Vol. 22, No. 44 
NNSA Administrator Fired While on Leave; Energy Secretary Tracked Her for Months
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Budget & Policy
With a Month Left to Reach a Budget Deal, Senate Proposes Requested Funding for NNSA
Lame-duck budget negotiations are officially underway, and the Senate’s opening gambit for the National Nuclear Security Administration was to give the agency the roughly $20 billion it sought for 2021: over $1 billion more than what the House of Representatives recommended. That’s according to a bill and an accompanying report the Senate Armed Services Committee released […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Final Solicitation for Y-12, Pantex Contact Drops; Senate Questions Lack of Competition for DOE, NNSA Contracts
The same day the National Nuclear Security Administration requested proposals for a potentially decades-long contract to run two of its three major nuclear weapons production sites, Senate appropriators asked why there is so little competition for such contracts at the Department of Energy. The semiautonomous DOE weapons agency released the final solicitation Tuesday, the same […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Former NNSA No. 2 Joins Biden Transition Team
Former National Nuclear Security Administration No. 2 Madelyn Creedon is part of President Elect Joe Biden’s (D) transition team, the Biden camp announced Wednesday. Creedon is one of 19 people on Biden’s Department of Energy beachhead team, which is led by Arun Majumdar: currently a professor at Stanford University’s department of mechanical engineering in California, […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Fluor Narrows 2Q Losses; 3Q Report Possible by December
Fluor Corp., the financially troubled, Dallas-based Department of Energy contractor, continued to narrow its losses from continuing operations in the second quarter and first six months of 2020, the company said in a long-delayed second-quarter earnings report. Fluor’s second-quarter loss from continuing operations was about $20 million, an improvement from a loss of more than […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
COVID-19 Cases at NNSA Rise Sharply; New-Case Rate Higher at All But One NNSA Host Locale
The National Nuclear Security Administration recorded over 200 new cases of COVID-19 among its federal employees and contractors this week, and more than half those cases were still active at deadline Friday, an agency spokesperson said. With cases of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus spiking across the county, confirmed cases at the semi-autonomous […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
TVA Watts Bar Plant Slapped With Near $1M Fine
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission slapped a $900,000 fine on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee, issuing five violations related to a “substantial safety culture issue” at the plant during the fall of 2015 and early 2016. Tennessee Valley Authority uses Watts Bar Unit 1 to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. […]
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Budget & Policy
Opinion: DOE Modernization of Nuclear Safety Management Rule Puts Focus on Safety, Minimizes Unnecessary Administrative Burden
Editor’s note: The Department of Energy recently finalized the first changes in more than 15 years to its Nuclear Safety Management rule, codified in Title 10, Part 830 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This rule governs the conduct of DOE contractors and civil servants — not the conduct of contractors or employees of other […]
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Warhead & Weapons Development
Round Up: B61-12 Support is Also Virtual; LLNL’s ‘Ruby’ Supercomputer Up; LANL, New Mexico State Collaborate
Here’s this week’s collection of quick-hit news about, and with implications for, U.S. nuclear security. Like almost everything else, support for a B61-12 flight test from an F-35A had to go virtual this year, according to a press release from Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia helped train Air Force personnel virtually in preparation for an April […]