Los Alamos National Laboratory

The Los Alamos National Laboratory again ordered employees and visitors to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after transmission rates in the area rose, according to an internal lab message. “COVID-19 community levels have moved to high in Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties,” reads the message, the text of which the Exchange Monitor read. […]

Pit production will continue to share space at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility with other missions for the foreseeable future, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told a federal safety agency on Wednesday. The semi autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency is upgrading PF-4 to produce multiple war-ready pits some […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory again ordered employees and visitors to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after transmission rates in the area rose, according to an internal lab message. “COVID-19 community levels have moved to high in Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties,” reads the message, the text of which the Exchange […]

Engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory continue to upgrade the ventilation system at the plutonium pit production facility after two separate incidents where the system failed to blow contaminated air away from clean rooms where employees were working.  The most recent failure occurred on Aug. 22, when ventilation in the Plutonium Facility, called PF-4, […]

People placed on leave from the Los Alamos National Laboratory for refusing a COVID-19 vaccinations will get no help from the courts in ongoing arbitration proceedings with the lab, a federal judge in New Mexico said recently. The decision dropped Halloween night in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico, where Judge Kea Riggs told […]

People placed on leave from the Los Alamos National Laboratory for refusing a COVID-19 vaccinations will get no help from the courts in ongoing arbitration proceedings with the lab, a federal judge in New Mexico said recently. The decision dropped Halloween night in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico, where Judge Kea Riggs told […]

Critical-decision 2 for a new plutonium pit production plant at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is now expected in fiscal 2025, a state panel heard last week from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Jason Armstrong, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) field office at Savannah River, told the […]

A series of small but troubling safety and health issues triggered a “stop work order” by the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, federal and company managers said during an online meeting Wednesday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) issued the stop work order Oct. 13, suspending most field […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Wednesday evening the agency could soon pick up its first contract option with the legacy cleanup contractor. “The Department of Energy is getting ready to award our first contract option period under our contract […]

A series of small but troubling safety and health issues triggered a “stop work order” by the legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, federal and company managers said during an online meeting Wednesday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) issued the stop work order Oct. 13, suspending most field […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Wednesday evening the agency could soon pick up its first contract option with the legacy cleanup contractor. “The Department of Energy is getting ready to award our first contract option period under our contract […]

The Department of Energy said this week it plans to increase the ceiling on a small business contract held by RSI Services to $47 million from $22 million for demolition and removal work at two Naval Reactor sites in New York state. Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based RSI won the five-year demolition contract for the Kesselring and […]

The Pantex Plant could soon rid itself of plutonium sent to the Amarillo, Texas, nuclear weapons depot from the Savannah River Site, the government’s independent nuclear safety agency said recently. In late August, according to a report published this week by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, Pantex prime contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) demonstrated […]

A federal judge in New Mexico has granted an additional 100 days for the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department to continue settlement talks over a 2016 compliance order on consent that governs legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar granted the request Oct. 3 […]

KNOXVILLE, TENN. —The Department of Energy’s planned expansion of plutonium pit production at sites in New Mexico and South Carolina and other missions figure to drive a big jump in demand for glove box facilities in the near future, two speakers told the Energy Technology & Environmental Business Association conference here Thursday. Between 2022 and […]

Representatives of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup field office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory told the Northern New Mexico Advisory Board Monday the legacy waste contractor has started digging up corrugated metal pipes at Area G. In addition, the DOE’s Environmental Management field office should produce a strategic plan within the next 15 […]

Due primarily to COVID-19, Los Alamos National  Laboratory believed it could take a year longer than expected for the the lab to casting 10 plutonium pits annually in New Mexico, according to an internal document. A redacted copy of the Los Alamos-authored document, dated September 2021 and released by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

Due primarily to COVID-19, Los Alamos National  Laboratory believed it could take a year longer than expected for the the lab to casting 10 plutonium pits annually in New Mexico, according to an internal document. A redacted copy of the Los Alamos-authored document, dated September 2021 and released by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The legacy nuclear cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday it recently awarded a total of $120 million in subcontracts for soil contamination work to three companies. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) said in a press release that Idaho-based North Wind Group will assist […]

The legacy nuclear cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday it recently awarded a total of $120 million in subcontracts for soil contamination work to three companies. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) said in a press release that Idaho-based North Wind Group will assist […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration removed a tranche of weapon useable plutonium from the Nevada National Security Site after a roughly three-year layover, Nevada’s senior U.S. Senator said Friday. The nuclear weapons agency moved the plutonium to the test site in 2018 after the state of South Carolina successfully sued the government for keeping the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 25 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during August, according to the public website. That’s far more than the seven received at the underground salt mine during August 2021. The increased number of shipments during the past month means the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

Cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) last week began excavating corrugated metal pipes containing radioactive waste buried at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Retrieval of the corrugated metal pipes began Sept. 8 as part of a project that could last into March 2024, the spokesperson said […]

A draft site-wide environmental impact statement for the Los Alamos National Laboratory should appear in the summer or fall of 2023, the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week during public scoping meetings about the extensive environmental review of the nuclear weapons lab. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency took public comment on Tuesday […]

Cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) last week began excavating corrugated metal pipes containing radioactive waste buried at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Retrieval of the corrugated metal pipes began Sept. 8 as part of a project that could last into March 2024, the spokesperson said […]

A draft site-wide environmental impact statement for the Los Alamos National Laboratory should appear in the summer or fall of 2023, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday in the first of two scheduled public scoping meetings about the extensive environmental review of the nuclear weapons lab. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency planned […]

More than a year after President Joe Biden announced the effort, much of the Department of Energy’s weapons complex is struggling to understand the particulars of the Justice40 Initiative if comments Wednesday by nuclear cleanup advisory board chairs are any indication. In broad terms, Justice40 was set up by Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order 14008, […]

The Department of Energy granted a request by Los Alamos National Laboratory’ cleanup contractor in New Mexico to resume “drilling and draining” containers with free liquids to prepare them for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an agency spokesperson said Sept. 2. DOE has also endorsed plans by Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) […]

In one of its first public field hearings since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board will review operations at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico this November. During a Nov. 16 session in Santa Fe, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will look into both […]

In one of its first public field hearings since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board will review operations at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico this November. During a Nov. 16 session in Santa Fe, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will look into both […]