Vol. 26, No. 37 
COVID-19 created more than a year’s worth of delays for pit production at Los Alamos, lab said
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Plutonium Pit Production
Pits feel the pinch in short-term federal budget bill for fiscal year 23
The House on Friday passed a stopgap budget that would hold the National Nuclear Security Administration to its fiscal year 2022 budget through Dec. 19 and allow work to continue on pit production plants, the B83 gravity bomb and a nuclear, sea-launched cruise-missile warhead. The continuing resolution will put a crunch on the semiautonomous Department […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
DOE extends Fluor-led SRS prime; security provider deal next
As expected, the Department of Energy has signed a potential five-year, multibillion-dollar extension with the Fluor-led management and operations manager for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the company said late Thursday. The extension could keep Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) on as the prime contractor through September 2027 and be worth $12 billion […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Livermore lab director Budil arrested for driving under the influence, speeding
Kimberly Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, admitted last week to all hands at the California nuclear-weapons design lab that she had been arrested for driving under the influence and speeding. Budil, the first woman to run Livermore, has been director of the younger of the two U.S. weapon-design labs for about a […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
NNSA plans to finalize new cybersecurity directive in April, agency tells GAO
Organizations within the National Nuclear Security Administration bureaucracy are reviewing a draft cybersecurity directive the agency wrote after a third-party review, the weapons steward told the Government Accountability Office last week. The semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency planned to issue a final supplemental directive, titled Baseline Cybersecurity Program, by April 30, according to the […]
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Naval Nuclear Propulsion
Couple again pleas out in case of stolen nuclear sub secrets
The Maryland couple whose shoddy spycraft got them arrested for trying to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign power again pleaded guilty for their alleged crimes on Tuesday, deciding not to face a jury after a federal judge threw out their first plea deal. The Washington Post reported that both Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana […]
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International
Round up: at the IAEA general conference; NNSA grant to Case Western; BWXT finance personnel; more
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm led a large Department of Energy delegation to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 66th general conference in Vienna, Austria this week. Senior officials from the DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) attended. In a speech during the plenary session, Granholm said the U.S. is “working […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Editorial: if Dr. Kimberly Budil deserves the NNSA’s confidence, so do others
Dr. Kimberly Budil broke the law and put herself and others in danger by driving under the influence and speeding, but she also did what a leader should do and admitted her mistake to all hands at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Budil, who has been the director at the California lab for about a […]