Los Alamos National Laboratory

Brad Smith has replaced Kim Lebak as president and general manager of the legacy waste cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lebak is heading back to Huntington Ingalls Industries, the corporate parent of the team’s lead partner. Lebak shared the news herself in letters on June 5 and June […]

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – By December 2024, the Los Alamos National Laboratory will produce a proof-of-concept pit for a new intercontinental ballistic missile warhead, a senior lab official said here Thursday during an extremely rare media tour of the building where workers will cast the weapon’s plutonium core. That pit will not go into one […]

Brad Smith has replaced Kim Lebak as president and general manager of the legacy waste cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lebak is heading back to Huntington Ingalls Industries, the corporate parent of the team’s lead partner. Lebak shared the news herself in letters on June 5 and June […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has not been aggressive enough in cleaning up a hexavalent chromium plume within the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the head of the New Mexico Environment Department said last week. DOE and its contractors “have denied New Mexicans and tribal members timely and effective clean-up of hexavalent chromium […]

Civilian nuclear weapons programs would get a little more funding than requested in fiscal year 2024 if a budget bill released Wednesday by a House panel becomes law. The House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water’s version of the fiscal 2024 spending bill provides $48.8 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE), $133 million more […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has not been aggressive enough in cleaning up a hexavalent chromium plume within the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the head of the New Mexico Environment Department said last week. DOE and its contractors “have denied New Mexicans and tribal members timely and effective clean-up of hexavalent chromium […]

Members of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee are proposing to withhold funding for retirement of the W76-2 warhead unless the military and National Nuclear Security Administration can prove there is no need for the lower-yield submarine-launched weapon. The proposal is included in the subcommittee’s markup of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — By June 30, the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office expects to provide the Texas attorney general with a “detailed schedule” for retrieving boxes of transuranic waste stranded at a private disposal site in Andrews County for nearly a decade. In a May 10 letter to Phillip Ledbetter, managing enforcement lawyer with […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — By June 30, the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office expects to provide the Texas attorney general with a “detailed schedule” for retrieving boxes of transuranic waste stranded at a private disposal site in Andrews County for nearly a decade. In a May 10 letter to Phillip Ledbetter, managing enforcement lawyer with […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV — The Department of Energy should in June provide a timeline for removing long-stranded drums of transuranic waste from a commercial storage site in Andrews County, a Texas regulator said here Tuesday.  “They are moving forward with getting the building ready to eventually move the waste,” Ashley Forbes, deputy director of the radioactive […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management has been put on notice after a series of safety violations two years ago sent red flags all the way up to National Nuclear Security Administration leadership. Triad National Security, led by Battelle Memorial Institute, The Texas A&M University System and the University of California, violated Department of Energy safety […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management has been put on notice after a series of safety violations two years ago sent red flags all the way up to National Nuclear Security Administration leadership. Triad National Security, led by Battelle Memorial Institute, The Texas A&M University System and the University of California, violated Department of Energy safety […]

Production of tritium and plutonium pits could prove a significant limiting factor in the introduction of a new nuclear weapons delivery method like a sea-launched cruise missile and other attempts by the U.S. to beef up its nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, according to an official at the National Strategic Research Institute.  Christopher […]

Production of tritium and plutonium pits could prove a significant limiting factor in the introduction of a new nuclear weapons delivery method like a sea-launched cruise missile and other attempts by the U.S. to beef up its nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, according to an official at the National Strategic Research Institute.  Christopher […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday it found no significant environmental impact from allowing Waste Control Specialists to move containers of long-stranded Department of Energy transuranic waste to another location within the company’s Andrews County, Texas property. The move, sought by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) 11 months ago, would allow relocation of 74 containers of […]

Tennessee environmentalists and anti-nukers literally prayed for NRC to prevent a planned license amendment that would let BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services purify uranium for the National Nuclear Security Administration.  “Dear Chairman Hanson,” reads a postcard sent by multiple activists to NRC Chair Christopher Hanson. “As a fellow person of faith, I believe in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this morning it found no significant environmental impact from allowing Waste Control Specialists to move containers of long-stranded Department of Energy transuranic waste to another location within the company’s Andrews County, Texas property. The move, sought by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) 11 months ago, would allow relocation of 74 containers […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could issue a Federal Register notice this week of a draft environmental review to allow Waste Control Specialists to move stranded Department of Energy transuranic waste to a different location within the company’s 1,300-acre property in preparation for its ultimate removal from Texas, a federal spokesperson said Tuesday. The public notice, […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is looking to beef up its staff devoted to procurement through what it calls the Environmental Management Career Acquisition Program, DOE said Friday. “Given how integral acquisition and contracting is to how we conduct our work, ensuring continuity in the procurement function is essential to the [Environmental […]

At least five glove-box breaches occurred at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in late March through mid-April, though none of the incidents resulted in worker skin contamination or otherwise compromised their health, according to two reports from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  Two of the breaches at the lab’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility occurred in […]

At least five glove-box breaches occurred at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in late March through mid-April, though none of the incidents resulted in worker skin contamination or otherwise compromised their health, according to two reports from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  Two of the breaches at the lab’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility occurred in […]

The flood of employees leaving National Nuclear Security Administration sites that peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed and the workforce needed to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is short-staffed but holding, the head of the agency said Wednesday.  “The overall attrition is close to normal now at both Los Alamos and Sandia and […]

The flood of employees leaving National Nuclear Security Administration sites that peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed and the workforce needed to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is short-staffed but holding, the head of the agency said Wednesday.  “The overall attrition is close to normal now at both Los Alamos and Sandia and […]

As expected, the Department of Energy formally extended the Huntington Ingalls-led legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory by three years, according to an agency document published online this week. The Los Alamos legacy cleanup business held by Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) has been extended through April 29, 2026, according […]

As expected, the Department of Energy formally extended the Huntington Ingalls-led legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory by three years, according to an agency document published online this week. The Los Alamos legacy cleanup business held by Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) has been extended through April 29, 2026, according […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory over 16 years sent almost 50 containers of incorrectly labeled radioactive waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the site’s prime contractor recently told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The lab assigned the containers codes that indicated they should have been able to generate less combustible hydrogen during […]

The Los Alamos Fire Department responded to 34 fire false alarms at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2022 and the obsolete alarm system continues to malfunction in 2023, according to reports from the site.  An ongoing effort to replace the existing fire alarm system at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Plutonium Facility at TA-55, also […]

Los Alamos County, New Mexico, started its annual budgeting process Monday night with a public hearing on the proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2024, which includes a massive more-than-doubling of the fire department outlay to cover a cooperative agreement with the National Nuclear Security Administration.  The Los Alamos Fire Department provides firefighting and emergency […]

Moving long-stranded, potentially combustible radioactive waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from a commercial site in Texas remains a priority, an agency official told a National Academies of Sciences panel this week. “We are continuing to work on a path forward for the LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

The Air Force and Navy on Wednesday morning used an airborne control center to test-fire an unarmed Minuteman III missile, the services said. The test gave the services a look at the Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS), an aircraft that can launch intercontinental ballistic missiles if ground-based communication with nuclear silos is disabled.  A joint […]