Vol. 22, No. 32 
DOE Releases Draft Solicitation for SRS Management Contract, Including NNSA Tritium
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National Laboratories
With Bookless Nomination, Half of NNSA Political Jobs Could Be Filled by Ex-Livermore Personnel
The White House has nominated longtime Lawrence Livermore hand William Bookless to fill the No. 2 slot at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration — a post that has sat vacant throughout the Trump administration. President Donald Trump nominated Bookless, now a Livermore senior physicist, on Aug. 16. If recommended by the Senate […]
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Stockpile Stewardship
NNSA, TVA Forge New Interagency Agreement on Uranium for Tritium Production
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 […]
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National Laboratories
New LANL Manager Should Pay Gross Receipts Tax, NM Tax Agency Says
Incoming Los Alamos National Laboratory manager Triad National Security will indeed have to pay a state gross receipts tax of just over 7 percent, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department said this week. Triad — a nonprofit organization encompassing nonprofit, tax-exempt senior partners Battelle Memorial Institute, the University of California, and […]
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Budget & Policy
No Layoffs, But Much ‘Attrition’ Expected in Impending DNFSB Restructuring
Restructuring the independent federal agency charged with health and safety oversight at Department of Energy nuclear-weapon and cleanup sites will not involve layoffs, according to the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. “We are not going to have to involuntarily separate anyone,” acting DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton said in an Aug. 16 telephone […]
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National Laboratories
Texas A&M’s Banks is on Triad Board, Gets New Title
The Board of Regents of Texas A&M University, one of the senior partners on incoming Los Alamos National Laboratory Manager Triad National Security, last week appointed Katherine Banks vice chancellor for engineering and national laboratories. The move reflects Banks’ ascent to Triad’s governing board, an A&M spokesperson wrote in an email Monday. Banks was formerly […]
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National Laboratories
National Science Foundation Official to Take Top Computing and Simulation Gig at Los Alamos
Irene Qualters, most recently with the National Science Foundation (NSF), has been selected as associate laboratory director for simulation and computing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, incoming lab manager Triad National Security said this week. In her new role, Qualters will be “responsible for high performance computing, theory, and simulation in support of the […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Former Air Force Colonel Takes Charge of Honeywell’s NNSA Work
An internal reorganization at Honeywell has placed the company’s work on four management and operations contracts with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under the management of single retired Air Force colonel. Effective July 16, the company’s aerospace segment put David “DJ” Johnson — a Honeywell man since retiring from a 23-year Air Force career […]
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National Laboratories
New Mexico AG Asked to Look at Los Alamos Community Group Expense Irregularities
A dispute over irregularities in expense reimbursements for the former executive director of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) has attracted the attention of the New Mexico attorney general. “We can confirm the Office of the Attorney General has received a public referral and this matter is under review,” David Carl, spokesman for New […]
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Defense & Military
Potential Deputy for Nuke Weapons Council Chair Calls for Better Training of DOD Acquisition Personnel
The Defense Department must better train and empower its acquisition workforce if it hopes to buy and develop critical capabilities more rapidly, the candidate for a key Pentagon leadership position said this week. “Acquisition is not something that someone can walk in off the street and do well,” Alan Shaffer, nominated in June to become […]
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Budget & Policy
Senate Panel Endorses DOE General Counsel Nominee
William Cooper, the Trump administration’s nominee to become Energy Department general counsel, was passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a voice vote Thursday afternoon. The vote came after the panel’s business meeting was postponed Thursday morning, a committee staffer said. The nominee will now await action by the full Senate, […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
While We Were Out
The August doldrums in Washington weren’t quite as quiet as in past years, and there was plenty of news during the ExchangeMonitor’s annual publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories we’ve been following. NNSA Sticks With Plan to Increase Plutonium Limit in Los Alamos Rad Lab To support […]