National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) headquarters is reviewing critical decision one packages for the planned pit production facilities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site, an agency spokesperson wrote in an email this week to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
Both sites turned in the critical decision 1 packages “on schedule,” and the reports — which will contain the most high-fidelity cost estimates for the factories to date — “are currently under review,” the NNSA spokesperson wrote.
NNSA had previously said the reviews would be finished in April. The Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Plant is supposed to begin production of multiple war-ready plutonium pits in 2026. The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Plant is supposed to start making multiple pits in 2030, but which time the NNSA wants the facilities to cast a combined 80 pits a year, at least. Those milestones had been in question even before the Joe Biden administration began a wide-ranging review of nuclear-weapons programs that apparently include the NNSA’s share of the work.
The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., broke ground on the West End Protected Area Reduction project, which will cut some 70 acres out of the uranium-processing site’s protected area, the NNSA announced Thursday.
Among other things, the project will add new intruder-detecting security fences around the site’s H-Road and the under-construction Uranium Processing Facility, the NNSA said. The site will also add a new entry check point for vehicles. Y-12 has suffered numerous (and well-publicized) security breaches in the past, including by nuns and others who vandalized property near secure areas.
James Biggins, who was already serving as acting general manager of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, now has the job on a permanent basis, according to a press release from the agency.
Joel Spangenberg, the executive director of operations for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), said in the release Biggins was elevated to the general manager post on March 28 after serving in an acting role since Jan. 19.
Biggins started filling in as general manager following the December departure of DNFSB’s general manager Glenn Sklar.
Palantir, the intelligence community software vendor with a name ripped from the pages of The Lord of the Rings, has notched its first contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Denver-based company said Monday.
Palantir’s pact to serve as the software platform for the agency’s Safety Analytics, Forecasting, and Evaluation Reporting (SAFER) project is worth up to about $90 million over five years, the company wrote in a press release.
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s SAFER system will allow the agency to track and analyze safety data across its national network of labs, plants and sites.
The NNSA was among the federal agencies on hand virtually to celebrate 10 years of strategic trade management with Malaysia, the nuclear-weapon steward and non-proliferation warden said in a press release.
“Malaysia’s success in ensuring skilled technical experts are involved in implementing strategic trade controls helps promote secure trade and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,“” NNSA Administrator Charles Verdon said in the agency’s prepared statement. “We are proud of our continued partnership.”
NNSA attended the celebration along with officials from the Department of State and the Department of Commerce. The event marked the 10th anniversary of Malaysia’s strategic trade act, which aimed to combat “the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and [promote] trade facilitation,” the NNSA wrote.
