Plutonium Pit Production

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 […]

A federal appeals court’s October order to remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, took effect this week, depriving the Department of Energy of some legal wiggle room to contest the directive. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., gave notice Tuesday that its October ruling was, […]

As employees at the Savannah River Site’s MOX project continue to receive termination notices, local stakeholders in the Aiken, S.C., area are optimistic that more jobs are on the way and that the local economy will remain stable. That is because other contractors have been making necessary hires for various missions at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy […]

An appeals court’s October order for removal of 1 metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, took effect Tuesday, depriving the Department of Energy of some legal wiggle room to contest the directive. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., gave notice that its October ruling was, as far […]

The Department of Energy told a federal court Friday that rushing 1 metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, will delay the day it can move even more of the fissile material out of the state by three to six months. Removing the plutonium from the Savannah River Site in […]

The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) swirled more rapidly around the drain this week, as the canceled project’s prime contractor announced more layoffs that will cut across trades, disciplines, and salary tiers at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. MOX Services will lay off another 70 people on Feb. 4, bringing the total […]

MOX Services will lay off another 70 people on Feb. 4, bringing the total projected job losses at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) to just over 1,000 by the second month of 2019, according to a notice posted late Tuesday by the nonprofit SC Works organization. MOX Services has so far announced two […]

Nevada escalated a closed-door dialogue with the Department of Energy (DOE) to the federal court system because the agency got cagey about its plans for moving 1 metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium to and from the state beginning in 2019, according to an affidavit produced this week. The document, from an adviser to Nevada […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to delay more than $1 million is wage-related payments to the contractor of the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility over a legal technicality, according to recent filings in a federal lawsuit. The department is not disputing U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler’s mid-November decision that DOE […]

The management and operations contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it has enough job openings for more than half of the people who will be laid off as a result of the Department of Energy canceling construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) “does have […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management prime Triad National Security is whipping together plans for addressing the major weapons projects of the future and cleaning up after major lab faux pas of the past. Triad, a three-way partnership of Battelle, longtime Los Alamos operator the University of California, and Texas A&M University, took over as the […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to delay more than $1 million is wage-related payments to the contractor of the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility over a legal technicality, according to recent filings in a federal lawsuit. The department is not disputing U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler’s mid-November decision that DOE […]

Nevada escalated a closed-door dialogue with the Department of Energy (DOE) to the federal court system last month because the agency got cagey about its plans for moving 1 metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium to and from the state beginning in 2019, according to an affidavit from a state official. The document was filed […]

Nevada on Friday asked a federal judge to bar the Department of Energy (DOE) from shipping 1 metric ton of plutonium to the state, potentially throwing a wrench in the agency’s plans to comply with an order from another federal judge to move the material out of South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020. Nevada sued […]

The federal government and South Carolina expressed optimism Monday that they can settle a $100 million claim over plutonium that remains stranded in the state. “Pursuant to the Court’s Order filed October 24, 2018 … the parties report that at this time they continue to believe that it is possible to resolve the pending disputes […]

The Department of Energy should consider performing a lengthy environmental review of its plan to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium by burying the material deep underground, a congressionally chartered panel said Friday. The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might find the disposal plan easier to manage if it produces […]

WASHINGTON — William Bookless, nominated to be second-in-command at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), defended the agency’s plan to build two nuclear-warhead-core factories in the face of a double-edged inquisition from a pair of Senate Democrats here Thursday. Facing pressure from a third Democratic lawmaker during his confirmation hearing, the physicist and longtime […]

The federal government and South Carolina expressed optimism Monday that they can settle a $100 million claim over plutonium that remains stranded in the state. “Pursuant to the Court’s Order filed October 24, 2018 … the parties report that at this time they continue to believe that it is possible to resolve the pending disputes […]

The prime contractor of a canceled plutonium-disposal plant in South Carolina cried foul in a long-running lawsuit against its client, the National Nuclear Security Administration, after the government allegedly broke a promise not to dispute certain costs claimed under the nearly 20-year-old contract. MOX Services said the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) disputed more than […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was wrong to withhold about $1 million in wage-related payments under a now-canceled contract to build a plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina, a federal judge ruled Friday. The agency must now return the money withheld from MOX Services, prime contractor on the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility […]

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who is running for chair of the House Armed Services Committee in the incoming 116th Congress, is set today to make his first nuclear weapon-oriented speech since Democrats secured control of the House of Representatives in last week’s midterm elections. Smith is slated to speak at 9:20 a.m. Eastern time in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was wrong to withhold about $1 million in wage-related payments under a now-canceled contract to build a plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina, a federal judge ruled Friday. The agency must now return the money withheld from MOX Services, prime contractor on the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility […]

The prime contractor for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility will lay off roughly a third of its workforce in early January, according to federally required layoff notices filed Nov. 8, two days after the U.S. midterm elections.  CB&I Project Services, now part of McDermott and a subcontractor-owner of Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) prime […]

The contractor that manages the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site took appropriate actions upon finding that a solution sample taken at a key processing facility contained a higher level of plutonium than it should have. The incident, characterized as an anomaly, resulted in no criticality issues, harm to the environment, or danger to […]

The lead attorney at the Savannah River Site was honored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for helping the agency pivot away from processing surplus weapon-usable plutonium at the South Carolina facility’s now-canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Mary-Ellen Noone, counsel for the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, won the NNSA General Counsel […]

Brian Zieroth on Oct. 29 replaced Valerie McCain as Bechtel National’s project manager on the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a company spokesperson said Monday. Zieroth will now manage construction of a roughly $6.5 billion facility designed to mold uranium into shapes usable in […]

Nobody was really holding their breath Tuesday for the results of the midterm elections in reliably red South Carolina, but some 1,500 workers at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) were still holding their breaths for layoff notices at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. In a late-October letter to employees of the now-canceled […]

Brian Zieroth on Oct. 29 replaced Valerie McCain as Bechtel National’s project manager on the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a company spokesperson said Monday. Zieroth will now manage construction of a roughly $6.5 billion facility designed to mold uranium into shapes usable in […]

The lead attorney at the Savannah River Site was honored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for helping the agency pivot away from processing surplus weapon-usable plutonium at the South Carolina facility’s now-canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Mary-Ellen Noone, counsel for the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, won the NNSA General Counsel […]

The Department of Energy said this week it has started work to move a metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina, after three federal appeals judges affirmed a lower court’s order to remove the material from the state by Jan. 1, 2020. Barring an escalation to the U.S. Supreme Court, or a rehearing in the U.S. […]