Archive

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.

  • Former Los Alamos Community Advocate Hopes Reimbursement Dispute is Over

    The former head of an advocacy group for communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday she has repaid $800 in questioned expenses in an effort to resolve a public dispute that marred the end of her tenure. The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of […]

  • New Cleanup Contractor to Take Reins at Los Alamos This Month

    Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) is on schedule at the end of April to take over as the new legacy cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico. “We are ready to get started,” Nick Lombardo, president and project manager for the joint venture between Stoller Newport News Nuclear […]

  • Los Alamos Wrestles With Recent Waste Problems

    The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is taking steps to address a recent series of errors in waste handling that earned it a state penalty, and to keep them from recurring, a spokesman said Wednesday. Among other measures, LANL voluntarily suspended all waste shipments from Dec. 18 through Feb. 28, while it investigated […]

  • Former Los Alamos Community Advocate Hopes Reimbursement Dispute is Over

    The former head of an advocacy group for communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday she has repaid $800 in questioned expenses in an effort to resolve a public dispute that marred the end of her tenure. The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of […]

  • Los Alamos Working to Straighten Out Recent Waste Problems

    The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is taking steps to address a recent series of errors in waste handling and keep them from recurring, a spokesman said Wednesday. Among other things, LANL voluntarily suspended all waste shipments from Dec. 18 through Feb. 28, while it investigated how it had mislabeled a container of […]

  • Ex-Los Alamos Community Advocate Hopes Reimbursement Dispute is Over

    The former head of an advocacy group for communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday she has repaid $800 in questioned expenses in an effort to resolve a public dispute that marred the end of her tenure. The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of […]

  • New Cleanup Contractor Prepares to Take Over at Los Alamos

    Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) is on schedule at the end of April to take over as the new legacy cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory in New Mexico. “We are ready to get started,” Nick Lombardo, president and project manager for the joint venture between Stoller Newport News Nuclear […]

  • LANL Beat Small Biz Procurement Goal in FY17

    The Los Alamos National Laboratory contracted out just shy of 60 percent of its total procurement dollars to small businesses in fiscal 2017, handily exceeding the Department of Energy’s goal for the nation’s oldest nuclear-weapon lab. In the penultimate year of Los Alamos National Security’s (LANS) management and operations contract, the northern New Mexico weapons […]

  • New Mexico Plans to Penalize LANL Over Waste Violation

    The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) plans to penalize the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory for mishandling certain waste earlier this year, a move that could entail a $10,000 daily fine for each instance of noncompliance. “Los Alamos National Laboratory self-reported a violation earlier this year, which involved five stored hazardous waste containers […]

  • After Finishing LANL Project, DOE Must Still Address Nitrate Salt Drums in Texas

    It could take some time for the Energy Department to decide how to handle 113 drums of inappropriately remediated nitrate salts stored at a privately operated disposal site in Texas, a senior DOE official said last week. The waste originated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which as of this month has […]

  • NNSA Talked With LANL Bidders Last Week

    Organizations bidding to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory met with National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials last week, marking one of the final steps in the competition for a 10-year, $20-billion-plus management and operations contract. The meetings in Washington, D.C., between government officials and an undisclosed number of bid teams keep the Department of […]

  • NNSA Talked With LANL Bidders Last Week

    Organizations bidding to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory met with National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials last week, marking one of the final steps in the competition for a 10-year, $20-billion-plus management and operations contract. The meetings in Washington, D.C., between government officials and an undisclosed number of bid teams keep the Department of […]

  • WIPP Gradually Getting Its Mojo Back on Waste Disposal, Mining

    PHOENIX, Ariz. — During 2017, its first year of operation following a nearly three-year shutdown, the Energy Department Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico resumed disposing of transuranic waste, tightened its vetting of incoming shipments, and resumed salt mining, officials said this week. The nation’s only underground repository for TRU waste, which is overseen […]

  • Heinrich Blasts NNSA Pit Study, Resists Moving Any Production From N.M.

    Sen, Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) publicly went on the offensive this week against the National Nuclear Security Administration’s slowly gelling plan to shift production of some nuclear-weapon cores to South Carolina from New Mexico. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is in the final stages of deciding whether to start manufacturing a select number of plutonium […]

  • Decision on Moving Pit Production Due in Early May, NNSA Chief Says

    WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will decide in early May whether it wants to build nuclear-warhead cores known as plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., the agency’s new administrator said here Wednesday in congressional testimony. The Pentagon needs the NNSA by 2030 to produce 80 plutonium pits a […]

  • Hanford Waste Plant Should Start Making Glass in 2021, Owendoff Says

    The Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state should start converting low-activity radioactive waste into vitrified glass by the end of 2021, in advance of a legal deadline, the highest-ranking official at the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management said Wednesday. James Owendoff, principal deputy assistant energy secretary for environmental management, […]

  • Idaho Advisory Panel Considers Future Uses for AMWTP

    The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board is preparing to issue a recommendation on the future of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), sources said this week. The Energy Department advisory board will hear public input on potential future uses for the AMWTP during a conference call on March 28. The […]

  • Local Leaders Support SRS Pit Production in Meeting with NNSA Administrator

    Local and state leaders in South Carolina told the new head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) that the Savannah River Site would be the best place for plutonium pit production just before her visit to the Energy Department facility last week. NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, who has been on the job since […]

  • NNSA to Meet With LANL Bidders Next Week, One Bidder Says

    The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to host the teams bidding to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 10 years for face-to-face meetings next week, an official with one bidder said late Wednesday. “[B]idders will be receiving feedback on their proposals this week,” Kim Budil, vice president for national laboratories for the University […]

  • Hanford Waste Plant Should Start Producing Glass in 2021, Owendoff Says

    The Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state should start converting low-activity radioactive waste into vitrified glass by the end of 2021, in advance of a legal deadline, the highest-ranking official at the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management said Wednesday. James Owendoff, principal deputy assistant energy secretary for environmental management, […]

  • NNSA to Meet With LANL Bidders Next Week, One Bidder Says

    The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to host the teams bidding to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 10 years for face-to-face meetings next week, an official with one bidder said late Wednesday. “[B]idders will be receiving feedback on their proposals this week,” Kim Budil, vice president for national laboratories for the University […]

  • UC Regents to Talk LANL Contract Today

    University of California regents were scheduled to hear an update today in Los Angeles about the institution’s bid to run the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 10 years. One piece of news to watch for: whether the department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has hosted the university and its […]

  • Idaho Advisory Panel Studies Future Uses for AMWTP

    The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board is preparing to issue a recommendation on the future of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), sources said this week. The Energy Department advisory board will hear public input on potential future uses for the AMWTP during a conference call on March 28. The […]

  • N.M. Gov. Shoots Down Bill to Tax Nonprofit Nat’l Lab Operators

    In a blow to local interest groups that backed the measure, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have increased taxes for nonprofit entities that operate Department of Energy national laboratories in the state. Martinez vetoed the measure — which would have levied the states gross receipts tax on nonprofit […]

  • Leadership Change Expected for Los Alamos Advocacy Group

    Faced with local news coverage raising questions about her expense account, and in the middle of a state legislative campaign, Andrea Romero acknowledged Friday her days at the helm of an advocacy group for communities near the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are likely over. “It would be hard for me […]

  • Leadership Change Expected for Los Alamos Community Advocacy Group

    Faced with local news coverage raising questions about her expense account, and in the middle of a state legislative campaign, Andrea Romero acknowledged Friday her days at the helm of an advocacy group for communities near the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are likely over. “It would be hard for me […]

  • N.M. Gov. Shoots Down Bill to Tax Nonprofit Nat’l Lab Operators

    In a blow to local interest groups that backed the measure, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have increased taxes for nonprofit entities that operate Department of Energy national laboratories in the state. Martinez vetoed the measure — which would have levied the states gross receipts tax on nonprofit […]

  • NNSA Wants to Start Modification for Crucial Los Alamos Pit Facility

    The Department of Energy wants to do more plutonium chemistry and experiments in an existing building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as part of a plan to resume the lab’s production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores called plutonium pits. The move would mean raising the amount of plutonium-239, or its equivalent, allowed […]

  • BWXT Chief Upbeat GAO Decision Won’t Short-Circuit New Contract Award

    BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden sounded confident Wednesday that a partnership led by his company will retain a 10-year contract for liquid waste management at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina – even after the Government Accountability Office upheld a competitor’s protest against the deal. In a redacted version of […]

  • BWXT Reports Revenue Growth, Net Loss in 4Q 2017

    Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies, a major Energy Department contractor, said Tuesday it earned $430 million in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2017, a 6.5 percent increase over the $404 million it took in during the same period in 2017. BWXT said its revenue for the full year was $1.69 billion for 2017, an 8.8 […]