Los Alamos National Laboratory

A woman driving westbound on the main thoroughfare through Los Alamos left her lane and ran head-on into an SUV driven by Charles McMillan, killing him, the Los Alamos Police Department said. Charles McMillan, 69, was the only person to die in the crash in Los Alamos, N.M. Sept. 6. His wife Janet McMillan, and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday finished its First Production Unit of a plutonium pit for the planned W87-1 warhead, an agency press release said. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) verified, or “diamond stamped,” the pit, the fissile core of a warhead first stage, after it met the requirements for readiness to be […]

A woman driving westbound on the main thoroughfare through Los Alamos left her lane and ran head-on into an SUV driven by Charles McMillan, killing him, the Los Alamos Police Department said. Charles McMillan, 69, was the only person to die in the crash in Los Alamos, N.M. Sept. 6. His wife Janet McMillan, and […]

Senators proposed an amendment to the Senate’s version of the 2025 defense authorization bill to increase the number of F-35 developmental test aircraft for future upgrades from six to nine. The amendment would also push back the required fielding of the aircraft from 2030 to 2034. The planned amendment, by Senate Armed Services Committee chairman […]

New cleanup rules for the Los Alamos National Laboratory will go into effect by next week, but the Department of Energy and New Mexico do not have to agree on new cleanup deadlines by then. DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) must sign a revised consent order governing Los Alamos cleanup within 30 […]

After three years of litigation, the Department of Energy and the administration of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) settled on a new agreement for cleaning up legacy radioactive waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The New Mexico Environment Department announced the agreement last week in a press release. The new accord bears some similarities […]

After three years of litigation, the Department of Energy and the administration of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) settled on a new agreement for cleaning up legacy radioactive waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The New Mexico Environment Department announced the agreement last week in a press release. The new accord bears some […]

The legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has excavated most of the corrugated metal pipes buried at a material disposal area and sliced up more than half of the pipes, a federal advisory board heard last week. As of early last week, Newport News Nuclear BWXT […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is starting its preliminary market research into the next phase of legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In a Monday procurement notice, the Environmental Management office issued a sources sought/request for information on Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract II. “No solicitation exists […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is starting its preliminary market research into the next phase of legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In a Tuesday procurement notice, the Environmental Management office issued a sources sought/request for information on Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract II. “No solicitation exists […]

The legacy cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has excavated most of the corrugated metal pipes buried at a material disposal area and sliced up more than half of the pipes, a federal advisory board heard last week. As of early last week, Newport News Nuclear BWXT […]

An Amentum-led Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state is starting to remove radioactive waste from single-shell Tank A-101 and transfer it to a newer double-shell tank, DOE said in a Tuesday press release. Removal began of the 325,000 gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in Hanford’s A Tank Farm a […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory is slowing its hiring and growth with aims to alleviate overcrowding in the community, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said in answer to a local’s question at a large and vocal town hall Monday. “We’re not going to continue to grow the lab,” Jill Hruby, head of the […]

Top Department of Energy executives for the weapons complex Monday evening got an earful from a large and vocal crowd of New Mexico residents on everything from plutonium pit production to proposed new electric power lines near the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Also at one point during the 90-minute meeting, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory is slowing its hiring and growth with aims to alleviate overcrowding in the community, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said in answer to a local’s question at a large and vocal town hall Monday. “We’re not going to continue to grow the lab,” Jill Hruby, head of the […]

Editor’s note: the election digest tracks lawmakers whose constituencies include Department of Energy nuclear sites. Most lawmakers with big nuclear constituencies look, as usual, safe to win reelection this November. However, a few are retiring and some are in tight races. The Exchange Monitor’s election digest is tracking them all. Among the expected Senate retirees […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., is having a second straight week of daytime highs in the triple digits as several weapons complex sites are enduring extreme weather this week. The Hanford high Wednesday was expected to hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit and site highs could stay at 100 degrees or above through […]

The Department of Energy says it will take 60 more days, until mid-September, for it to prepare a report and briefing addressing Defense Nuclear Facilities Board concerns about continuous monitoring for a new ventilation system at the agency’s deep-underground transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in […]

A federal judge in New Mexico granted the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department until Oct. 7 to continue settlement talks on changes to agreements governing legacy waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar on Tuesday ordered another 90-day extension of the settlement talks after the […]

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) wants to amend the House Appropriations Committee’s 2025 energy and water bill to strip out a GOP provision to zero-fund the Department of Energy’s Justice40 Initiative. Stansbury, whose district includes Albuquerque, filed an amendment with the House Rules Commitment to strike part of the bill that prohibits funds from being used […]

A federal judge in New Mexico granted the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department until Oct. 7 to continue settlement talks on changes to agreements governing legacy waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar on Tuesday ordered another 90-day extension of the settlement talks after the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s largest ever carbon-pollution-free procurement would be a partnership with Los Alamos that aims to provide two Department of Energy labs in New Mexico with electricity from solar energy, the agency said Thursday. The project — called the Los Alamos County Foxtail Flats Solar and Storage Project — will notionally be […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s largest ever carbon-pollution-free procurement would be a partnership with Los Alamos that aims to provide two Department of Energy labs in New Mexico with electricity from solar energy, the agency said Thursday. The project — called the Los Alamos County Foxtail Flats Solar and Storage Project — will notionally be […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s largest ever carbon-pollution-free procurement would be a partnership with Los Alamos that aims to provide two Department of Energy labs in New Mexico with electricity from solar energy, the agency said Thursday. The project — called the Los Alamos County Foxtail Flats Solar and Storage Project — will notionally be […]

Two final Department of Energy small business solicitations, one for technical support at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and another for a landlord contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, could be released as early as July, the agency said Thursday. In a June 20 online notice,  DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said final […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Contractor and federal managers from across the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex are using technology to help predict issues from workplace accidents to infrastructure failure, these people said at a meeting here Tuesday. Using technology to help school new hires on potential hazards in a nuclear workplace is important amid the […]

Jessica Kunkle, a longtime hand around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex, started her new assignment overseeing the Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Kunkle, a 15-year-veteran of DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), officially started as Environmental Management field boss in Los Alamos on Monday, […]

LOUISVILLE, KY.—Once the National Nuclear Security Administration ramps up its plutonium pit production in the 2030s, the semi autonomous branch of the Department of Energy will be more closely linked with the waste disposal work of its sister DOE office for nuclear cleanup, Ahmad Al-Daouk said here Tuesday. “We are producing pits and we are […]

Jessica Kunkle. a Los Alamos, N.M., native and longtime National Nuclear Security Administration executive, will lead the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management field operation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory starting in June. Kunkle has been with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about 15 years and is a deputy administrator with NNSA’s […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Advisory Board for the nuclear cleanup site in Washington state, wants the feds to start looking for a second underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste —just in case. DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), near Carlsbad, N.M., is permitted by the New Mexico Environment Department to continue disposing of […]