Los Alamos National Laboratory

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, […]

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 […]

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 Friday. DOE has also endorsed plans by Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) to […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants the Department of Energy and its legacy cleanup contractor to prioritize a new safety analysis for the waste handling area of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that is currently in limited operations. Since January 2020, contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) has declared 24 […]

Due in part to this year’s Cerro Pelado wildfire, the New Mexico Environment Department has given the cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory until Oct. 30 to perform sampling connected with a hexavalent chromium plume. The state agency officially granted a two-month extension in an Aug. 24 letter to the […]

Due in part to this year’s Cerro Pelado wildfire, the New Mexico Environment Department has given the cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory until Oct. 30 to perform sampling connected with a hexavalent chromium plume. The state agency officially granted a two-month extension in an Aug. 24 letter to the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants the Department of Energy and its legacy cleanup contractor to prioritize a new safety analysis for the waste handling area of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that is currently in limited operations. Since January 2020, contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) has declared 24 […]

Longtime Los Alamos National Laboratory manager Carolyn Zerkle will become deputy director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory effective Sept. 12, the California nuclear-weapon design lab announced Monday. Zerkle spent more than 30 years at Los Alamos, most recently as senior director for project execution. In that job, she was responsible for the entire portfolio […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to conduct a major environmental review of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is set to become a nerve center and manufacturing satellite for nuclear weapon cores this decade. The semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency announced the impending site-wide environmental impact statement in a Federal Register notice set to be published […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is still “considering potential enforcement action” against the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch for failure to move stranded drums of transuranic waste out of Waste Control Specialists’ facility in Andrews County, a commission spokesperson said last week. The DOE Office of Environmental Management wrote the state July 11 […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is still “considering potential enforcement action” against the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch for failure to move stranded drums of transuranic waste out of Waste Control Specialists’ facility in Andrews County, a commission spokesperson said last week. The DOE Office of Environmental Management wrote the state July 11 […]

In the wake of three such incidents reported over the last year, Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, asked all hands to report racist acts and threats at nuclear-weapon sites. In an email dated Wednesday, Hruby slammed the acts as “offensive,” “inappropriate” and warned that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would […]

The inventory of defense-related transuranic waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico amounts to more than 3,300 containers, but most are not “ready to ship” to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office manager said last week. While the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) has 2,273 […]

The inventory of defense-related transuranic waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico amounts to more than 3,300 containers, but most are not “ready to ship” to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office manager said last week. While the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) has 2,273 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is preparing to lease office warehouse and storage space in northern New Mexico and Colorado, according to a notice posted online late last week. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency is considering leases within a 150-mile radius of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to an environmental impact […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said it will investigate the radioactive contamination in January of some Triad National Security employees at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility. The facility is in the early stages of an overhaul and expansion necessary for the lab to annually produce 30 war-ready plutonium pits […]

Joel Duling will resign as president of BWT Technology’s mainstay Nuclear Operations Group effective July 29, the company wrote in a regulatory filing dated Monday. Duling informed the company of his decision on July 12, according to the 8-K filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.  “Joel Duling is retiring from BWXT to pursue other […]

The legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in August plans to start the site’s largest radioactive waste extraction effort in more than a decade, a company executive told a federal advisory board Thursday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) vice president Joe Legare said in August the contractor […]

Northern New Mexico Integrated Security, a joint venture between incumbent Centerra Group and Tsay Construction and Services, a small business with tribal ownership, won a five-year security services contract at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, the lab announced Wednesday. Triad National Security, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s management contractor for Los Alamos, […]

Northern New Mexico Integrated Security, a joint venture between incumbent Centerra Group and Tsay Construction and Services, a small business with tribal ownership, won a five-year security services contract at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, the lab announced Wednesday. Triad National Security, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s management contractor for Los Alamos, […]

The legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in August plans to start the site’s largest radioactive waste extraction effort in more than a decade, a company executive told a federal advisory board Thursday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) vice president Joe Legare said in August the contractor […]

The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has lifted the indoor mask order it reinstituted earlier this month, a DOE spokesperson said Tuesday. That is thanks to the fact the COVID-19 community rate for Los Alamos County returned to “medium” on Friday July 15, after being “high” days earlier, the DOE […]

New Mexico’s traditional summertime monsoon rain season has dramatically lowered the risk of wildfires around the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory lately, a federal safety board said in a recent update. “Recent monsoonal rain events have increased moisture levels and lowered the wildland fire risk,” the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said […]

In keeping with federal guidance on COVID-19, many Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex sites are again requiring masks indoors. These include the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, their joint headquarters office in Lexington, Ky. All three have “high” community rates,  according to county-by-country transmission data from the Centers for Disease […]

New Mexico and the federal government this week asked a federal magistrate to give them until Oct. 3 to resolve litigation about the 2016 consent order governing legacy nuclear-weapons cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Department of Justice, on behalf of the Department of Energy, and the attorney general’s office for New Mexico […]

Confirmed COVID-19 cases among onsite workers at the Department of Energy’s nuclear-cleanup branch declined for the seven days ended Thursday after spiking in recent weeks, an agency spokesperson said. There were 119 confirmed and active COVID cases at DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) worksites this week, down 52 from the 171 recorded the prior […]

New Mexico and the federal government this week asked a federal magistrate to give them until Oct. 3 to resolve litigation about the 2016 consent order governing legacy nuclear-weapons cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Department of Justice, on behalf of the Department of Energy, and the attorney general’s office for New Mexico […]

With local data suggesting rising COVID-19 infection risks, the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are reinstating some stricter masking and testing requirements. While masks are still optional for employees at Hanford, some workers take a COVID-19 test when they come onsite, according to […]

A contract solicitation for Technical Support Services at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee could hit the street in September, the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center announced this week. The request for proposals (RFP) will be out no sooner than September, the contracting office said in a Thursday June 29 quarterly […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory will end on-site COVID-19 testing in July and shift most of the responsibility for preventing the spread of the disease on site to employees, according to a memo from lab director Thomas Mason. “Although regional case rates are expected to decrease over the next several weeks, public health experts predict COVID-19 […]