Los Alamos National Laboratory

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) garnered 83 percent of its potential fee for its first five months on the job as legacy cleanup contractor at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. After taking over from Los Alamos National Security, N3B earned roughly $2.4 million of a potential $2.9 million from […]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said Monday she has selected a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official as secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). James Kenney until recently was a senior policy adviser for oil and natural gas at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. He will have an official start date, […]

The former management contractor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico received a slap on the wrist from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) over a 2017 incident in which personnel entered a low-oxygen environment in violation of federal workplace safety laws. No one was hurt in the Sept. 13, 2017, incident, in […]

Despite an ongoing partial government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Justice must argue a court case on Jan. 17 about whether the Department of Energy is allowed to store 1 metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium in Nevada, a federal judge said Wednesday. The Justice Department represents DOE in the lawsuit brought by Nevada in November […]

The Energy Department has chosen agency veteran Laura Wilkerson as deputy manager at the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee. Wilkerson has been at DOE for 25 years and was previously director of OREM’s Planning and Execution Division, which helps coordinate remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the Y-12 National Security […]

A New Mexico hearing officer has endorsed the Energy Department’s request to revise how transuranic waste “volume” is calculated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act. The Dec. 10 report by state Hearing Officer Max Shepherd is now before New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch Tongate, who […]

Barring a last-minute announcement from the Department of Energy, 2018 will end much like it started: With many major contractors waiting to see who will win a multibillion-dollar, 10-year contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The most recent procurement schedule for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, from Nov. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) disposal facility in Texas for up to two more years, and Texas regulators are expected to follow suit. The head of NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Marc […]

A federal appeals court’s October order to remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, took effect this week, depriving the Department of Energy of some legal wiggle room to contest the directive. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., gave notice Tuesday that its October ruling was, […]

Albuquerque, N.M.-based Energy Department contractor Strategic Management Solutions Inc. has promoted longtime executive David O’Flynn to president effective Jan. 1. O’Flynn, currently senior vice president at SMSI, is a veteran of project management, construction, engineering, and nuclear infrastructure work across the Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration complex, the company said in a Wednesday […]

An appeals court’s October order for removal of 1 metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, took effect Tuesday, depriving the Department of Energy of some legal wiggle room to contest the directive. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., gave notice that its October ruling was, as far […]

Leaving problem waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Texas for two more years should not cause any significant environmental risks, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With the current extension to a 2014 order set to expire in days, the NRC is publishing an […]

The Department of Energy told a federal court Friday that rushing 1 metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, will delay the day it can move even more of the fissile material out of the state by three to six months. Removing the plutonium from the Savannah River Site in […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking comments this month on the Energy Department’s annual update to its cleanup plans for the Idaho National Laboratory complex. The comment deadline on DOE’s draft 2019 version of its Site Treatment Plan for the 890-square-mile national laboratory expires at 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 28, […]

A Government Accountability Office report published recently roughs out the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) timeline for producing a refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile warhead by roughly 2030. The NNSA would begin studying options for a W78 replacement between April and June 2019, nail down a cost and schedule baseline by June 2022, and produce the first war-ready […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management prime Triad National Security is whipping together plans for addressing the major weapons projects of the future and cleaning up after major lab faux pas of the past. Triad, a three-way partnership of Battelle, longtime Los Alamos operator the University of California, and Texas A&M University, took over as the […]

Nevada escalated a closed-door dialogue with the Department of Energy (DOE) to the federal court system last month because the agency got cagey about its plans for moving 1 metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium to and from the state beginning in 2019, according to an affidavit from a state official. The document was filed […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) could face fines from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) for reportedly sending construction waste to a nearby public landfill without proper documentation. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Friday that NMED has threatened to fine LANL for making several shipments of construction waste to the Caja […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Los Alamos’ new counter-unmanned aircraft […]

The Department of Energy should consider performing a lengthy environmental review of its plan to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium by burying the material deep underground, a congressionally chartered panel said Friday. The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might find the disposal plan easier to manage if it produces […]

The Department of Energy should consider performing a lengthy environmental review of its plan to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium by burying the material deep underground, a congressionally chartered panel said Friday. The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might find the disposal plan easier to manage if it produces […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Los Alamos’ new counter-unmanned aircraft […]

WASHINGTON — William Bookless, nominated to be second-in-command at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), defended the agency’s plan to build two nuclear-warhead-core factories in the face of a double-edged inquisition from a pair of Senate Democrats here Thursday. Facing pressure from a third Democratic lawmaker during his confirmation hearing, the physicist and longtime […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – While the Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup manager said Wednesday her office will not use a new agency order to thwart oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), members of the panel remained apprehensive. Order 140.1, issued in May, will not change the relationship between DOE’s Office of Environmental Management […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corp. on Nov. 8 named William Madia to its Board of Directors. In addition to heading his own energy consulting firm, Madia is chairman of the board and vice president for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University in California. Originally called the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, […]

Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) will be the assistant Democratic leader in the 116th Congress come January, bolstering the political bona fides of the six-termer, whose 3rd Congressional District includes the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Luján confirmed the news in a Twitter post late Wednesday. It is a relatively low-ranking leadership post — fourth after […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The NNSA did […]

Terry Wallace, who was briefly director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the waning days of Los Alamos National Security’s management contract, is still with the lab in an emeritus role, a Los Alamos spokesperson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Wallace “continues to serve the Laboratory as Director Emeritus in the Office of National […]

WASHINGTON — The aspiring chair of the House Armed Services Committee wants to scrap the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, whip up a multilateral Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces-style treaty, and take a run at making no-first-use the nuclear law of the land. Speaking here Wednesday at the Ploughshares Fund’s “Future of U.S. Nuclear Policy” conference, Rep. […]

WASHINGTON — The aspiring chair of the House Armed Services Committee wants to scrap the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, whip up a multilateral Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces-style treaty, and take a run a making no-first-use the nuclear law of the land. Speaking here Wednesday at the Ploughshares Fund’s “Future of U.S. Nuclear Policy” conference, Rep. […]