Vol. 26, No. 48 
Final 2023 budget bill at least a week away, but compromise defense authorization sets up big funding increase at NNSA
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Advanced Nuclear & SMRs
NIF achieved fusion ignition at Livermore, lab says
The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used its bank of high-powered lasers on Dec. 5 to ignite a fusion reaction that produced more energy from a small pellet than the lasers put into the pellet, the lab said. The long-hoped for achievement marked “a new chapter in NNSA’s [National Nuclear Security […]
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Warhead & Weapons Development
Pantex building returning to explosive testing after years of semi-retirement
Consolidated Nuclear Security is in the early stages of returning a facility at the NNSA’s Pantex Plant in Texas to active explosive testing. In October, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board noted the effort to reclaim the facility after 30 years of inactivity following a contamination event. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) spokesman Jason Bohne confirmed […]
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National Laboratories
LANL had widespread internet outage
A communications outage at the Los Alamos National Laboratory that began over the weekend was unresolved at portions of the lab as late as early Monday morning, according to the lab. “The Laboratory experiences a communications outage over the weekend due to a fiber-optic cable cut near Santa Fe which impacted cellular and internet services […]
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Defense & Military
Nuclear submarine-secret thief on way to prison; lawyers up for appeal
Diana Tobbe, one of two conspirators charged with trying to sell nuclear-submarine secrets to a foreign government, was being transported to a federal prison this week and has retained a lawyer married to a Navy officer to represent her during an appeal. Tobbe said the Nov. 9 judgment against her in the U.S. District Court […]