Plutonium Pit Production

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking $410 million for fiscal 2020 to begin converting a canceled plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina into a factory to produce nuclear-warhead cores, the agency revealed Monday in its detailed 2020 budget request. The planned Savannah River pit plant will be called the Savannah River Plutonium Processing […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tapped John Benner, who in early March returned to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to aid the agency with future warhead core production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The lab subsequently detailed Benner to Washington, where the longtime Los Alamos staffer will work […]

As the state’s elected officials in Washington maintain a measured approach, local officials in Aiken County, S.C., are going all-in on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to bring plutonium pit production to the nearby Savannah River Site. In a resolution passed March 5, the Aiken County Council said it “officially supports” the NNSA “decision […]

A federal appeals court should throw out Nevada’s request to block further shipments of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site, since the Department of Energy has already shipped the material there, according to court filings from the agency and the state of South Carolina. Nevada is trying to get the U.S. Ninth Circuit […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in April will ask a federal judge in South Carolina to dismiss one of the two pending lawsuits the state brought against the agency for the government’s move to close the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, according to a court filing. The agency will ask District Judge J. Michelle […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tapped John Benner, who in early March returned to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to aid the agency with future warhead core production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The lab subsequently detailed Benner to Washington, where the longtime Los Alamos staffer will work […]

As the state’s elected officials in Washington maintain a measured approach, local officials in Aiken County, S.C., are going all-in on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to bring plutonium pit production to the nearby Savannah River Site. In a resolution passed March 5, the Aiken County Council said it “officially supports” the NNSA “decision […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in April will ask a federal judge in South Carolina to dismiss one of the two pending lawsuits the state brought against the agency for the government’s move to close the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, according to a court filing. The agency will ask District Judge J. Michelle […]

A federal appeals court should throw out Nevada’s request to block further shipments of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site, since the Department of Energy has already shipped the material there, according to a Friday filing by the state of South Carolina. Nevada is trying to get the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said this week she will block the Senate from quickly confirming nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs until the agency sets a date to remove half-ton a ton of plutonium from Nevada. “Until I get commitment from [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] that [DOE] will set a date for […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said this week she will block the Senate from quickly confirming nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs until the agency sets a date to remove a half-ton of plutonium from Nevada. “Until I get commitment from [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] that [DOE] will set a date for the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans in fiscal 2020 to begin converting a canceled plutonium disposal facility in South Carolina into a plutonium pit factory while starting work on a replacement disposal facility. At a total of about $2 billion, the agency’s requested 2020 Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation budget “provides significant resources for strategic materials […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said Monday she will block the Senate from quickly confirming nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs until the agency schedules removal of a half-ton tranche of plutonium from Nevada. “Until I get commitment from [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] that [DOE] will set a date for the removal of […]

Congress should consider raising the legal limit of full-time employees allowed to work at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Government Accountability Office said in a report this week. The NNSA may employ no more than the equivalent of 1,690 full-time employees, according to the federal law that created the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous […]

The state of South Carolina has no better idea than anyone else outside the National Nuclear Security Administration  (NNSA) about whether the agency has yet shipped 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium to the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, according to a recent court filing. In December 2017, a federal judge in South Carolina ordered the […]

An increased risk of radioactive contamination combined with the flouting of federal environmental laws should have persuaded a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending weapon-usable plutonium to Nevada, the Silver State told an appeals court this week. Nevada wants the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California to overturn U.S. District […]

An increased risk of radioactive contamination combined with the flouting of federal environmental laws should have persuaded a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending weapon-usable plutonium to Nevada, the Silver State told an appeals court this week. Nevada wants the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California to overturn U.S. District […]

The state of South Carolina has no better idea than anyone else outside the National Nuclear Security Administration  (NNSA) about whether the agency has yet shipped 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium to the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, according to a recent court filing. In December 2017, a federal judge in South Carolina ordered the […]

The messaging war over a clandestine shipment of plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site last year continued Saturday in the pages of the Las Vegas Review Journal, where Secretary of Energy Rick Perry insisted that his agency gave Nevada officials all the notice the federal government could about the shipment. The Department of Energy’s […]

A federal judge this week refused Nevada’s second request to legally block the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from shipping weapon-usable plutonium to the state from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du, in an order published late Monday, refused to grant an injunction, writing that the request was […]

A federal judge this week refused Nevada’s second request to legally block the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from shipping weapon-usable plutonium to the state from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du, in an order published late Monday, refused to grant an injunction, writing that the request was […]

Tickets to Masters Tournament golf and NASCAR events were among the perks provided to participants in a scam that defrauded the federal government of more than $6 million, the U.S. Justice Department stated in a lawsuit filed against two companies that worked on a now-terminated plutonium-conversion facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has ramped up downblending of a tranche of plutonium at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with work to increase further if the mission continues at a successful pace. In November, site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) increased operations to two 12-hour shifts per day, […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has ramped up downblending of a tranche of plutonium at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with work to increase further if the mission continues at a successful pace. In November, site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) increased operations to two 12-hour shifts per day, […]

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday alleged CB&I AREVA MOX Services submitted $6.4 million in false invoices based on fraudulent claims from a subcontractor while they worked on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Filed on Thursday, the False Claims Act lawsuit says […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will hone its acquisition approach for the plutonium-pit plant to be built at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina around September 2020, a long-time agency contractor said here Wednesday. Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the Savannah River Site management contractor, is on the hook to […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Department remains satisfied with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) strategy to produce plutonium pits at two facilities, but time is short to get started, a senior Pentagon official said here. “DOD is fully behind the NNSA’s current plan,” Peter Fanta, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear matters, said […]

In a paperwork milestone that marks another coffin nail for the canceled project, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Feb. 8 terminated MOX Services’ license to build the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. A 1998 federal law gave the industry regulator responsibility for authorizing construction of the […]

Blocking all plutonium shipments to Nevada, as the state desires, would disrupt experiments there that help the government determine whether U.S. nuclear weapons still work as intended, the National Nuclear Security Administration argued in federal court this week. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du should deny injunction requested by the state in part because it “would […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will hone its acquisition approach for the plutonium-pit plant to be built at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina around September 2020, a long-time agency contractor said here Wednesday.  Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the Savannah River site management contractor, is on the hook to […]