National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Because of COVID-19, the management and operations contractor for two of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapon-production sites may not know until June whether it will be kept on the job into 2023 and what fee it earned last year. “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 national emergency, the contractor notification date for the CNS […]

Essential federal workers, including those at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plants that have not paused operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, should have access to protective equipment and daily testing for the virus, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday. “Every day, if you go to work at the White House, you […]

There is at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 among the workforce of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, where the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) assembles and disassembles nuclear weapons for maintenance and modernization. In a statement, Pantex said the employee became ill at work on March 25. The site said it did not […]

Eric Wollerman will become president of Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies effective April 30, the manager of the Kansas City National Security Campus announced. At the end of the month, the buck will stops with Wollerman at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)-owned manufacturing hub, which produces the non-nuclear parts of nuclear weapons. The company’s […]

International Isotopes said Tuesday it would no longer provide radiological field services for the Department of Energy, after the federal agency put a hold on all existing contracts in the wake of a cesium-137 spill last May during a job in Seattle. “Regardless of the DOE’s future plans for field service contracts, it is unlikely […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapon sites are modifying confinement vessels for planned underground subcritical plutonium experiments, after one such vessel blew a leak last year. A confinement vessel is designed to contain an explosive compression of plutonium metal, which is rigged to bring the material to the brink of a fission chain reaction. Observing that […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Nevada have agreed in principle to settle a 2018 state lawsuit contesting the shipment of 500 kilograms of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site. “The parties are currently working diligently to finalize the necessary documents and to obtain final government settlement approvals,” attorneys for the state […]

The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility in South Carolina, like its planned counterpart in New Mexico, would be able to handle the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) planned plutonium pit production mission on its own if needed, according to an environmental document released Thursday. The NNSA draft environmental impact statement also examines the effects of […]

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 soared to 26 from nine across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) national network of sites, laboratories, and production facilities, according to an official tally Friday by agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. The tally includes both NNSA-owned sites, and facilities where some NNSA-affiliated personnel are present.  The NNSA declined to say […]

One major contractor at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina settled an age discrimination suit in the past week, while another is the target of newly-filed case, according to court records. Amenetum-led Savannah River Remediation has agreed to settle the age discrimination case against it. Meanwhile, a longtime employee has filed a […]

International Isotopes said Tuesday it would no longer provide radiological field services for the Department of Energy, after the federal agency put a hold on all existing contracts in the wake of a cesium-137 spill last May during a job in Seattle. “Regardless of the DOE’s future plans for field service contracts, it is unlikely […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Wednesday said ongoing testing of its workforce for COVID-19 had not turned up any new cases. A total of 24 employees had been tested, with two cases confirmed as of this week for infection by the novel coronavirus 2019. Of the remaining workers, 14 have […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapon sites are modifying confinement vessels for planned underground subcritical plutonium experiments, after one such vessel blew a leak last year. A confinement vessel is designed to contain an explosive compression of plutonium metal, which is rigged to bring the material to the brink of a fission chain reaction. Observing that […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Nevada have agreed in principle to settle a 2018 state lawsuit contesting the shipment of 500 kilograms of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site. “The parties are currently working diligently to finalize the necessary documents and to obtain final government settlement approvals,” attorneys for the state […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Facilities Board (DNFSB) is urging its inspectors and staff to press their newly bolstered authority to inspect Department of Energy defense-nuclear sites, as codified by Congress last year. Congress, at least in the board’s interpretation, used the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 to short-circuit DOE Order 140.1, which was written […]

Department of Energy contractors and subcontractors, including those in the National Nuclear Security Administration, can be indemnified from damages arising because of testing for COVID-19, under a determination published Tuesday by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.  The order also indemnifies contractors that plan to offer DOE computing facilities to scientists who want to model the […]

A second person has tested positive for COVID-19 at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge Tenn. The individual shared a work area with the first infected worker, the site said Monday. The second confirmed case at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) defense-uranium hub underscores how rapidly the disease can spread, and how […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) canceled or suspended contracts with International Isotopes after cesium-137 was accidentally released last year while the company was removing a blood irradiator under agency contract from a facility at the University of Washington in Seattle. The company, which wants indemnity under a federal law covering nuclear incidents, disclosed the development […]

The Kansas City National Security Campus is moving some of its workforce off-site to help cope with COVID-19, making it the latest Department of Energy civilian nuclear weapons site to expand telework during the pandemic. “To further protect our work force during the COVID-19 crisis, the Kansas City National Security Campus has reduced its on-site […]

President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law the $2 trillion relief bill to support national recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to nearly $100 million for the Energy Department’s Office of Science and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to support research and development to help contain the fallout of COVID-19, at national […]

The containment vessel that blew a leak during a subcritical nuclear test last year in Nevada was not properly designed or procured, the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory concluded in a final report about the accident. The independent federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) summarized the lab’s unreleased report in a recent monthly review […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday confirmed nine cases of COVID-across its national network of nuclear-weapon design laboratories and production sites. All three national laboratories had locked out all but essential employees at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Weapons Production sites were still operating normally, despite the viral disease cropping up […]

The Senate voted 96-0 Wednesday night to approve a $2 trillion relief package to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout. The House of Representatives will vote Friday on the measure, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) President Donald Trump is expected to sign the measure soon afterward. This would mark Congress’ third legislative […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Tuesday followed its sister site, the Lawrence Livermore lab in California, into minimum safe operations amid the worsening the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday evening, there were no confirmed cases of the viral disease at either facility.  On Monday, Los Alamos posted a memo from Director Thom […]

The Energy Department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Tuesday increased the amount government procurements officers can pay on “micro-purchases” and “simplified’ acquisitions in order to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The updates are outlined in an emergency purchasing flexibility document posted by DOE. The federal procurement officers can […]

The containment vessel that blew a leak during a subcritical nuclear test last year in Nevada was not properly designed or procured, the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory concluded in a final report about the accident. The independent federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) summarized the lab’s unreleased report in a recent […]

South Carolina’s attempt to wrench hundreds of millions of dollars in plutonium-related fines from the Department of Energy is headed to oral arguments before a panel of appeals judges May 5, according to a Friday court filing. South Carolina has been trying to extract the money from DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

COVID-19 has hit the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons production complex, with one employee at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., testing positive for the respiratory disease, a spokesperson for the site’s management and operations contractor said Tuesday. Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) manages both Y-12 and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, […]

By Richard Abott Defense Daily A bipartisan group of over 100 lawmakers pushed House appropriators in a letter to fund a second Virginia-class submarine in the fiscal 2021 defense budget bill. Led by the chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee, Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Rob Wittman (R-Va.), the letter […]

A federal judge last week rejected a request to dismiss the government’s February 2019 fraud lawsuit against a former contractor and subcontractor for the Department of Energy’s never-completed plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Project prime MOX Services and subcontractor Wise Services failed to explain why the case should be […]