Vol. 22, No. 09 
DOE to Open Bidding Process for Savannah River Management Contract
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Trump Taps Livermore Hand to Lead NNSA Weapons Programs
President Donald Trump this week nominated current Lawrence Livermore hand Charles Verdon to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) roughly $9-billion-a-year nuclear weapons portfolio. The White House sent Verdon’s nomination to the Hill Tuesday. If recommended by the Senate Armed Services Committee and confirmed by the full Senate, Verdon would be put in charge […]
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Non-Proliferation
Graham Prods NNSA Nonproliferation Nominee on Plutonium Disposal
WASHINGTON — Brent Park, the White House’s choice to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nonproliferation office, promised he would if confirmed weigh in on a big nonproliferation construction project Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants to protect in South Carolina. In a confirmation hearing that ended without anyone outright opposing the Oak Ridge physicist’s […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
More Dilute-and-Dispose Money Gets Plutonium Out of S.C. Quicker, NNSA Says
The metric ton of plutonium South Carolina took the Department of Energy to court over in 2016 is unlikely to leave the state for years, but the agency is seeking more money from Congress to make a move happen sooner, according to its latest budget proposal. In its detailed 2019 budget request issued last week, […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
UPF Baseline to be Ready in March, Maybe Not Published Until 2019
It could be another year before the U.S. Department of Energy publishes an official cost estimate for the multibillion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) that Bechtel National is building in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency said last week in its detailed fiscal 2019 budget justification. At the same time, significant portions of the UPF at the […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
NNSA Wants to Start Modification for Crucial Los Alamos Pit Facility
The Department of Energy wants to do more plutonium chemistry and experiments in an existing building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as part of a plan to resume the lab’s production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores called plutonium pits. The move would mean raising the amount of plutonium-239, or its equivalent, allowed […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
NNSA Shies Away From Settlement Talks in MOX Lawsuit
In an expected move, CB&I AREVA MOX Services argued Thursday a federal judge should not dismiss a $200 million lawsuit that claims the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration mismanaged the company’s contract to build a massive plutonium-disposal facility in South Carolina. Hitting back against claims in the agency’s motion to dismiss the suit, MOX Services […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Sentencing Scheduled for MOX Subcontractor on Fraud Charge
One of the two men who pleaded guilty to stealing from the federal government while working for the MOX project at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is scheduled for sentencing on April 5. Phillip Thompson will be sentenced at 10 a.m. by U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs in Columbia, S.C. He plead guilty […]
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Naval Nuclear Propulsion
NNSA Pulls Trigger on $490M Option for BWXT Naval Reactor Contract
The Department of Energy in the fourth quarter of 2017 exercised an option worth more than $490 million on BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) naval nuclear propulsion parts production contract, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company announced nearly four months into 2018. “A variety of manufacturing and material procurement activities will be performed under these contracts that will primarily […]
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Naval Nuclear Propulsion
BWXT Nuke Group Seeing ‘Resurgence,’ CEO Says
BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden said Wednesday the company’s Nuclear Services Group, which includes its business with the U.S. Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, is experiencing “a resurgence.” Much of that is due new cleanup business at DOE’s shuttered Cold War nuclear-weapon sites, but a large — if not unexpected — […]
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Contracts & Procurement
SOC Starts Work Under NNSA Nevada Protective Forces Contract
Thursday was the first day of SOC’s security contract at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site, where the Chantilly, Va.-based company will work for up to five years under a deal worth about $200 million, including options. SOC won the contract in 2017 but did not start work until recently after competitor […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Senators Demand Answers About NNSA Footing Legal Bills for Contractor Whistleblower Cases
In a letter Tuesday to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, two Democratic senators questioned whether the prime contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California inappropriately billed the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to fight what the lawmakers called “whistleblower-related” cases in court. In particular, Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) questioned whether the […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
StratCom Chief Says U.S. Nukes ‘Very Close to Zero Percent Modernized’
Although the Department of Energy has nearly finished the first of four ongoing warhead modernization programs, the U.S. nuclear arsenal is “very close to zero-percent modernized,” the general in charge of the Pentagon’s nuclear forces said Wednesday. “We’re starting down that path,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said Wednesday in […]