Vol. 25, No. 11

Defense & Military

Biden Admin Review Muzzles Pentagon Head of Nuke Matters

A Pentagon official pulled out of a scheduled public briefing about plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site this week because of a gag order imposed by a Biden Administration review, a group advising the South Carolina government on nuclear matters said. Drew Walter, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear matters, was […]
  • Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle

    NNSA DUF-4 Start Slides Into 2023 on Changing Reqs, COVID

    Changing requirements and the COVID-19 pandemic mean the National Nuclear Security Administration will wait until fiscal year 2023 to begin producing high-purity depleted uranium metal for nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapon steward previously wanted to get its depleted uranium tetrafluoride (DUF4) […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    COVID Growth Stabilizing at NNSA After Big Plunge in Transmission Rates

    The National Nuclear Security Administration has logged about 60 new COVID-19 cases a week, give or take, over the last month, which marks the third since multiple major nuclear weapons sites started vaccinations on premises. Since January, when most major civilian nuclear weapon sites started administering vaccines inside the fence, confirmed COVID transmission rates at […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    False High Dose at Pantex This Year Caused by Lost Badge Near Linear Accelerator

    It can happen on submarines, it can happen in the mail and it can happen if you fly a lot: a dose big enough to keep you out of radiological areas for a while. At the Pantex Plant earlier this year, it happened because someone left their dosimeter near a linear accelerator. That’s according to […]

  • Budget & Policy

    Haaland Confirmation Opens Up Congressional Seat in Sandia District

    The U.S. Senate Monday voted 51-to-40 to confirm Rep. Debra Haaland (D-N.M.) as secretary of interior, which will create a vacancy in the congressional district that includes the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories facilities in Albuquerque. An Associated Press article Tuesday in the San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday former State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn […]

  • Naval Nuclear Propulsion

    Bittner is New General Manager for BWXT Lynchburg

    Jim Bittner is taking over as vice president and general manager for BWX Technologies’ Nuclear Operations Groups’ Lynchburg, Va., manufacturing facility, which manufactures reactors for naval aircraft carriers and submarines, the company announced Monday. Bittner will be in charge of about 2,200 employees in Lynchburg, which is one of the two commercial facilities certified by the Nuclear […]

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