National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be ready to perform an underground nuclear-explosive test in a matter of months, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.  “I’ve heard NNSA administrators and lab directors in the past talk about a very quick test with limited diagnostics, though certainly diagnostics, within months,” said Drew Walter, who is performing […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is making preparations for bringing staff back to their offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesman said Tuesday. Ninety-eight percent of the federal regulator’s personnel have been working remotely since March to help prevent the spread of novel coronavirus 2019 during the national public health emergency. The agency’s “COVID Task Force […]

Some government fleet vehicles were vandalized and stolen from a commuter parking lot frequented by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) contractors traveling to and from the Nevada National Security Site, according to the Department of Energy inspector general. The mischief happened prior to October 2018, when somebody told the agency watchdog that people were using […]

The Donald Trump administration intends to nominate Lucas Polakowski, a former officer at U.S. Strategic Command, to be the top civilian in the Pentagon’s program to counter weapons of mass destruction. The White House announced its intent to nominate Polakowski on Wednesday for the post of assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological […]

The federal government and the firm it hired to build a now-canceled plutonium recycling plant have one year to settle allegations that the contractor defrauded the Department of Energy, or the case will go before a jury later that year, according to a Wednesday court filing.  In 2019, The Justice Department alleged CB&I AREVA MOX […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be ready to perform an underground nuclear-explosive test in a matter of months, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.  “I’ve heard NNSA administrators and lab directors in the past talk about a very quick test with limited diagnostics, though certainly diagnostics, within months,” said Drew Walter, who is performing […]

Random tests for COVID-19 infection are now mandatory for personnel reporting to work at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to a recent note to personnel. Essentially, anyone on-site, including subcontractors, could be scheduled for a test by the lab’s Occupational Medicine department. “Participation in the testing program is mandatory […]

The latest report that high-level U.S. officials have discussed a return to nuclear explosive testing stirred the usual sentiments of incredulity and puzzlement over the Memorial Day weekend, when some issue watchers wondered what such a development should or even could look like. The Washington Post reported Friday that a high-level White House official said […]

The Senate confirmed Kenneth Braithwaite as the next secretary of the Navy via voice vote on May 21. Braithwaite, who previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Norway, succeeds acting Secretary Thomas Modly, who resigned in April amid criticism of his removal of the commander of the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier. Army Undersecretary […]

The first employees who return to Department of Energy headquarters buildings in Washington, D.C., and nearby Maryland, whenever that might be, will get a taste of the new normal their colleagues at nuclear sites have experienced for weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, new agency guidance shows. Temperature checks, pre-arrival symptom questionnaires, and continued social distancing […]

Tim Griffin, executive director of the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Energy, Technology, and Environmental Business Association for nearly five years, has left to take another job. Griffin’s last day was May 8 at the trade group that represents about 170 firms and individuals doing business with the Energy Department or its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

Weeks after the Department of Energy authorized operators of nuclear-weapon sites to bill the government for expenses associated with COVID-19 prevention, most of those prime contractors are still working on trickling down relief to subcontractors. One of the primes’ main mechanisms for recouping such expenses is to bill the government in accordance with Section 3610 […]

The Department of Energy, the manager of its Los Alamos National Laboratory, and an on-site contractor all shoulder some blame for a May 2019 incident that contaminated a University of Washington building in Seattle with cesium-137, according to a recent report. The “preventable” event during a radiological source recovery operation resulted from “weak and partially […]

Marshall Billingslea, President Donald Trump’s new point man on arms control, warned Thursday that Congress would undercut arms control negotiations with Russia and China by slowing progress on the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. “Congress has strongly supported the modernization of our deterrent,” Billingslea, the State Department’s special presidential envoy for arms control, said […]

It’s a good-news, bad-news week regarding the 225,000 Chinese-made personal respirators the National Nuclear Security Administration ordered to protect employees and contractors from COVID-19. The good news is they’re still coming. The bad news is that they will arrive at a 70% price premium, compared to what the agency thought it would pay. The semiautonomous Department of […]

The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) suspended most of its nuclear operations in late March because of COVID-19, but expansion of the site’s underground subcritical testing laboratory came back online in the first week of April. Expanding the existing U1a Complex, an effort known formally as the U1a Complex Enhancements Project (UCEP), will allow installation […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tracked three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 this week throughout its complex, as a surging outbreak in Texas forced the Pantex Plant to delay the start of its planned ramp-up to normal operations. There were 23 active cases in the nuclear weapons complex this week, a spokesperson for the […]

The Energy Department anticipates the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina will be better able to “engage with the research community” by having a its own operations contract, according to documents recently posted online. The slides used for an April 28 virtual online meeting on the draft request for proposals for the potential 10-year, […]

The Department of Energy, the manager of its Los Alamos National Laboratory, and an on-site contractor all shoulder some blame for a May 2019 incident that contaminated a University of Washington building in Seattle with cesium-137, according to a recent report. The “preventable” event during a radiological source recovery operation resulted from “weak and partially […]

International Isotopes in April secured a $495,500 bank loan via federal COVID-19 relief legislation to help pay its employees, according to a quarterly filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Paycheck Protection Program in the CARES Act, signed into law in March, is intended via forgivable loans to assist small businesses in meeting […]

It’s a good-news, bad-news week regarding the 225,000 Chinese-made personal respirators the National Nuclear Security Administration ordered to protect employees and contractors from COVID-19. The good news is they’re still coming. The bad news is that they will arrive at a 70% price premium, compared to what the agency thought it would pay. The semiautonomous […]

Tim Griffin, executive director of the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Energy, Technology, and Environmental Business Association for nearly five years, has left to take another job. Griffin’s last day was May 8 at the trade group that represents about 170 firms and individuals doing business with the Energy Department or its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

Nuclear Fuel Services has not tracked any new cases of COVID-19 among its workforce since an outbreak in mid-April sickened multiple people at its Erwin, Tenn., uranium-processing plant, a spokesperson said Thursday morning. The BWX Technologies subsidiary “has had no new cases of COVID-19 among our employees,” the spokesperson said by email. “Those affected are […]

The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) suspended most of its nuclear operations in late March because of COVID-19, but expansion of the site’s underground subcritical testing laboratory came back online in the first week of April. Expanding the existing U1a Complex as part of the U1a Complex Enhancements Project (UCEP) is central to plans to […]

International Isotopes in April secured a $495,500 bank loan via federal COVID-19 relief legislation to help pay its employees, according to a quarterly filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in the CARES Act, signed into law in March, is intended to assist small businesses in meeting payroll, and […]

The first employees who return to Department of Energy headquarters buildings in Washington, D.C., and nearby Maryland, whenever that might be, will get a taste of the new normal their colleagues at nuclear sites have experienced for weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, new agency guidance shows. Temperature checks, pre-arrival symptom questionnaires, and continued social distancing […]

Some of the Nevada National Security Site’s nuclear programs ground to a halt in April, according to a new report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (SNFSB). At the same time, the independent federal agency reported Friday, some non-nuclear work continued at the U1a Complex, which the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is expanding […]

There is one new confirmed positive case of COVID-19 at the Savannah River Site, bringing the total to 14, the Department of Energy facility in Aiken, S.C., announced Monday. The 13 people who were previously confirmed to have caught the disease caused by the novel coronavirus 2019 have recovered and gone back to work, according […]

Three weeks after the Department of Energy authorized operators of nuclear-weapon sites to bill the government for expenses associated with COVID-19 prevention, most of those prime contractors are still working on trickling down relief to subcontractors. One of the primes’ main mechanisms for recouping such expenses is to bill the government in accordance with Section […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it is tracking one new confirmed case of COVID-19 across its national network of sites, bringing the cumulative total for the agency up to 71 even as the number of active cases dropped to 20.  There are no signs that any employee at an NNSA facility has died […]