Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The site operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex is finishing decontamination in Building 9995 after a furnace there blew open and spewed uranium in late May. The muffle furnace in Y-12’s Analytical Chemistry Facility partially exploded after an unexpected reaction, contaminating nearby space and equipment, but neither injuring nor contaminating any personnel, a spokesperson […]

It has been more than a year now since the Department of Energy ordered stricter limits on communications with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), but the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog has mostly not cataloged the stonewalling connected with Order 140.1. Chairman Bruce Hamilton, in an April hearing before a House Armed Services […]

The door to a muffle furnace at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Analytical Chemistry Facility “blew open” after a “violent reaction” in May, according to a Friday report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). A chemist working near the muffle furnace in Y-12’s Building 9995 was not harmed when the equipment ejected glass vials […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex continued to grapple with a fix for a hydrogen fluoride system until earlier this month — well after an April leak that prompted an evacuation of the agency’s main uranium processing building. The system in Building 9212 “returned to operation on Monday, […]

Doug Fremont is the new chief of staff for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), an agency spokesperson said Monday. He succeeds William “Ike” White, who left to work at the Department of Energy’s Cold War nuclear-weapon cleanup program. Fremont is the former security chief for the semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency. He was removed from […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex continued to grapple with a fix for a hydrogen fluoride system until earlier this month — well after an April leak that prompted an evacuation of the agency’s main uranium processing building.  The system in Building 9212 “returned to operation on Monday, […]

Doug Fremont is the new chief of staff for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), an agency spokesperson said Monday. He succeeds William “Ike” White, who left to work at the Department of Energy’s Cold War nuclear-weapon cleanup program. Fremont is the former security chief for the semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency. He was removed from […]

LATA-Atkins Technical Services, a team including Atkins and Los Alamos Technical Associates, said this week it won a potentially 7.5-year waste-management subcontract from Y-12 National Security Complex operator Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). The team also includes a small business, Strata-G, which has previously worked on liquid- and solid-waste management at the nation’s primary uranium processing […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main uranium enrichment site intends to award a contract in 2020 for up to four furnaces that help reclaim excess uranium metal left over from defense missions, a company spokesperson said Monday. The award will be for at least one pair, and possibly two pairs, of […]

The Department of Energy should better protect workers at the Savannah River Site’s tritium facilities from accidents that could deliver high doses of radiation, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended Wednesday. The board said in a new safety recommendation that DOE workers, and the public at large, could be imperiled by “energetic accidents”: fires, falling […]

The Department of Energy remains on track to remove a remaining half-metric of plutonium from the Savannah River Site and the state of South Carolina by the end of the year as ordered in a federal lawsuit from 2016, according to a recent status report. South Carolina sued the federal government in 2016 in the […]

The Department of Energy should better protect workers at the Savannah River Site’s tritium facilities from accidents that could deliver high doses of radiation, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended Wednesday. The board said in a new safety recommendation that DOE workers, and the public at large, could be imperiled by “energetic accidents”: fires, falling […]

LATA-Atkins Technical Services, a team including Atkins and Los Alamos Technical Associates, said Tuesday it won a potentially 7.5-year waste-management subcontract from Y-12 National Security Complex operator Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). The team also includes a small business, Strata-G, which has previously worked on liquid- and solid-waste management at the nation’s primary uranium processing site. […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main uranium enrichment site intends to award a contract in 2020 for up to four furnaces that help reclaim excess uranium metal left over from defense missions, a company spokesperson said Monday. The award will be for at least one and possibly two pairs of direct […]

The U.S. Department of Energy remains on track to remove a remaining half-metric of plutonium from the Savannah River Site and the state of South Carolina by the end of the year, thereby meeting an order in a federal lawsuit from 2016, according to a June 13 status report. South Carolina sued the federal government […]

David Huizenga, a longtime manager in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nonproliferation branch, will be promoted to the third-highest career post at the nuclear weapons agency effective Monday, the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch announced Friday. In his new role as associate principal deputy administrator, Huizenga will be able to run the agency on […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security has received the go-ahead to install a piece of hardware at the Y-12 National Security Complex that will one day help the National Nuclear Security Administration end uranium processing in the World War II-era Building 9212 and transfer the work to the planned Uranium Processing Facility. In a report published on June 14, […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) still hopes in coming months to award several major contracts, an agency procurement official said Wednesday. The potential $6 billion Hanford Mission Essential Services contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state could be announced within the next couple months, according to Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant […]

The House Armed Services Committee this morning approved its version of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) after about 20 hours of debate. The annual defense policy bill, now headed to the House floor, authorizes about 4% less funding than sought for active nuclear weapons programs managed by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear […]

The House of Representatives on Thursday is at last clear to debate several amendments to a 2020 minibus spending bill that concern nuclear weapons operations at the Department of Energy. Debate could have started Wednesday evening, but floor action on the House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal 2020 minibus appropriations package ground to a snail’s pace as […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) still hopes in coming months to award several major contracts, an agency procurement official said Wednesday. The potential $6 billion Hanford Mission Essential Services contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state could be announced within the next couple months, according to Norbert Doyle, EM deputy assistant […]

The ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee is looking to increase the topline of the next defense policy bill to $750 billion, with plans to introduce an amendment for an additional $17 billion in funding when his panel meets Wednesday to consider the proposal. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday the chairman’s […]

After a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist was indicted for allegedly lying about contacts with the Chinese government, the Energy Department prohibited its employees and contractors from participating in certain foreign “talent recruitment programs.” Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette approved that prohibition Friday by signing DOE Order 486.1. The order bars agency employees and […]

Nuclear hawks and doves had varying success this week in attaching amendments to a minibus spending bill in the House of Representatives that would fund the Department of Energy in fiscal 2020. The bill was slated for debate on the House floor today. That debate begins even as the House Armed Services Committee is scheduled this morning to […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security has received the go-ahead to install a piece of hardware at the Y-12 National Security Complex that will one day help the National Nuclear Security Administration end uranium processing in the World War II-era Building 9212 and transfer the work to the planned Uranium Processing Facility. In a report published Friday, the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to perform an environmental impact statement about plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., according to a notice filed Monday in the Federal Register. The public will have 45 days to comment on the agency’s proposed environmental impact statement (EIS) about a contentious plan to […]

The House Armed Services Committee will vote on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) even as the full House considers a multi-bill appropriations package, or minibus, that contains the Department of Energy’s spending bill for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The minibus provides almost $7.2 billion to the DOE Office of Environmental […]

Two of the most important bills of the year for the National Nuclear Security Administration are slated for consideration on Wednesday, when the full House and a key committee will take up proposals to fund and authorize critical nuclear security programs for fiscal year 2020. The House Armed Services Committee will vote on the 2020 […]

National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia appointed D.E. “Dori” Ellis deputy director of the nation’s nuclear-weapons-technology lab, the Honeywell-owned lab-manager announced Wednesday. Ellis will be the lab’s No. 2 executive behind director Stephen Younger. She will replace David Douglass, who will retire in June, according to a lab press release. Ellis is a longtime Sandia […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has officially picked up the tab to keep the JASON group of independent scientists alive, awarding MITRE Corp. on Thursday an eight-month, $5-million contract to perform three nuclear-security studies, an agency spokesperson said. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “has awarded a short-term, sole-source contract to the MITRE Corp. for […]