Vol. 22, No. 30 ‘Don’t Screw Up’: An Interview With Incoming Los Alamos Lab Director Thomas Mason
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Budget & Policy
House Approves Final 2019 NDAA; Senate Could Vote Next Week
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a compromise defense authorization bill that would allow the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to build a new low-yield nuclear warhead in fiscal 2019, and the Senate could follow suit as soon as next week. Shortly after the House approved the conference report for the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act […]
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Budget & Policy
NDAA Would Extend DOE Authority to Accept Fissile Materials From Around the Globe
In what could amount to some housekeeping against the day the Department of Energy has a part to play in North Korean nuclear disarmament, Congress plans to extend the agency’s authority to accept weapon-grade fissile materials for sites around the world through 2023. The extension is part of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), […]
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Contracts & Procurement
DOE Days Away From One-Year Extension to SRS Management Contract
The Department of Energy is just days from sealing a one-year extension for the management and operations contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a senior official said Monday. “As you know the M&O contract expires on 31 July and any day now we’ll have an extension signed,” Michael Budney, manager of DOE’s […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Decision to Study Stripping Tritium Mission from Savannah River ‘Routine,’ DOE Official Says
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) decision to study transferring some $300 million in annual defense nuclear materials operations to Tennessee from South Carolina is “routine,” according to the head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup mission at the Savannah River Site. “This is just a routine kind of process we always go through, especially […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
Oral Arguments in MOX Lawsuit Appeal Scheduled for September
The U.S. Department of Energy will argue in September why a federal court in South Carolina should not have prevented the agency from shuttering the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Designed to convert weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel, construction at the unfinished MFFF was expected to halt around June 11, […]
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Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad
Next-Gen ICBM Business Buzzing Amid Northrop Earnings Boost
Earnings at Northrop Grumman, one of two defense contractors on the next-generation U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile, rose nearly 25 percent in the second quarter, the company reported this week. Quarterly net income increased 24 percent to $689 million, or $3.93 a share, from $555 million, or $3.16 a share, beating the Street by $0.09 per […]
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Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad
Nuke Missile Pitches in on Lockheed’s Q2 Earnings Growth
Lockheed Martin, one of two Pentagon contractors developing a new cruise missile intended to carry the W80 nuclear warhead, this week reported better than 25-percent year-over-year earnings growth for the second quarter of 2018. Net income for the quarter ended June 24 rose 26 percent to $1.2 billion, or $4.05 a share, from $955 million, or […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
DNFSB to Hold Hearing on DOE Order Limiting Communications
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is scheduled to meet Aug. 28 to discuss a Department of Energy order that could limit the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog’s ability to police the U.S. nuclear-weapons complex. The board has suggested that senior DOE officials, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
DNFSB Sending Two Inspectors on New Assignments to Y-12
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is sending two of its technical staffers on new assignments to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Matthew Duncan will become Oak Ridge resident inspector on Aug. 20, while Brandon Weathers will become an Oak Ridge resident inspector in December, the […]