Vol. 26, No. 47 
Compromise NDAA ratchets up authorized NNSA budget; allows for some B83 retirement
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Contracts & Procurement
LANL prime is latest to have entire option package picked up by NNSA; on through November 2028
The National Nuclear Security Administration extended Los Alamos National Laboratory management and operations contractor Triad National Security for five more years, through Nov. 1, 2028, the agency announced this week. In the third such mass-extension this year for a nuclear-weapons site contractor, the agency picked up five one-year options on Triad’s contract simultaneously. Triad includes […]
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Contracts & Procurement
NNSA moving away from one-year options on major site contracts
The National Nuclear Security Administration is poised to move beyond what its administrator recently characterized as an outmoded system of requiring the contractors who manage major nuclear-weapon sites to earn extensions one year at a time. “[T]he one-year contract for award terms were incredibly destabilizing at our labs, plants and sites because they couldn’t keep […]
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Budget & Policy
EM Savannah River budget won’t evaporate after transfer to NNSA
The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch should not see a significant near-term decrease in its budget for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina because control of the federal complex is being transferred to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a budget and planning official said last week. “Most of our funding is for liquid […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
RLUOB recategorization for pit mission in early ’23, Los Alamos says
A building slated to become a key cog in the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium pit-production complex is taking longer than expected to be authorized to hold enough plutonium for its new mission, a spokesperson said this week. The Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building (RLUOB) should be recategorized as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility by March […]
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Budget & Policy
Staff concerns, DOE relations feature in DNFSB financial report
During fiscal 2022, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board worked on staffing needs and finalized a deal with the Department of Energy spelling out the watchdog’s authority to access people, records and facilities around the weapons complex. Those are a couple of highlights from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fiscal 2022 Agency Financial Report released last week. […]
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International
Australia’s switch to nuclear powered submarines will leave no ‘capability gap’ U.S. says
The U.S. will not allow Australia’s submarine forces to have “capability gap” between the time the island nation retires its diesel-powered submarines and deploys nuclear-powered subs powered by technology provided by the U.K. and the U.S., the Secretary of Defense said this week. “[W]e will not allow Australia to have a capability gap going forward,” […]
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Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad
Change of command at STRATCOM; Cotton in, Richard out
Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton on Friday assumed command of the interagency forces that carry U.S. nuclear weapons. Cotton, previously commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, took over from Admiral Charles Richard, who has led U.S. Strategic Command since November 2019. Richard will retire from active duty, Strategic Command said. The change of command […]