Vol. 21, No. 46 
NNSA Looking At Pit Plant in S.C. as Congress Pumps Plutonium Funds to N.M.
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National Laboratories
For the Public Good: Q&A on Los Alamos Lab With Marvin Adams of Texas A&M University
Bids on the next management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are due in a matter of days. Texas A&M University is in the hunt, but even at the 11th hour, the university refuses to provide any details about the role it hopes to play at the storied nuclear […]
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Budget & Policy
New CR Means Two More Weeks of Old NNSA Budgets
Department of Energy nuclear budgets will stay at fiscal 2017 levels through Dec. 22, under a short-term continuing resolution Congress approved on Thursday. President Donald Trump was expected to sign the stopgap budget bill after deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Without the new spending bill, federal funding would run out after midnight […]
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National Laboratories
Alleged Sandia Swindler Cops Plea
A former Sandia National Laboratories employee who allegedly swindled more than $2 million from the federal government pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. It was part of a plea bargain that Carla Sena, a former contracting official at the Albuquerque, N.M.-based lab, agreed to with the […]
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Transuranic Waste
National Academy Assessing WIPP’s Ability to Store SRS Plutonium
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has begun analyzing whether the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico would be a viable facility for storage of plutonium that would be downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its fiscal 2017 budget, Congress mandated that the nongovernmental research organization conduct […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
City of Oak Ridge Wants New Y-12 Power Lines Out of Its Backyard
The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., this week asked the Department of Energy again not to despoil the natural landscape near the Y-12 National Nuclear Security Complex with power lines for a next-generation uranium-processing plant. The Department of Energy (DOE) contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority to build the lines on a hilltop known locally […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
DNFSB Ticks Off First of Two Closed-Door Meetings Ahead of Possible Recommendation
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (NNFSB) this week held the first of a pair of closed-door meetings during which the five-member watchdog group will discuss what could become its first recommendation to the Donald Trump administration’s Department of Energy. Jessie Hill Roberson, the board’s longest-serving member and a veteran of the George W. Bush […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Drone Sighting At Air Force Bomber Base Shows Need For Defenses, General Says
A recent drone sighting at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri underscores the need for the Air Force to continue developing systems to counter unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that trespass on its installations, according to a four-star general. “That got real to us not too long ago with Whiteman,” said Gen. Robin Rand, commander of […]
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Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad
Air Force Completes First Major GBSD Review
Boeing says its Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) effort completed its first major review with the Air Force in November. The system requirements review was designed to ensure that Boeing fully understands the system’s requirements. In August, Boeing and Northrop Grumman both received three-year contracts to conduct technology maturation and risk reduction for the new, […]