Plutonium Pit Production

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 Friday 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 MFFF, […]

The federal government is holding on to more than $600,000 it seized over three years ago from a Savannah River Site subcontractor who is now serving prison time for committing fraud while working at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In a Jan. 30 filing in the fraud case, Carrie Fisher Sherard, an attorney with […]

MOX Services, the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., will lay off roughly another 400 people on April 1, according to South Carolina’s quasi-official unemployment services. MOX Services announced the impending layoffs Monday, the same day almost 450 workers were hit by […]

With half a metric ton of plutonium already shipped there over the state’s objections, Nevada on Thursday asked a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending any more of the fissile material. In a request for a preliminary injunction filed Thursday, the state asked U.S. District Judge Miranda Du to stop DOE […]

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) on Wednesday became the latest outraged politician to demand answers about the Department of Energy’s secretive shipment of plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in November. In a heated letter dated Feb. 6, Sisolak told Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Lisa […]

The federal government is holding on to more than $600,000 it seized over three years ago from a Savannah River Site subcontractor who is now serving prison time for committing fraud while working at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In a Jan. 30 filing in the fraud case, Carrie Fisher Sherard, an attorney with […]

Nevada on Monday appealed a federal judge’s refusal to block a shipment of plutonium into the state, even though the Department of Energy material in question reached its destination late last year. The state filed notice of its appeal in the U.S. District Court for Nevada, which last week denied Nevada a preliminary injunction it […]

MOX Services, the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., will lay off another 369 people on April 1, according to South Carolina’s quasi-official unemployment services. MOX Services announced the impending layoffs Monday, the same day almost 450 workers left the project for […]

Nevada’s Senate delegation wants unclassified and classified briefings from the Department of Energy about the clandestine shipment last year of half a metric ton of plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) made the request in a Feb. 1 letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Last week, […]

Roughly another 440 people were scheduled to be laid off today from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., in the second wave of job cuts at the cancelled plutonium-disposal plant. Combined with the first swing of the axe in January, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) was […]

With the partial shutdown of the federal government resolved, at least until mid-February, a lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has resumed, according to a court filing this week. The $200-million lawsuit ground to a halt during the 35-day shutdown, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “before November 2018” moved roughly half a ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site from the Savannah River Site, in Aiken, S.C., the agency said Wednesday in a bombshell court filing. The announcement caught Nevada's governor and congressional delegation by surprise, prompting an outpouring of online […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “before November 2018” moved roughly half a ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site from the Savannah River Site, in Aiken, S.C., the agency said Wednesday in a bombshell court filing. The plutonium is part of a 1-metric-ton cache a federal judge in South Carolina ordered […]

With the partial shutdown of the federal government resolved, at least until mid-February, a lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has resumed, according to a Monday court filing. The $200-million lawsuit ground to a halt during the 35-day shutdown, during […]

A lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for a canceled plutonium-disposal plant in South Carolina is on hold for the duration of the partial government shutdown, according to a filing with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Judge Thomas Wheeler last week granted the unopposed motion to stay the lawsuit […]

South Carolina will expect to be paid another $100 million if the federal government by April 10 fails again to remove 1 metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium from the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. Under a 2003 agreement with the federal government, South Carolina is authorized to fine DOE up to $100 million annually […]

A federal judge had not ruled by early Friday afternoon whether the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) can ship a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site. Judge Miranda Du of the U.S. District Court for Nevada in Reno on Thursday heard arguments from attorneys representing the state of Nevada and […]

South Carolina will expect to be paid another $100 million if the federal government by April 10 fails again to remove 1 metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium from the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. Under a 2003 agreement with the federal government, South Carolina is authorized to fine DOE up to $100 million annually […]

Nevada’s lawsuit seeking to prevent the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from shipping a metric ton of plutonium to the state should be should be transferred to a court in South Carolina, lawyers for that state said Monday. Nevada could have filed its Nov. 30 suit in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, which “retains continuing jurisdiction” over […]

A lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for a canceled plutonium-disposal plant in South Carolina is on hold for the duration of the partial government shutdown, according to a filing with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Judge Thomas Wheeler on Thursday granted the unopposed motion to stay the lawsuit […]

Even if Nevada succeeds in blocking a shipment of 1 metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium to a former nuclear explosive test site within its borders, the material could still leave South Carolina by a court-ordered deadline, the Silver State argued in federal court this week. The filing represents Nevada’s attempt to muscle South Carolina out […]

A federal appeals court on Tuesday permanently lifted a legal ban against closing the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in South Carolina, cutting down the state’s argument that such a move amounted to creating an illegal, permanent plutonium repository. The decision was a legal formality, as the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

As roughly 600 people walked off the job for good Monday at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., one of the parent companies of the canceled plant’s prime contractor announced another 100-plus will depart in early March. CB&I Project Services Group, now owned by McDermott International, […]

Neither South Carolina nor Nevada want anything to do with 1 metric ton of weapons-usable plutonium that has been legally evicted from South Carolina, and each state is due this week to tell a federal judge why the other should host the material. It is a case of one lawsuit leaking into another, with South […]

A federal judge last week denied South Carolina’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit demanding that the Department of Energy continue building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site. Judge J. Michelle Childs, of U.S. District Court for South Carolina, wrote in her Dec. 28 order that she will not […]

The management and operations contractor for the Savannah River Site has finalized a plan to assume responsibility for crucial components of the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF): the controversial plutonium disposal plant that was, until October, to be built at the site. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has less than a year to remove 1 metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from South Carolina, and the agency will not rule out moving it before the end of January, according to a court filing the state of Nevada dropped just before the new year. The Silver State shared […]

Despite an ongoing partial government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Justice must argue a court case on Jan. 17 about whether the Department of Energy is allowed to store 1 metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium in Nevada, a federal judge said Wednesday. The Justice Department represents DOE in the lawsuit brought by Nevada in November […]

A federal judge last week denied South Carolina’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit demanding that the Department of Energy continue building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site. Judge J. Michelle Childs, of U.S. District Court for South Carolina, wrote in her Dec. 28 order that she will not […]