National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) expects to complete decommissioning of a long-retired nuclear power plant at Fort Belvoir, Va., in 2025, after which the property would be available for unrestricted use. The five-year schedule would cover the full scope of decommissioning the SM-1 reactor and associated infrastructure: site preparation, material removal, disassembly, cleanup, […]

A joint venture of Perma-Fix Environmental Services and ERRG in December sealed a contract worth at least $15 million for cleanup services at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The 18-month contract covers remediation, construction, and waste management at the Alameda County complex, according to a Dec. 23 press release […]

A joint venture of Perma-Fix Environmental Services and ERRG in December sealed a contract worth at least $15 million for cleanup services at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The 18-month contract covers remediation, construction, and waste management at the Alameda County complex, according to a Dec. 23 press release […]

If the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) still plans to select its preferred technology for the nation’s next domestic uranium enrichment plant by the end of 2019, the agency is taking the decision down to the last few hours of the year. It was around this time of year in 2016 that the semiautonomous […]

Potential bidders on the management and operations contract for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina have until noon ET on Jan. 9 to sign up for briefings. The Energy Department is providing new details on its Jan. 16 industry day for the stand-alone lab contract. The DOE Office of Environmental […]

MOX Services, prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), played fast and loose with federal contracting rules, the U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general wrote in a scathing report published days before the winter holiday. The audit, which focused on MOX Services’ administration of project subcontractors, identified some $8.5 million in […]

The U.S. Navy on Dec. 16 awarded General Dynamics Mission Systems a $300 million contract for fiscal years 2020-2023 for U.S. and U.K. Trident II (D-5) support work. This specifically covers Trident II fleet ballistic missiles submarine fire control system, guided missile submarine attack weapon control system, and support equipment rework facility support. Most of […]

The U.S. Department of Energy is considering a stand-alone contract for management of its Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Wednesday issued a request for information/sources sought notice for management and operations of the government lab, which currently operates under the full Savannah River Site (SRS) contract. […]

A 2020 appropriations package passed by Congress this week would fully fund the next generation of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, along with the civilian-operated infrastructure that makes their warheads. Gone from the 2020 budget are nearly all the restrictions House Democrats wanted to put on the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) procurement, and supporting infrastructure and […]

A group of 11 nuclear security and health experts on Wednesday urged the heads of the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services to find that the federal government no longer needs to export weapon-grade uranium for foreign production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Allowing exports to continue would present a continued […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) would receive a roughly a $31 million budget for fiscal 2020, which it would have to use to employ the equivalent of at least 110 full-time staff, under a 2020 appropriations package Congress approved this week. Explanatory language appended to the bill, which President Donald Trump was set […]

In a pound-the-table brief filed this week, Nevada asked a federal judge to hear oral arguments in an ongoing lawsuit to remove 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium from the state. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration shipped the material to the Nevada National Security Site in 2018 to comply with a court order […]

Congress wants the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to slide about $5.5 million from the maintenance budget for the W80 cruise-missile warhead into a Pentagon study to select a design for a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile, according to a compromise 2020 spending bill that would fund the agency through September. The Donald Trump administration proposed […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is revising its plan to implement recommendations the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board made this year about the Pantex nuclear-weapon servicing plant in Texas. “The Department of Energy has accepted the need to revise and update our implementation plan,” James McConnell, NNSA associate administrator for safety, infrastructure, and […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration appears set to get all the money it wants for the current budget year, and a little more, including some $710 million to start work on a controversial two-state plutonium pit complex intended to bring a new nuclear-weapon mission to South Carolina. A compromise budget bill that passed through […]

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. — The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) took delivery of three new radiation monitoring aircraft recently and put them on display here Wednesday at one of two home bases for the airborne leg of the agency’s counterterrorism office. The three new King Air 350ER airplanes provided by Textron Aviation of […]

The Kansas City, Mo., National Security Campus plans this coming spring to open a small satellite factory about 1 mile east from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) main workshop for non-nuclear components of nuclear-weapon. “Occupancy is expected to begin next spring after tenant improvements such as utilities and furnishings are completed,” a spokesperson […]

The U.S. Energy Department on Tuesday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for the Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal contract, which could be worth up to $3 billion over 10 years. The first of what is expected to be many task orders under the multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract would cover removal for an excess […]

A group of 11 nuclear security and health experts on Wednesday urged the heads of the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services to find that the federal government no longer needs to export weapon-grade uranium for foreign production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Allowing exports to continue would present a continued […]

A group of 11 nuclear security and health experts on Wednesday urged the heads of the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services to find that the federal government no longer needs to export weapon-grade uranium for foreign production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). The American Medical Isotopes Production Act (AMIPA), enacted […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is revising its plan to implement recommendations the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board made this year about the Pantex nuclear-weapon servicing plant. “The Department of Energy has accepted the need to revise and update our implementation plan,” James McConnell, NNSA associate administrator for safety, infrastructure, and operations, said […]

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. — The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) took delivery of three new radiation monitoring aircraft recently and put them on display here Wednesday at one of two home bases for the airborne leg of the agency’s counterterrorism office. The three new King Air 350ER airplanes provided by Textron Aviation of […]

Congress wants the National Nuclear Security Administration to slide about $5.5 million from the maintenance budget for the W80 cruise-missile warhead into a Pentagon study to select a design for a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile, according to a compromise 2020 spending bill that would fund the agency through September. The Donald Trump administration proposed studying […]

In a pound-the-table brief filed this week, Nevada asked a federal judge to hear oral arguments in an ongoing lawsuit to get some 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium shipped out of the state. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration shipped the material to the Nevada National Security Site in 2018 to comply with […]

The Kansas City, Mo., National Security Campus plans this coming spring to open a small satellite factory about 1 mile east from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) main workshop for non-nuclear components of nuclear-weapon. “Occupancy is expected to begin next spring after tenant improvements such as utilities and furnishings are completed,” a spokesperson […]

Two companies are working together to extract rare isotopes for cancer treatment research from nuclear waste at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. The project was unveiled in late November by Isotek Systems, a DOE contractor that oversees management of uranium-233 stored at ORNL, and TerraPower, a company co-founded […]

New U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette assured a Senate committee recently that steps are being taken to tighten his department’s shipment of radioactive waste for disposal at the Nevada National Security Site. Brouillette, at the time deputy energy secretary, listed several measures in a written response to a question submitted by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto […]

Department of Energy contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security returned some piping to a subcontractor after determining it was unsuitable for installation in the main uranium processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. Subcontractor Hicks & Ingle, of Knoxville, Tenn., fabricated the pipes under a two-year contract awarded in 2018. A spokesperson for Consolidated […]

MCLEAN, Va. — The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to help defray cost overruns on two nuclear-weapon refurbishments by stripping features out of the planned warhead for the Air Force’s next land-based intercontinental ballistic missile, a senior agency official said Thursday. The features to be cut, however, are not mission-essential requirements for the […]

House Democrats opted not to fall on their swords this week to slow the ongoing nuclear arsenal modernization program, when they overwhelmingly supported passage of a National Defense Authorization Act that approves just about all the Department of Energy weapons spending requests for fiscal 2020. That means that through the Sept. 30 end of the […]