Los Alamos National Laboratory

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 Tuesday. “We are continuing to work on a path forward for the LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory in […]

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 […]

A federal magistrate judge in New Mexico has been asked to give the state environmental regulator and the Department of Energy 90 more days to continue settlement talks over changes to a consent decree governing nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Citing continued progress, the parties asked U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar on […]

A federal magistrate judge in New Mexico has been asked to give the state environmental regulator and the Department of Energy 90 more days to continue settlement talks over changes to a consent decree governing nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Citing continued progress, the parties asked U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar on […]

An employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory was blown off a ladder and severely burned in 2015 after spraying cleaning solutions on parts of a power substation that turned out to be electrified, according to a report on the incident published last week. After the resulting arc-flash, nine employees were sent to Los Alamos Medical […]

Though the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to dramatically ramp up plutonium pit production around the time a key arms control treaty expires in 2026, there are no plans to test fire any weapons, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said Monday in New Mexico. Hruby sat through two hours of questioning – and occasional haranguing – […]

An employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory was blown off a ladder and severely burned in 2015 after spraying cleaning solutions on parts of a power substation that turned out to be electrified, according to a report on the incident published last week. After the resulting arc-flash, nine employees were sent to Los Alamos Medical […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is still looking for a successor to its first executive director of operations, who left in August, the board said in a recent report to Congress. “The board is actively recruiting to fill that vacancy in 2023,” according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s 33rd Annual Report to […]

The Department of Energy will temporarily suspend some work to contain underground hexavalent chromium contamination at the Los Alamos National Laboratory while talks continue with New Mexico officials over the effectiveness of the treatment, officials said Wednesday night. The agency’s local Environmental Management field office and its site cleanup contractor will halt injection of clean […]

The Department of Energy will temporarily suspend some work to contain underground hexavalent chromium contamination at the Los Alamos National Laboratory while talks continue with New Mexico officials over the effectiveness of the process, officials said Wednesday night. The agency’s local Environmental Management field office and its site cleanup contractor will halt injection of clean […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is still looking for a successor to its first executive director of operations, who left in August, the board said in a recent report to Congress. “The board is actively recruiting to fill that vacancy in 2023,” according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s 33rd Annual Report to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2024 includes a funding boost for plutonium pit production in New Mexico, with the goal of building 80 per year as close to 2030 as possible.  Also in the request, the NNSA provided a new cost and schedule estimate for completing the Uranium Processing Facility […]

A small business solicitation for nuclear cleanup, expected out within the next month, could be the only new one to hit the street by August, the Department of Energy Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said this week. The DOE previously said the request for proposals (RFP) Small Business Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning and Removal contract could […]

The 2024 budget for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state would grow to an unprecedented $3 billion or so from $2.7 billion this year, if President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget request became law. Overall, however, the administration’s budget request would keep funding at the DOE Office of Environmental Management about flat […]

The Department of Energy’s Huntington Ingalls-led legacy cleanup team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is being extended for another three years, a company official told a federal advisory board meeting this week. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) “was recently notified that DOE will exercise the first option period under […]

Below is Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s annual digest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) performance evaluation summaries: the agency’s report cards for its big contracts, which explain how much management and operations entities earned for their performance. The Monitor has provided links to NNSA source documents. Kansas City National Security Campus, Kansas City, […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy anticipates the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory to treat its first batch of radioactive waste by early April, the agency’s top nuclear cleanup officials said here this week.  Environmental Management Senior Adviser William (Ike) White reiterated his message, on the project nearing the finish line, […]

The origins of what became the West Valley Demonstration Project in Western New York can be traced back to 1949 when the then-Soviet Union held its first successful nuclear weapons test, Craig Rieman, a Department of Energy deputy manager at the site told a Waste Management Symposia panel Thursday in Phoenix. “That was a big […]

The Department of Energy Thursday issued an updated request for information on Phase 1B of cleanup of the West Valley Demonstration Project, located 35 miles south of Buffalo, N.Y., basically replacing an earlier notice issued in October 2018. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is doing acquisition planning for the potential contract award for completion […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — With delays piling up for its two planned plutonium pit factories, the National Nuclear Security Administration already believes it will have to exceed the military’s minimum annual order for the nuclear weapon cores, the head of the agency said here Tuesday. “We anticipate that due to all the different things going on […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The Los Alamos National Laboratory might still be able to make 30 nuclear-weapon cores before 2030, even though the equipment needed to do it is not supposed to be ready until then, the lab’s director said here Tuesday. In January, the lab’s owner, the Department of Energy, approved a formal cost and […]

Earnings rose at Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., in the fourth quarter, which the shipbuilder and federal contractor attributed to growth in those core businesses. Net earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were $123 million, or $3.07 a share, up from $ 120 million or $2.99 a share, in the year-ago quarter, according […]

The New Mexico Environment Department wants the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to suspend part of its chromium plume mitigation program over concerns it might force contamination deeper underground, a federal official said last week. The DOE, meanwhile, believes its interim approach is effective and hopes to make that […]

Today is expected to be another cold, wintry one around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico with a high temperature of 26 degrees Fahrenheit, but with a wind chill factor below zero, according to the National Weather Service. The laboratory suspended most on-site normal operations Wednesday due to snowy conditions, […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Upgrades to a nuclear-weapon test facility in Nevada are falling further behind schedule, government officials and weapon-site managers said here Wednesday. Officially called Enhanced Capability for Subcritical Experiments (ECSE), the upgrades involve expanding the Nevada National Security Site’s U1a underground complex and installing a sophisticated new x-ray camera to measure explosive plutonium […]

Earnings rose at Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., in the fourth quarter, which the shipbuilder and federal contractor attributed to growth in those core businesses. Net earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were $123 million, or $3.07 a share, up from $ 120 million or $2.99 a share, in the year-ago quarter, according […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The Los Alamos National Laboratory might still be able to make 30 nuclear-weapon cores before 2030, even though the equipment needed to do it is not supposed to be ready until then, the lab’s director said here Tuesday. In January, the lab’s owner, the Department of Energy, approved a formal cost and […]

The New Mexico Environment Department wants the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to suspend part of its chromium plume mitigation program over concerns it might force contamination deeper underground, a federal official said Thursday. In December, the state sent a letter to Michael Mikolanis, DOE’s field boss for the […]

Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) vice president Joe Legare has left his post with the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to return to corporate parent Huntington Ingalls Industries. N3B’s president and general manager, Kim Lebak, mentioned the change Thursday night during a public […]