Vol. 26, No. 03

Contracts & Procurement

NNSA Not Yet Pulling Plug on Production Office Award to Fluor-led Team

Less than a week after moving to get ahead of allegations that its award of a multi-billion-dollar sites operations contract was tainted by conflicts of interest and impropriety, the National Nuclear Security Administration had made no sudden moves to restart the year-long competition to find the next manager of its two main nuclear-weapon manufacturing plants. […]
  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    TVA Proposing Bigger Tritium Loads for Watts Bar Reactors

    Civilian reactors in Tennessee notionally will sharply increase their output of tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons by the fall of 2024 to help the National Nuclear Security Administration produce its desired 2,800 grams of tritium annually during the government fiscal year that begins around that time, officials said this week. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

  • Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle

    Electrorefining Glove Boxes Going in at Y-12; Radioactive Work Expected in 2023

    Consolidated Nuclear Security has nearly installed all the glove boxes for a new uranium purification process at the Y-12 National Security Complex and hot commissioning should start early next year, a spokesperson said recently. Site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) put the electrorefining glove boxes and related equipment into Building 9215 last year, though installation […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    Then There Was One: LANL is Last Big NNSA Nuke Site With a Vaccine Mandate

    Alone among the National Nuclear Security Administration’s major nuclear-weapon sites, only the Los Alamos National Laboratory still requires employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to an Exchange Monitor survey of the site. The Nevada National Security Site and the Sandia National Laboratories paused enforcement of their mandates in January, the latest to do so […]

  • Budget & Policy

    DNFSB Staff Can Stick With Telecommute a While Longer

    Most staffers with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board don’t need to return to their pre-pandemic workplaces this month, a spokesperson with the federal safety watchdog said this week. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is no longer requiring a return to work on Jan. 24, as earlier scheduled, “but is giving the staff the […]

  • National Laboratories

    Round Up: NNSA Marks Project Milestones at LANL, SRS, Says Thanks But No Thanks to GAO Rec

    The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week announced it approved the start of construction on the decontamination and decommissioning subproject at the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project. The effort, approval of which the Exchange Monitor reported in November, involves removing unneeded equipment from the building that will become the lab’s plutonium pit factory. […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    Troy Wade, 87, Test Site Fixture, Defense Programs Head

    Troy Wade, a Reagan-era assistant secretary of energy for defense programs and a fixture for decades at what is now called the Nevada National Security Site, died Jan. 16 at his home in Nevada, according to local media and the site. He was 87. Scott Wade, Troy’s son, confirmed his father’s death to the local […]

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