Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico designs nuclear weapons and serves as the NNSA’s lead site for plutonium pit production. Coverage tracks pit manufacturing milestones, safety and security findings, the laboratory’s management contract, budget requests, and legacy waste cleanup.
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National Laboratories
Longenecker Hires Ex-DOE Official at Los Alamos
George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]
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National Laboratories
Longenecker Hires Ex-DOE Official at Los Alamos
George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
BWXT CEO Encouraged by Recent DOE ‘Wins,’ Hopes for More
BWX Technologies has rolled up a trio of big “wins” in the Energy Department’s cleanup complex during the past 12 months and is hoping for more, President and CEO Rex Geveden said Wednesday. “There remain significant pending opportunities including the re-award of the Savannah River [Site] liquid waste contract, Savannah River management and operations,” along […]
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Transuranic Waste
While Simpson is Easy Victor, He Loses Subcommittee Chair to Dems
While Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) easily won re-election Tuesday, his ability to influence the money flow to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, and federal nuclear cleanup operations as a whole, appears to be on the decline. Simpson took more than 60 percent of the vote in Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District to decisively defeat Democrat […]
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Budget & Policy
Los Alamos Congressman Bucks for Democratic Leadership Post
The New Mexico congressman whose district covers the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s wants a leadership role with the House Democrats, who in midterm elections Tuesday secured control of the lower chamber for the next two years. Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a five-term congressman who just won a sixth, announced the move online Wednesday, including […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Simpson Takes Easy Victory, But Will Lose His Subcommittee Chair
While Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) easily won re-election Tuesday, his ability to influence the money flow to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, and federal nuclear cleanup operations as a whole, appears to be on the decline. Simpson took more than 60 percent of the vote in Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District to decisively defeat Democrat Aaron […]
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National Laboratories
Longenecker Hires Ex-DOE Official for Subcontract Work at Los Alamos
George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
BWXT, Centrus to Release Latest Earnings This Week
Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies will issue its quarterly earnings report for the three months ended Sept. 30 after market close Tuesday, then will discuss the results in a conference call at 8:30 a.m. EST Wednesday. In August, BWX Technologies reported $439 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2018, a 7.1 percent uptick from […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
DOE Begins Work to Remove Plutonium From South Carolina
The Department of Energy said this week it has started work to move a metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina, after three federal appeals judges affirmed a lower court’s order to remove the material from the state by Jan. 1, 2020. Barring an escalation to the U.S. Supreme Court, or a rehearing in the U.S. […]
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Budget & Policy
House Member Representing WIPP Pursues New Mexico Governorship
The congressional district that covers the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) will have new representation in January after incumbent Rep. Steve Pearce stepped aside to run for New Mexico governor. Pearce is facing off against a colleague in Congress, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), to succeed term-limited governor Susana Martinez, a Republican. Pearce, […]
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National Laboratories
Triad Takes Over at Los Alamos
Triad National Security took over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Thursday, ending a decade-long experiment in running the nation’s oldest nuclear weapons laboratory as a for-profit business. After a four-month transition, Triad — led by the nonprofit trio of Battelle Memorial Institute, longtime Los Alamos manager the University of […]
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Decommissioning
BWXT Picks New Head for D&D Work at Naval Labs
Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has selected executive David Brown to head a joint venture, BWSR LLC, focused on decommissioning and tearing down facilities at Naval Nuclear Laboratory sites. As president of BWSR, Brown will lead the 250-person BWXT Technical Services Group-APTIM Federal Services team that provides cleanup at sites under contract to Fluor Marine Propulsion […]
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National Laboratories
Triad to Take Over Los Alamos Today
Triad National Security is set today to take over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, ending a decade-long experiment in running the nation’s oldest nuclear weapons laboratory as a for-profit business. The transition was still on track for Thursday, a Triad spokesperson wrote in a Wednesday email. The company — led […]
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Transuranic Waste
Huntington Ingalls Touts Rollout of N3B Team at Los Alamos
Despite its unusual circumstances, the 10-year contract for legacy cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico is off to a good start for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B). The contractor has about 500 employees at the lab, but fewer than 100 came over in April from prior environmental […]
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Defense Low-Level Waste
Los Alamos Shipped Plenty of Low-Level Waste in 2017
The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico last year shipped 5,058,687 kilograms of low-level radioactive waste off-site for disposal at federal and commercial properties. Operations at storied nuclear weapons laboratory generate low-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, mixed low-level waste, and mixed transuranic waste, according to the 2017 Annual Site Environmental Report […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Wrap Up: Comment Period Extended on Oak Ridge Landfill
The Department of Energy has extended the public comment period by 45 days for the new 2.2-million-cubic yard waste disposal facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Comments are now being accepted through Dec. 10. The department has also postponed a public hearing on the landfill, which had been scheduled for Oct. 18, until […]
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Contracts & Procurement
HII Brings on Two Former NNSA Managers to Provide Performance Assessments
Huntington Ingalls Industries has hired two former officials with the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration to lead a performance assessment team for company affiliates doing work at nuclear sites around the country. Kim Lebak, who managed the NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory Field Office from 2014 through 2017, and Doug Dearolph, who […]
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National Laboratories
NNSA Won’t Rule Out Forcing LANL Manager to File for Tax-Exempt Status
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) won’t rule out pressing Triad National Security, the incoming management contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to apply for federal nonprofit status. The company apparently hasn’t done that yet, and its new host county hopes it never does. The NNSA “is focused on making the transition […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Expects 5 Shipments from Los Alamos in Short Term
The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is expected to make four more shipments of transuranic waste to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the near term, after having just revived shipments from LANL’s Area G. A weekly report dated Sept. 28 from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) indicated […]
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Transuranic Waste
Los Alamos Shipped 5M Kilograms of Low-Level Waste in 2017
The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico last year shipped 5,058,687 kilograms of low-level radioactive waste off-site for disposal at federal and commercial properties. Operations at storied nuclear weapons laboratory generate low-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, mixed low-level waste, and mixed transuranic waste, according to the 2017 Annual Site Environmental Report […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
N3B Hires Subcontractor for Cleanup at Los Alamos Technical Area 21
The contractor for legacy cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), has hired a subcontractor to remove telephone poles, old fences, and tons of concrete from Technical Area 21. The $1.5 million contract was awarded to a team of Montana-based Envirocon and Los Alamos-based […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Receives 254 TRU Shipments Through Oct. 3
The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., had through Oct. 3 received 254 shipments of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in 2018. At least one more has come in since then — a shipment from Area G of DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. The Energy Department and its LANL […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Bechtel, Longenecker Add New CFOs
Two contractors in the Department of Energy nuclear complex have both named chief financial officers in recent days. In a Monday news release, Bechtel said it has promoted Catherine Hunt Ryan to the position. Hunt Ryan previously served as CFO at Bechtel’s Oil, Gas & Chemicals business for more than two years and has been […]
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Cleanup & Remediation
Subcontractor Hired for Cleanup at Los Alamos Technical Area 21
The contractor for legacy cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), has hired a subcontractor to remove telephone poles, old fences, and tons of concrete from Technical Area 21. The $1.5 million contract was awarded to a team of Montana-based Envirocon and Los Alamos-based […]
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Transuranic Waste
WIPP Has Received 250 of TRU Shipments So Far in 2018
The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., had received 250 shipments of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in 2018, as of the end of September. That figure, available from publicly accessible data, does not include a shipment from Area G of DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. The Energy […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Longenecker & Associates Adds New CFO
Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates has hired James Veres as to its newly created post of chief financial officer and vice president of business operations effective Oct. 22. The Energy Department subcontractor announced the addition in a Monday news release. Since 2011 Veres has been chief financial officer at BCS, a government services firm and […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
Way to Pit Production Clear in New Mexico
Barriers to producing plutonium nuclear weapon cores in South Carolina remain, but the way is wide open in New Mexico, where the National Nuclear Security Administration has entered the peak spending years of upgrades aimed at producing a war-usable “pit” by fiscal 2024. The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous stockpile steward is entering peak construction years on […]
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Contracts & Procurement
Fluor Puts Quarterly Revenue at $4.6 Billion
Fluor on Wednesday said its revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 will be about $4.6 billion, down a bit from the $4.9 billion during the same quarter in 2017. The figures Fluor announced Thursday were preliminary and the regular, full earnings report will be released Nov. 1. Fluor said to expect its third-quarter 2018 […]
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Transuranic Waste
Wrap Up: Livermore to Resume TRU Shipments to WIPP
Another Department of Energy facility is preparing to resume shipping its transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Shipments of contact-handled waste from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California should begin in 2019, lab spokesman Nolan O’Brien said Tuesday by email. The resumption is based on availability of funding […]
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National Laboratories
Triad Still on Track to Take Over Los Alamos on Nov. 1
Triad National Security remains on course to take over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Nov. 1, the president and chief executive office of the incoming management contractor told regents of the University of California. Thomas Mason, who will also be lab director, reaffirmed his stance that restoring Los Alamos to […]









