […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee called off an exchange of letters and statements about the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget that was scheduled today between lawmakers and top managers from the agency and the Pentagon. The so-called paper hearing was scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The committee had not announced a makeup date […]

Because of COVID-19, the management and operations contractor for two of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapon-production sites may not know until June whether it will be kept on the job into 2023 and what fee it earned last year. “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 national emergency, the contractor notification date for the CNS […]

A employee at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C., has died from COVID-19, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette announced Tuesday. News of the he death, the first confirmed COVID-19 fatality at DOE, hit while the agency logged more cases at defense nuclear sites. “I regret to share with you that we have lost a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving the public additional time to comment on a proposed regulatory update that would ease the path for disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) in commercial landfills. The deadline has been pushed back from April 20 to July 20, agency spokesman David McIntyre said by email this week. Very […]

Essential federal workers, including those at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plants that have not paused operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, should have access to protective equipment and daily testing for the virus, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday. “Every day, if you go to work at the White House, you […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spending from its Nuclear Waste Fund balance slipped below $100 in February, according to the agency’s monthly report to Congress. The outlay of $97 for unspecified program planning and support left the agency with a balance of $430,881 from the fund intended to pay for federal disposal of high-level radioactive waste from […]

The president of General Dynamics Electric Boat has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus while the company confirmed further changes to the workforce configuration to limit the disease’s spread within its facilities. In an April 4 message to employees, Electric Boat President Kevin Graney disclosed he has tested positive for the pandemic virus, noting his […]

There is at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 among the workforce of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, where the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) assembles and disassembles nuclear weapons for maintenance and modernization. In a statement, Pantex said the employee became ill at work on March 25. The site said it did not […]

Eric Wollerman will become president of Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies effective April 30, the manager of the Kansas City National Security Campus announced. At the end of the month, the buck will stops with Wollerman at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)-owned manufacturing hub, which produces the non-nuclear parts of nuclear weapons. The company’s […]

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report update lays out how the COVID-19 pandemic could impact the Navy’s shipbuilding programs and noted what action Congress has taken in the past to mitigate other events. The report, Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress, was last updated March 27. It notes COVID-19 […]

A longtime employee of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has filed a lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act against facility management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). The case was filed last week in the Second Judicial Circuit of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas by Richard […]

The Pentagon has agreed to tidy up records of responses to three Obama-era reviews of its nuclear infrastructure, personnel and programs, according to the unclassified version of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from the fall. The three internal reports made hundreds of recommendations, but the Defense Department has done a poor job tracking which […]

International Isotopes said Tuesday it would no longer provide radiological field services for the Department of Energy, after the federal agency put a hold on all existing contracts in the wake of a cesium-137 spill last May during a job in Seattle. “Regardless of the DOE’s future plans for field service contracts, it is unlikely […]

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook Idaho at around 6 p.m. local time Tuesday, with the epicenter about 120 miles from the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed. “While ground shaking was felt, there was no damage to any INL facilities,” INL spokesperson Sarah Neumann said in a Wednesday email. It was […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Facilities Board (DNFSB) is urging its inspectors and staff to press their newly bolstered authority to inspect Department of Energy defense-nuclear sites, as codified by Congress last year. Congress, at least in the board’s interpretation, used the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 to short-circuit DOE Order 140.1, which was written by […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapon sites are modifying confinement vessels for planned underground subcritical plutonium experiments, after one such vessel blew a leak last year. A confinement vessel is designed to contain an explosive compression of plutonium metal, which is rigged to bring the material to the brink of a fission chain reaction. Observing that […]

The United States and Russia were each deploying fewer strategic nuclear weapons as of March 1 than they did six months earlier, according to the Department of State’s latest data on the bilateral New START nuclear treaty. Since the last official State-published tally in September 2019, Russia cut more strategic warheads from its arsenal than […]

The House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) markup will be delayed as the United States issues more guidelines to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) this week postponed the fiscal 2021 NDAA markup originally scheduled for April 30. There was no make-up date at deadline Friday, but Smith […]

Department of Energy contractors and subcontractors, including those working for the National Nuclear Security Administration, can be indemnified from damages arising from work to counter COVID-19, under a determination published this week  by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “The unprecedented magnitude and challenges associated with responding to COVID-19 present significant potential – even if remote – […]

Nearly a month after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, production of Centrus Energy Corp.’s new all-domestic enrichment cascade in Ohio is one of the first projects for the Department of Energy fearing delays from the viral outbreak. “We are continuing to make progress but we anticipate that there could be impacts on the project […]

The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility in South Carolina, like its planned counterpart in New Mexico, would be able to handle the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) planned plutonium pit production mission on its own if needed, according to an environmental document released Thursday. The NNSA draft environmental impact statement also examines the effects of […]

Morgan Smith, president and CEO for the Department of Enegy’s manager for the Pantex Plant in Texas and Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, is in quarantine at home after possible exposure to someone who displayed symptoms of COVID-19, sources said Friday. Smith is isolating at home after coming into proximity with a symptomatic individual […]

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 soared to 26 from nine across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) national network of sites, laboratories, and production facilities, according to an official tally Friday by agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. The tally includes both NNSA-owned sites, and facilities where some NNSA-affiliated personnel are present.  The NNSA declined to say […]