Vol. 5, No. 58 Bechtel, Amentum Predecessor to Pay About $58M to Resolve Fraud Claims at Hanford
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Life Extension Programs
NNSA Estimates W87-1 Will Cost Almost $15B, GAO Questions Ready Date
According to a recently declassified report, the National Nuclear Security Administration thinks it will cost some $14.8 billion to build W87-1 warheads for the Ground Based Strategic intercontinental ballistic missiles planned to replace Minuteman III as the land-based leg of the nuclear triad starting around 2030. That could make W87-1 — a newly manufactured copy […]
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Budget & Policy
Revised Stopgap Budget Passes House on Big Bipartisan Vote
On Tuesday, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the House rewrote and then passed a stopgap spending bill that would freeze budgets for Department of Energy nuclear programs at 2020 levels through Dec. 11. The revised bill sailed through 357-57, with 14 not voting and one voting “present.” All 56 “no” votes, and 13 of those […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Work Changes, Virus Played Role in Termination, Subcontractor Says
The business dismissed recently for slow progress in building a new underground ventilation system for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant expects to leave the New Mexico project by the end of the month. The parties are working out a financial settlement, said Mark Christensen, owner and president of Christensen Building Group, and […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
FirstEnergy Outs its Own Investigation by SEC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating FirstEnergy, the Ohio electric utility tied to a bribery scheme that allegedly helped state Rep. Larry Householder become the state’s Speaker of the House in exchange for a bailout of two nuclear plants. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations are typically done behind closed doors, but the […]
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Contracts & Procurement
University Twosome Has No Industry Bites Yet on Bid for Y-12/Pantex Contract
A two-university team is offering its services to prospective bidders on a potentially 10-year contract to manage the National Nuclear Security Administration’s two major nuclear-weapons manufacturing sites, but it had not hooked on with any industry partners as of Tuesday, a spokesperson said. “The University of Tennessee System and the Texas A&M University System have […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
Levin Proposes DOE Waste Storage Bill
Rep. Mike Levin, (D-Calif.) this week filed a five-year, $500m bill to form a spent nuclear fuel research and development program at the Department of Energy. The California congressman has long petitioned to increase oversight of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which is in his jurisdiction and in the process of being decommissioned after […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Sievers Taking Over as Y-12 Site Manager as CNS Leadership Shuffle Continues
Gene Sievers is taking over as manager of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., backfilling a position left vacant after his predecessor was promoted as part of the leadership shuffle that ensued when Morgan Smith retired as head of the outgoing nuclear-weapons production-site prime. Sievers, most recently vice president of the Bechtel […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Sandia Office Space Being Cleaned Up After Confirmed COVID-19 Case
Sandia National Laboratories was preparing Tuesday to reopen its MO285 office space after deep-cleaning the area after an employee there tested positive for COVID-19, the nuclear-weapons engineering hub said. Only one employee working at MO285 tested positive, the labs network wrote in a statement Monday, when it began the deep cleaning that typically allows work […]