Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

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 […]

A pair of contractors have started cleaning up a University of Washington building contaminated weeks ago by cesium-137, but there is no timetable for finishing the job or reoccupying the Seattle facility. The contractors are International Isotopes, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Chase Environmental, of Louisville, Ky. They are assisting the Washington state Department of Health, […]

By Rich Abott Defense Daily Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding held a ceremony on May 23 for its first cut-of-steel event to mark the start of advance construction for the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program. HII noted this will be the first class of submarines that will be built using fully digital blueprints. The first […]

A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lied about contacts with the Chinese government-sponsored group Thousand Talents, which the Donald Trump administration says seeks to steal U.S. intellectual property. Some time between  2007 and 2018, Turab Lookman “had been recruited by, applied for, and been accepted to […]

MOX Services will not receive any interest payments on $20 million in clawed-back fees the shrinking company won from the Department of Energy in a lawsuit over the agency’s cancellation of a controversial plutonium disposal plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler handed down the […]

South Carolina and the Department of Energy need at least another month to decide whether it is “feasible” to settle the state’s $200-million 2018 lawsuit over several metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium stranded at the Savannah River Site. “The parties continue to engage in discussions to determine whether it is feasible to resolve this matter […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) program to keep nuclear and radiological materials out of the hands of bad actors would be funded at or above the requested level for the fifth year in a row, if a fiscal 2020 spending bill the House Appropriations Committee passed last week becomes law. The spike in funding, […]

A pair of contractors have started cleaning up a University of Washington building contaminated weeks ago by cesium-137, but there is no timetable for finishing the job or reoccupying the Seattle facility. The contractors are International Isotopes, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Chase Environmental, of Louisville, Ky. They are assisting the Washington state Department of Health, […]

After three years of wrestling with Congress, the Department of Energy has finally convinced at least one chamber that it is time to move on fully from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In a bullet point so brief as to belie the drama that has beset the failed plutonium disposal plant, the House […]

MOX Services will not receive any interest payments on $20 million in clawed-back fees the shrinking company won from the Department of Energy in a lawsuit over the agency’s cancellation of a controversial plutonium disposal plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler handed down the […]

South Carolina and the Department of Energy need at least another month to decide whether it is “feasible” to settle the state’s $100-million 2018 lawsuit over several metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium stranded at the Savannah River Site. “The parties continue to engage in discussions to determine whether it is feasible to resolve this matter […]

A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lied about contacts with the Chinese government-sponsored group Thousand Talents, which the Donald Trump administration says seeks to steal U.S. intellectual property. Some time between  2007 and 2018, Turab Lookman “had been recruited by, applied for, and been accepted to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) program to keep nuclear and radiological materials out of the hands of bad actors would be funded at or above the requested level for the fifth year in a row, if a fiscal 2020 spending bill the House Appropriations Committee passed last week becomes law. The spike in funding, […]

A pair of contractors have started cleaning up a University of Washington building contaminated weeks ago by cesium-137, but there is no public timetable for finishing the job or reoccupying the facility. The contractors are International Isotopes, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Chase Environmental, of Louisville, Ky. They are assisting the Washington state Department of Health, […]

The House Appropriations Committee wants the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study what impact an Energy Department order on oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has on public and worker safety at nuclear weapons sites. The panel is concerned that DOE Order 140.1, enacted in May 2018, effectively restricts the DNFSB’s ability […]

The Navy on Monday awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $497 million modification for a submarine industrial base development and expansion to support the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. According to the contract announcement, the award also covers the overall nuclear shipbuilding enterprise, which includes Virginia-class attack submarines and Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. This is part of the “integrated […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration this week appealed a court decision in a lawsuit to let some 20 employees of contractor MOX Services retain access to vital project information about on the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The federal government filed its appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the […]

WASHINGTON — In an event that was part photo-op, part celebration, and part power networking, senior Department of Energy officials mixed with Capitol Hill staffers, think-tankers, and the press on Tuesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence (NSDD) program. Born from a need to prevent proliferation of the Soviet stockpile […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act would allow for full funding of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plan to build plutonium nuclear-weapon cores in two states, a senior committee aide confirmed Thursday. The committee finished a closed-door markup of the annual military policy bill Wednesday, then had senior staffers […]

After nine months of stop-and-start progress, the Senate on Thursday confirmed former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicist William Bookless to be the principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Senate confirmed Bookless by voice vote. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had not set a date for his swearing-in at deadline Friday […]

A 2020 spending proposal passed Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee directs the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to tap the independent group of JASON scientists for at least one, and perhaps two, new studies. After the Pentagon ditched the JASON contract in April following more than 50 years, the NNSA picked up the deal […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has given the go-ahead for the roughly $145 million High Explosives Pressing Facility at the Pantex Plant in Texas to begin full-scale operations. The facility can press some 2,500 pounds of conventional high explosives a year, and shape up to 500 explosive hemispheres, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) does not anticipate initiating oversight of a planned plutonium warhead core plant in South Carolina until the National Nuclear Security Administration approves an official cost and schedule estimate for the expected multibillion-dollar nuclear facility — a milestone that could be years away. “I predict that oversight will begin […]

The Donald Trump administration this week lashed out at House appropriators for proposing to spend money the White House wanted for active Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs on cleanup of legacy nuclear-weapon sites. The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved an energy and water funding bill that would provide $7.2 billion for remediation of shuttered […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) does not anticipate initiating oversight of a planned plutonium nuclear-warhead core production plant in South Carolina until the National Nuclear Security Administration approves an official cost and schedule estimate for the expected multibillion-dollar facility — a milestone that could be years away. “I predict that oversight will begin […]

The House Appropriations Committee wants the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study what impact an Energy Department order on oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has on public and worker safety at nuclear weapons sites. The panel is concerned that DOE Order 140.1, enacted in May  2018, effectively restricts the DNFSB’s ability […]

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would slow development of next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, along with Department of Energy infrastructure that supports them. The next stop for the two bills — which passed essentially along party lines, and without any amendments directly affecting nuclear arms spending — is the House floor. […]

WASHINGTON — In an event that was part photo-op, part celebration, and part power networking, senior Department of Energy officials mixed with Capitol Hill staffers, think-tankers, and the press on Tuesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence (NSDD) program. Born from a need to prevent proliferation of the Soviet stockpile […]

A 2020 spending proposal from the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee directs the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to tap the independent group of JASON scientists for at least one, and perhaps two, new studies. After the Pentagon ditched the JASON contract in April following more than 50 years, the NNSA picked up […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration gave the go-ahead for the roughly $145 million High Explosive Pressing Facility at the Pantex Plant to begin full-scale operations, according to a Thursday press release from the semi-autonomous DOE nuclear weapons agency. The facility can press some 2,500 pounds of conventional high explosives a year, and up to 500 […]