National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The Pentagon is pulling the plug on the contract for the JASON civilian science advisory panel even as contractor MITRE Corp. works on multiple studies for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), according to congressional testimony this week. The NNSA has “three studies being considered and planned with JASON pertaining to the topics of: cyber […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) told members of Congress here Tuesday he hopes the Department of Energy will “fix” a controversial rule that could limit board access to nuclear weapons facilities during the agency’s upcoming one-year review of the directive. In May 2018, the department issued the controversial […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated Air Force Gen. John Hyten as vice chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, opening up a vacancy at both the nation’s top nuclear command post and on the joint Pentagon-Department of Energy body that oversees nuclear weapons procurement. Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command since November 2016, “was […]

After Nevada demanded in a lawsuit that the Department of Energy produce detailed records of all plutonium shipments to and within the state during the last 20 years, the agency on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss the case entirely. Nevada sued DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in November to stop […]

A planned South Carolina facility will be able to produce 50 plutonium nuclear-weapon cores a year by 2030, despite a Department of Energy-funded study that says 2035 is more realistic, according to a top official with DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). “We have been working on scenarios to bring it back in time to […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) told members of Congress here Tuesday he hopes the Department of Energy will “fix” a controversial rule that could limit board access to nuclear weapons facilities during the agency’s upcoming one-year review of the directive. In May 2018, the department issued the controversial […]

The House Armed Services Committee should get access “in the very near term” to 810 authorizations the Department of Energy granted to still-unidentified U.S. companies to export nuclear-power technology to Saudi Arabia, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administrator (NNSA) said in congressional testimony. “The Department is moving aggressively to provide information and I […]

Nevada is demanding that the Department of Energy produce detailed records of all plutonium shipments to and within the state during the last 20 years, a Monday court filing shows. It was only one of 65 demands from Nevada in a 28-page list made public Monday by the U.S. attorney representing DOE and its National Nuclear […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) told members of Congress here Tuesday he hopes the Department of Energy will “fix” a controversial rule that could limit board access to nuclear weapons facilities during the agency’s upcoming one-year review of the directive. In May 2018, the department issued the controversial […]

Queuing up fireworks ahead of this year’s annual National Defense Authorization Act, a House Armed Services panel has invited the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to a Tuesday hearing with the heads of Department of Energy nuclear weapons and cleanup programs. The witness list for the hearing of the strategic forces subcommittee […]

No one was injured and no special nuclear material was damaged after an apparent hydrogen fluoride leak Thursday morning in the 9212 uranium processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration said. An alarm first detected the gas release at 7:52 a.m. Eastern […]

The contractor for the Nevada National Security Site is looking for a miner to expand the underground test space where future explosive plutonium experiments will help verify that refurbished nuclear weapons work as intended, according to a procurement notice released this week. The eventual subcontractor will “[p]rovide mining equipment and personnel to excavate, stabilize, and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) naval reactors budget is entering a relative lull as development ramps down on reactor design for the Navy’s flagship Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program, according to the agency’s 2020 budget request. For Naval Reactors, which researches, develops, and manufactures reactors and refueling infrastructure for nuclear-powered Navy warships and submarines, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was not moved by a Department of Energy statement this week that plutonium stored in the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility is safe from earthquakes that might cause high explosives to detonate in the facility and spew plutonium into the air beyond the site’s borders. “The […]

The contractor for the now-terminated MOX project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina tallied more than $54 million in cost overruns through “inadequate” management of its subcontract with North Carolina-based Intermech, according to a June 2017 assessment from the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The report further states that, […]

The specter of burdensome data calls between the Department of Energy and its site contractors might still haunt the nuclear security enterprise, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) uses the calls — which may be written requests rather than telephone or voice calls — to glean […]

WASHINGTON  — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) can only wait five to seven more years before beginning a potentially costly life-extension program on the megaton-class B83 gravity bomb, a senior agency official said here Wednesday in a budget hearing. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) coaxed the estimate out of Charles Verdon, deputy administrator for NNSA […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Tuesday affirmed his belief that the planned site for a nuclear waste repository under Nevada’s Yucca Mountain is safe, even given its proximity to an Air Force munitions test range. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) pressed Perry on the issue during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on […]

The specter of burdensome data calls — when the Department of Energy asks its contractors for information about the goings-on at national laboratories and other sites — might still haunt the nuclear security enterprise, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) How pervasive or burdensome these data calls are is unclear, […]

WASHINGTON  – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) can only wait five to seven more years before beginning a potentially costly life-extension program on the megaton-class B83 gravity bomb, a senior agency official said here Wednesday in a budget hearing. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) coaxed the estimate out of Charles Verdon, deputy administrator for NNSA Defense Programs, […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) moved to protect weapons life-extension programs and plutonium infrastructure from the budget ax wielded here Tuesday by the House’s top nuclear-security appropriator. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chair of the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, told NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty that the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is concerned that an earthquake could cause high explosives to detonate in the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility and spew plutonium into the air and beyond the confines of the former nuclear test site. The independent federal nuclear health and safety watchdog laid out the concern […]

Democratic members of Nevada’s congressional delegation on Monday called on key House appropriators to prevent the federal government from moving forward with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository or shipping any more plutonium to the state. Nevada’s leaders have for decades fought the U.S. government’s effort to make their state home to the nation’s stockpile […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) naval reactors budget is entering a relative lull as development ramps down on reactor design for the Navy’s flagship Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program, according to the agency’s 2020 budget request. For Naval Reactors, which researches, develops, and manufactures reactors and refueling infrastructure for nuclear-powered Navy warships and submarines, […]

After the Department of Energy released some 650 pages of details on its $16.5-billion nuclear-weapon budget request for 2020, the chair of the House Appropriations panel that funds the agency demanded more information on proposed weapons spending. “With respect to nuclear weapons, this is not a budget that establishes clear priorities with a responsible plan […]

South Carolina has named its terms for settling a $200-million plutonium lawsuit against the Department of Energy, according to a late Tuesday court filing. South Carolina on Jan. 30 gave attorneys at the Justice Department “a list of potential terms for negotiation” in the ongoing settlement talks that began in October, according to a status […]

Proportionally or by raw dollars, the W80-4 life-extension program would get the biggest increase of any active Department of Energy nuclear warhead refurbishment in fiscal 2020, if the Trump administration’s budget request becomes law. The program led by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California already received an enormous budget increase in 2019 to pace […]

On Wednesday, only days after announcing he will not stand for re-election, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) again roasted Energy Secretary Rick Perry for the decision to move most of the agency’s plutonium-pit production out of New Mexico. The Donald Trump administration’s 2018 Nuclear Posture Review directed DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to make […]

Proportionally or by raw dollars, the W80-4 life-extension program would get the biggest increase of any active Department of Energy nuclear warhead refurbishment in fiscal 2020, if the Trump administration’s budget request became law. The program led by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California already received an enormous budget increase in 2019 to pace […]

A day after the Department of Energy released some 650 pages of details on its $16.5-billion nuclear-weapon budget request for 2020, the chair of the House Appropriations panel that funds the agency demanded more information on proposed weapons spending from Energy Secretary Rick Perry. “With respect to nuclear weapons, this is not a budget that […]