Stockpile Stewardship

The Z Pulsed Power Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., was back online this week after a serious accident in June knocked the facility out of commission for three weeks, a senior laboratory employee said this week. The June 17 accident, which shook Sandia’s high-energy density physics lab longer and harder than […]

The Z Pulsed Power Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., was slated to come back online Wednesday after a serious accident in June knocked the facility out of commission for three weeks, a senior laboratory employee said this week. The June 17 accident, which shook Sandia’s high-energy density physics lab longer and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A big, mostly Democratic group of lawmakers from both sides of Capitol Hill wants the Pentagon to explain why it ditched its decades-old consultancy contract with the MITRE Corp.’s JASON group of scientists, a move that prompted the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to step in and fund the contract That is according to a […]

A big, mostly Democratic group of lawmakers from both sides of Capitol Hill wants the Pentagon to explain why it ditched its decades-old consultancy contract with the MITRE Corp.’s JASON group of scientists, a move that prompted the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to step in and fund the contract That is according to a […]

There are no problems with the data from a recent subcritical plutonium experiment in Nevada, despite the unprecedented breach of the protective steel container in which the explosive test took place, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Friday. The breach also has not set back the schedule for other planned subcritical tests, despite personnel […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still has not decided how much funding it will steer to an upcoming contract to keep the JASON group of independent science advisers on life support through most of January, or whether the agency wants to rely on the group over the long term. A spokesperson told Nuclear Security […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still has not decided how much funding it will steer to an upcoming contract to keep the JASON group of independent science advisers on life support through most of January, or whether the agency wants to rely on the group over the long term. A spokesperson told Weapons Complex […]

The independent JASON panel of scientists appears set to receive a reprieve from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration after the Pentagon last month said it would not renew MITRE Corp.’s expiring contract. “The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) anticipates the award of a firm-fixedprice/cost Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) hybrid contract to support the JASON program […]

The Pentagon is pulling the plug on the contract for the JASON civilian science advisory panel even as contractor MITRE Corp. works on multiple studies for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), according to congressional testimony this week. The NNSA has “three studies being considered and planned with JASON pertaining to the topics of: cyber […]

The contractor for the Nevada National Security Site is looking for a miner to expand the underground test space where future explosive plutonium experiments will help verify that refurbished nuclear weapons work as intended, according to a procurement notice released this week. The eventual subcontractor will “[p]rovide mining equipment and personnel to excavate, stabilize, and […]

It will cost about $1 billion through 2025 to build a new X-ray camera to observe subcritical plutonium experiments at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), according to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Those figures come from a conceptual design for the planned Advanced Sources and Detectors (ASD) project headed by the Los Alamos National […]

It will cost about $1 billion through 2025 to build a new X-ray camera to observe subcritical plutonium experiments at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. Those figures are based on a conceptual design for the planned Advanced Sources and Detectors (ASD) project headed by the Los Alamos National […]

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 […]

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 management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., recently hired 24 new workers for tritium operations and plans to continue ramping up the staff. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) manages production of tritium gas under the Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE). Tritium gas triggers the chain reaction […]

The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., recently hired 24 new workers for tritium operations and plans to continue ramping up the staff. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) manages production of tritium gas under the Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE). Tritium gas triggers the chain reaction […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The NNSA did […]

Longenecker & Associates, the Las Vegas-based Energy Department subcontractor, has added a former Honeywell executive and a retired Air Force officer to its advisory board. The new members are retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Sandra Finan, now a consultant based in Spokane, Wash.; and ex-Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies (FM&T) President Chris Gentile, Longenecker […]

A Kansas City, Mo., company will help upgrade infrastructure at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to accommodate future exascale computing capability, under a contract from lab prime Livermore National Security. Burns & McDonnell announced the award Monday. The company did not provide the financial terms of the contract, which involves design services for Livermore’s […]

A familiar face in Energy Department nuclear cleanup circles, Cathy Hickey, has joined Tennessee-based Navarro Research and Engineering as executive vice president. Hickey joined the company Nov. 1 and will work out of Navarro’s Oak Ridge, Tenn., office, a spokesperson said by email Friday. Hickey succeeds Bob Eby, who will remain with the company on […]

A trio of advocacy groups asked the Department of Energy and the Pentagon to provide a little budget bump for three National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)-funded optics facilities across the country, including one in Rochester, N.Y., the Donald Trump administration tried to cancel last year. In a letter last week, the groups urged Energy Secretary Rick […]

A trio of advocacy groups asked the Department of Energy and the Pentagon to provide a little budget bump for three National Nuclear Security Administration-funded optics facilities across the country, including one in Rochester, N.Y., the Donald Trump administration tried to cancel last year. In a Wednesday letter, the groups urged Energy Secretary Rick Perry […]

Four universities will split more than $40 million in grant funding under a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) program designed to bolster fundamental science applicable to nuclear weapons and encourage students to come to work in the nuclear security enterprise. This brings the total number of universities receiving funding through the NNSA Stewardship Science Academic Alliances […]

The Department of Energy’s Defense Programs Advisory Committee is scheduled meet in closed session Oct. 22-23 at agency headquarters in Washington to discuss, among other things, a classified report on plutonium aging, according to a Federal Register notice filed last week. The all-day committee meetings will also address finalizing the charter for a high-performance computing subcommittee, the note says. […]

The Department of Energy’s secretive Defense Programs Advisory Committee is scheduled meet in closed session Oct. 22-23 at agency headquarters in Washington to discuss, among other things, a classified report on plutonium aging, according to a Federal Register notice filed Friday. The all-day committee meetings will also address finalizing the charter for a high-performance computing subcommittee, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Thursday announced a new interagency agreement to continue providing the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority with low-enriched uranium that makes it possible to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. Under the agreement, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency will downblend highly enriched uranium into low-enriched uranium that […]