Los Alamos National Laboratory

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 86-14 to pass its $740.5-billion National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2021, which now faces a conference committee to iron out differences between it and the House version of the defense policy bill passed earlier this week. The NDAA crafted by the Senate Armed Services Committee would put a […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said Tuesday its operations for the Department of Energy would not be affected by the newly announced merging of two business groups. The corporate parent of Newport News Shipbuilding is combining two business lines within its Technical Solutions division: The previous Fleet Support and Mission Driven Innovative Solutions (MDIS) groups are becoming […]

The lawyer for a disgraced former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his involvement with a Chinese talent-recruiting program said his client should not be sentenced to prison on the technical grounds that his deception did not amount to perjury, which under federal sentencing guidelines could carry harsher penalties than […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said Tuesday its operations for the Department of Energy would not be affected by the newly announced merging of two business groups. The corporate parent of Newport News Shipbuilding is combining two business lines within its Technical Solutions division: The previous Fleet Support and Mission Driven Innovative Solutions (MDIS) groups are becoming […]

The Energy Department this week rejected a suggestion by the New Mexico Environment Department that it is being slow to take action on radioactive contamination discovered earlier this year on a public road outside the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Managers of Los Alamos field branches of both the DOE Office of Environmental Management and the […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved its fiscal 2021 energy and water development bill, clearing the way for a vote by the full House later this month on the spending plan that would provide at least $7.5 billion for Energy Department nuclear cleanup. The Democrat-majority panel approved the spending package in a 31-20 vote […]

A trio of major Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites targeted for fiscal 2021 funding cuts by the White House would be restored at least to current levels in the House of Representatives, according to newly released details of a committee spending package. The House Appropriations Committee on Sunday released the detailed legislative report for its […]

A federal judge has delayed sentencing the former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his connection to a Chinese talent recruitment program, giving the defense attorney a chance to persuade the court not to send his client to prison. It is the second sentencing delay for Turab Lookman, who worked at […]

It is “likely” that some of a group of 15 Los Alamos National Laboratory employees were internally contaminated with plutonium-238 oxide that leaked out of a ruptured glove-box glove on June 8, the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon facility said this week. “Early bioassay results indicate low level intakes are likely in some of these workers,” […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee needed just 30 minutes Tuesday to advance its latest funding bill for consideration by the full committee. The proposal would provide Energy Department nuclear cleanup with $7.46 billion for fiscal 2021, roughly equal to the amount appropriated for fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30, and an increase […]

A federal judge has delayed sentencing the former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his connection to a Chinese talent recruitment program, giving the defense attorney a chance to persuade the court not to send his client to prison. It is the second sentencing delay for Turab Lookman, who worked […]

A spending plan advanced by the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee Tuesday would provide $50 million for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to clean up recently discovered contamination along a nearby public road. The money for investigation and remediation of an area along DP Road in Los Alamos County would […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is still investigating whether any of 15 employees working on plutonium-238 oxide were internally contaminated with the material last month after the apparent puncture of a glove-box glove. “Fifteen Laboratory workers are being evaluated for potential exposure. The area inside the Plutonium Facility where this occurred has […]

The House Appropriations Committee indicated Monday it plans to fund the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management at $7.46 million for fiscal 2021. The nuclear cleanup funding is roughly equal to the amount appropriated for fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30, and an increase of $1.4 billion from the request submitted in February by the […]

Radioactive contamination is more widespread than first thought along a road outside the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The area is part of a tract of land, which includes the site of a planned housing development, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory got whacked with some $300,000 in fines this month for failing to notify the New Mexico state government about eight off-site waste shipments in 2017 and 2018. The eight shipments, comprising 18 containers, happened while contractor Los Alamos National Security was still in charge of the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapon lab. […]

Radioactive contamination is more widespread than first thought along a road outside the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The area is part of a tract of land, which includes the site of a planned housing development, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County a few years […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act would allow $100 million more in the primary funding tranche for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management than requested by the Donald Trump administration. The legislation would authorize $5.1 billion for defense environmental cleanup for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory got whacked with some $300,000 in fines this month for failing to notify the New Mexico state government about eight off-site waste shipments in 2017 and 2018. The eight shipments, comprising 18 containers, happened while contractor Los Alamos National Security was still in charge of the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapon lab. […]

International Isotopes’ failure to adequately address the 2018 breach of a radioactive source at its Idaho headquarters contributed to a similar, larger event months later in Seattle, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Following a routine inspection earlier this year, the agency on Monday cited the Idaho Falls-based nuclear medicine company with apparent violations of […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act would allow $100 million more in the primary funding tranche for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management than requested by the Donald Trump administration. The legislation would authorize $5.1 billion for defense environmental cleanup for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory got whacked with some $300,000 in fines this month for failing to notify the New Mexico state government about eight off-site waste shipments in 2017 and 2018. The eight shipments, comprising 18 containers, happened while contractor Los Alamos National Security was still in charge of the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapons […]

Radioactive contamination is more widespread than first thought along a road outside the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The area is part of a tract of land, which includes the site of a planned housing development, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County […]

Reinhard Knerr, a director at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO), will in mid-July become the new permanent manager for the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. The appointment is part of a flurry of new assignments unveiled this week by the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Knerr is currently federal project director […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received only 67 shipments of transuranic waste during the first five months of the year, compared to 125 during the same period in 2019. The underground disposal site for defense-related TRU received 20 shipments in May. Thirteen came from the Idaho National Laboratory and seven […]

Reinhard Knerr, a director at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO), will in mid-July become the new permanent manager for the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. Knerr is currently federal project director for conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. His […]

Department of Energy contractor Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) has hired industry veteran Matthew Nuckols for the newly created position of executive vice president. A civil engineer, Nuckols has 25 years of project and program management experience at sites within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) complexes, […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received only 67 shipments of transuranic waste during the first five months of the year, compared to 125 during the same period in 2019. The underground disposal site for defense-related TRU received 20 shipments in May. Thirteen came from the Idaho National Laboratory and seven […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said the Energy Department might rely too much on its waste acceptance criteria program to keep potentially combustible material out of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The DOE’s National Transuranic Program employs the criteria at department facilities around the country to flag hazards in defense-related […]

One of the 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was at its Plutonium Facility (PF-4), which the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is relying on to produce war-ready plutonium pits starting in 2024. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) mentioned the case at PF-4 in a report […]