National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is looking for a new manager for its Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico, according to a want ad on an official federal jobs board. There are seven NNSA field offices, where local officials who report directly to the NNSA administrator oversee the agency’s multibillion-dollar […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Wednesday it had completed the last of four new funding agreements for private manufacturing of the medical isotope molybdenum-99. This means Northwest Medical Isotopes, of Corvallis, Ore., will now receive $15 million from the NNSA that it must fully match. The announcement comes almost five weeks after […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed Wednesday that Stephen Younger will retire as director of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico effective Dec. 31, after two years managing the nation’s nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory. The local Albuquerque Journal reported the news first, on Tuesday. “I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Younger for his […]

The contractor that operates the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has mismanaged security incident reports over the past two years, with problems ranging from late submission of documents to the federal agency to providing incomplete information when they are delivered. In one instance, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) was supposed to close out a report within 90 days. However, […]

Merrick & Co. has opened a new office in Aiken, S.C., to get its foot in the door of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s expanding plutonium mission, the Greenwood, Colo., nuclear, defense, and infrastructure contractor said. Bill Taylor will manage the new Aiken office, the company said in a press release. Taylor spent the last […]

Senate Democrats — led by a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Democratic presidential candidate — are calling on committee leaders to adopt several House-passed measures that would ban low-yield missiles deployment and extend the new START Treaty during future conference sessions over the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). […]

The security provider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is expected to receive a four-month contract extension ahead of the end of its current deal on Oct. 7. Florida-based Centerra could also secure another eight months on the job. That would come via two more four-month extensions, keeping the […]

As expected, South Carolina on Friday said it is appealing a federal judge’s refusal to force the Department of Energy to pay $200 million in fines for failing to remove weapon-usable plutonium from the state. That is according to a notice of appeal filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The state had not […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has awarded its John S. Foster Medal to Linton Brooks, who led the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration during the George W. Bush administration. Brooks, a former submarine commander and arms-control ambassador, is only the fifth person to receive the award, which is named for the pioneering nuclear-weapon designer and fourth […]

Plutonium downblending at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has increased significantly following the addition of shifts in November 2018. Assuming things go well, another increase in shifts could come late in fiscal 2020, about a year sooner than the initial target date. Workers have downblended just over 17 kilograms […]

A federal court on Tuesday declined to make the Department of Energy pay $200 million in fines for failing to remove weapon-usable plutonium from South Carolina, depriving the state of some leverage in its ongoing court press to rid itself of the surplus nuclear material. “Under the circumstances of this case, plaintiff’s proper course to […]

In the latest turn in a nearly year-old legal battle, Nevada plans to ask a federal judge to force the Department of Energy to remove half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium shipped to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in 2018, according to court papers. The state revealed its plan in a procedural motion […]

Neile Miller, former principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has joined Nevada National Security Site operating contractor Mission Support and Test Services as head of government affairs, the company announced Monday. Miller was No. 2 at the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency from August 2010 through June 2013, according […]

A federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to overturn a lower court’s refusal to stop the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from carrying out an already-completed shipment of plutonium to Nevada. After deciding the appeal on briefs, without an oral argument from either Nevada or attorneys representing the NNSA, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in […]

A worker at the Savannah River National Laboratory was restricted from radiological work for the rest of 2019 after receiving a dose of radiation somewhere off site that put him well above a key exposure threshold at the Aiken, S.C. site, a spokesperson for site contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions said Wednesday. The employee took […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has awarded Cray Inc. a $600-million contract to build the El Capitan exascale supercomputer, which the agency wants to start crunching numbers in 2023 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Cray must deliver El Capitan in late 2022, the NNSA stated in a press release Tuesday. The machine […]

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) expects by the end of this month to receive additional U.S. Energy Department information on numerous shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). After reviewing the latest material from DOE, the state “will determine whether the material is stable in the current disposal […]

A “trace amount of plutonium” found inside a glove box at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on June 27 did not endanger any employees, a spokesman for the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico said Wednesday. Employees discovered an “unexpected powdery residue” underneath a brush in a material management room glove box at the […]

The Scioto Valley Local School District in Ohio plans a community meeting Saturday to discuss radioactive contamination concerns at a middle school located about 2 miles from the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site. Zahn’s Corner Middle School will be tested for radioactive byproducts released into the air by the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant during past uranium […]

A “trace amount of plutonium” found inside a glove box at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on June 27 did not endanger any employees, a spokesman for the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico said Wednesday. Employees discovered an “unexpected powdery residue” underneath a brush in a material management room glove box at the […]

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist indicted for lying about connections to a Chinese government-sponsored talent-recruiting program is scheduled to be tried starting June 22, 2020, in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, N.M. Turab Lookman has pleaded not guilty to three counts of fraud and false statements for allegedly lying to the Department of Energy and […]

A half-decade after Congress gave the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) special authority to bar certain suppliers from providing components for nuclear weapons, the agency still has exercised that power, the Government Accountability Office said this week. The new report is the third time the congressional watchdog has checked in on the agency’s use, or […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it has shipped 1 metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium out of South Carolina as ordered by a federal court in 2017. The Department of Energy and its semiautonomous nuclear-weapon branch “have removed not less than one metric ton of defense plutonium or defense plutonium materials from the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to start building the replacement for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) some time after Sept. 30, 2021, according to the agency’s latest annual report on its nonproliferation programs. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon branch formally terminated construction of the Savannah River Site facility in October, […]

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) expects by the end of this month to receive additional U.S. Energy Department information on numerous shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). After reviewing the latest material from DOE, the state “will determine whether the material is stable in the current disposal […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said late Wednesday it has shipped a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium out of South Carolina, as ordered by a federal court in 2017. The Department of Energy and its semiautonomous nuclear-weapon branch “have removed not less than one metric ton of defense plutonium or defense plutonium materials from the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to start building the replacement for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) some time after Sept. 30, 2021, according to the agency’s latest annual report on its nonproliferation programs. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon branch formally terminated construction of the Savannah River Site facility in October, […]

As the calendar flipped to August, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility delivered nearly 30 more layoff notices that will reduce the facility to a skeleton crew of around 350 employees, according to a recent post on a South Carolina government-affiliated website.  CB&I Project Services delivered 29 more pink slips on Aug. 2, according to […]

BWX Technologies said Monday it posted $471 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2019, 7.4% better than the $439 million recorded for the same period in 2018. Net income for the quarter dropped slightly to $58.9 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, from $60.7 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, a year earlier. […]

President Donald Trump on Friday signed H.R. 3877, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, into law after the bill passed the House July 25 and the Senate Aug. 1. The legislation suspends the debt limit through July 31, 2021, and sets defense spending toplines at $738 billion for fiscal 2020 and $741.5 billion in fiscal 2021. […]