National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The House of Representatives will not debate its version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) until after the Fourth of July, but lawmakers have already proposed several pro- and anti-nuclear amendments to the annual defense policy bill. Lawmakers proposed their amendments Tuesday to the House Rules Committee. The panel plans to set […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex continued to grapple with a fix for a hydrogen fluoride system until earlier this month — well after an April leak that prompted an evacuation of the agency’s main uranium processing building.  The system in Building 9212 “returned to operation on Monday, […]

Doug Fremont is the new chief of staff for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), an agency spokesperson said Monday. He succeeds William “Ike” White, who left to work at the Department of Energy’s Cold War nuclear-weapon cleanup program. Fremont is the former security chief for the semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency. He was removed from […]

A federal judge on Monday stayed the almost 3-year old lawsuit filed by MOX Services against the National Nuclear Security Administration after the parties announced they were close to settling the $200-million-plus case. “After mediation, the parties have come to an agreement in principle on proposed settlement terms which, if approved, would resolve this consolidated […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for a canceled plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina have reached an agreement in principle to settle a $200 million lawsuit the company filed nearly three years ago after the agency moved to shutter the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. MOX Services and the agency […]

Late delivery of insensitive high explosives to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California will delay by “at 2 two months” the National Nuclear Security Administration’s program to refurbish an old warhead for a next-generation air-launched cruise missile, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported this week. However, the semiautonomous Department of Energy stockpile steward still […]

LATA-Atkins Technical Services, a team including Atkins and Los Alamos Technical Associates, said this week it won a potentially 7.5-year waste-management subcontract from Y-12 National Security Complex operator Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). The team also includes a small business, Strata-G, which has previously worked on liquid- and solid-waste management at the nation’s primary uranium processing […]

The House of Representatives this week approved a fiscal 2020 minibus spending bill that would slow development of the next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), bar deployment of a low-yield nuclear missile, and provide more money than sought to research the use of low-enriched uranium as fuel for the nuclear Navy. The bill went through […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main uranium enrichment site intends to award a contract in 2020 for up to four furnaces that help reclaim excess uranium metal left over from defense missions, a company spokesperson said Monday. The award will be for at least one pair, and possibly two pairs, of […]

The Department of Energy should better protect workers at the Savannah River Site’s tritium facilities from accidents that could deliver high doses of radiation, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended Wednesday. The board said in a new safety recommendation that DOE workers, and the public at large, could be imperiled by “energetic accidents”: fires, falling […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will dedicate $1 million annually over the next half-decade to train college students in South Carolina and Georgia to take over the upcoming plutonium pit mission, among others, at the Savannah River Site (SRS). NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty discussed the $5 million commitment Monday afternoon during a press event […]

The Department of Energy remains on track to remove a remaining half-metric of plutonium from the Savannah River Site and the state of South Carolina by the end of the year as ordered in a federal lawsuit from 2016, according to a recent status report. South Carolina sued the federal government in 2016 in the […]

AECOM plans next year to spin off the business that contracts with the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense into a separate publicly traded company. The Los Angeles-based infrastructure multinational said Monday its Board of Directors unanimously signed off on the separation, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2020. The […]

The Department of Energy should better protect workers at the Savannah River Site’s tritium facilities from accidents that could deliver high doses of radiation, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended Wednesday. The board said in a new safety recommendation that DOE workers, and the public at large, could be imperiled by “energetic accidents”: fires, falling […]

The House of Represenatives on Wednesday approved a fiscal 2020 spending bill that would provide more funding than requested by the White House to clean up nuclear weapons sites and less funding that requested for active weapons programs. The Democrat-led House approved the bill on an essentially party line vote of 226-203. The so-called minibus spending […]

LATA-Atkins Technical Services, a team including Atkins and Los Alamos Technical Associates, said Tuesday it won a potentially 7.5-year waste-management subcontract from Y-12 National Security Complex operator Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). The team also includes a small business, Strata-G, which has previously worked on liquid- and solid-waste management at the nation’s primary uranium processing site. […]

The House on Wednesday approved a 2020 spending bill that would provide more funding that sought to clean up shuttered nuclear weapons sites, and less funding that requested for active weapons programs. The Democrat-led House approved the bill on an essentially party line vote of 226 to 203. The so-called minibus spending measure funds the […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main uranium enrichment site intends to award a contract in 2020 for up to four furnaces that help reclaim excess uranium metal left over from defense missions, a company spokesperson said Monday. The award will be for at least one and possibly two pairs of direct […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will dedicate $1 million annually over the next half-decade to train college students in South Carolina and Georgia to take over the upcoming plutonium pit mission, among others, at the Savannah River Site. NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty discussed the $5 million commitment Monday afternoon during a press event at […]

Late delivery of high explosives to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California will delay by “at 2 two months” the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) program to refurbish an old warhead for a next-generation air-launched cruise missile, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported Monday. Livermore, which leads the W80-4 life-extension program, needs the high […]

The U.S. Department of Energy remains on track to remove a remaining half-metric of plutonium from the Savannah River Site and the state of South Carolina by the end of the year, thereby meeting an order in a federal lawsuit from 2016, according to a June 13 status report. South Carolina sued the federal government […]

The White House wants federal agencies including the Department of Energy to kill off one-third of their Federal Advisory Committees by September, according to a presidential order published Friday. Federal Advisory Committees are nominally independent, government-chartered groups that provide advice to federal agencies. Either the president or Congress can require an agency to create a […]

After a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist was indicted for allegedly lying about contacts with the Chinese government, the Energy Department prohibited its employees and contractors from participating in certain foreign “talent recruitment programs.” Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette approved that prohibition Friday by signing DOE Order 486.1. The order bars agency employees and contractors […]

South Carolina has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court’s 2018 decision to let the Department of Energy close a proposed plutonium disposal plant in the western part of the state, according to papers filed recently with the highest court in the land. After years of political and legal wrangling, DOE’s National […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security has received the go-ahead to install a piece of hardware at the Y-12 National Security Complex that will one day help the National Nuclear Security Administration end uranium processing in the World War II-era Building 9212 and transfer the work to the planned Uranium Processing Facility. In a report published on June 14, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to prepare an environmental impact statement for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., according to a notice filed this week in the Federal Register. The public will have 45 days to comment on the agency’s proposed environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding its contentious plan to […]

The full House of Representatives will not consider several defense-nuclear amendments to a fiscal 2020 spending bill until next week. The House cleared the amendments for floor debate, but lawmakers spent much of Wednesday and all day Thursday discussing other aspects of the bill before adjourning. The chamber had no votes scheduled for Friday. Debate […]

The House Armed Services Committee this morning approved its version of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) after about 20 hours of debate. The annual defense policy bill, now headed to the House floor, authorizes about 4% less funding than sought for active nuclear weapons programs managed by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear […]

The House of Representatives on Thursday is at last clear to debate several amendments to a 2020 minibus spending bill that concern nuclear weapons operations at the Department of Energy. Debate could have started Wednesday evening, but floor action on the House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal 2020 minibus appropriations package ground to a snail’s pace as […]

The ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee is looking to increase the topline of the next defense policy bill to $750 billion, with plans to introduce an amendment for an additional $17 billion in funding when his panel meets Wednesday to consider the proposal. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday the chairman’s […]