National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Brian Zieroth on Oct. 29 replaced Valerie McCain as Bechtel National’s project manager on the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a company spokesperson said Monday. Zieroth will now manage construction of a roughly $6.5 billion facility designed to mold uranium into shapes usable in […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The head of the joint Navy-Department of Energy naval reactors program said Wednesday construction on the first Columbia-class ballistic submarine will begin in 2021, but warned that “there will be problems” and that the Navy will “have to work hard to get her on patrol in 2031.” “We need Columbia boats,” Adm. […]

Nobody was really holding their breath Tuesday for the results of the midterm elections in reliably red South Carolina, but some 1,500 workers at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) were still holding their breaths for layoff notices at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. In a late-October letter to employees of the now-canceled […]

George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]

The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s naval reactors program, steward of the heavy-industry programs that provide nuclear propulsion systems for the Navy, is scheduled to speak Wednesday to industry and press just outside Washington, D.C., at the 36th annual Naval Submarine League conference. Adm. James Caldwell is on the slate for a half-hour […]

Brian Zieroth on Oct. 29 replaced Valerie McCain as Bechtel National’s project manager on the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a company spokesperson said Monday. Zieroth will now manage construction of a roughly $6.5 billion facility designed to mold uranium into shapes usable in […]

The lead attorney at the Savannah River Site was honored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for helping the agency pivot away from processing surplus weapon-usable plutonium at the South Carolina facility’s now-canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Mary-Ellen Noone, counsel for the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, won the NNSA General Counsel […]

The Department of Energy said this week it has started work to move a metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina, after three federal appeals judges affirmed a lower court’s order to remove the material from the state by Jan. 1, 2020. Barring an escalation to the U.S. Supreme Court, or a rehearing in the U.S. […]

The Department of Energy and the Pentagon could be studying a new nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile by this time next year, the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week in an annual report on its nuclear-weapon programs. The Donald Trump administration called on DOE to research the weapon in the Nuclear […]

After about a month of negotiations, the Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility could not agree to settle their differences over some $1 million in disputed payments related to raises the company gave 55 employees a few years ago. “Unfortunately, the parties’ efforts have not resulted […]

While it did not generate the same level of attention as a security scare last week at the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Nevada National Security Site also dealt with an incident — for which the culprit was an ultimately harmless cell phone. According to a Department of Energy summary posted Wednesday, a suspicious package […]

Triad National Security took over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Thursday, ending a decade-long experiment in running the nation’s oldest nuclear weapons laboratory as a for-profit business. After a four-month transition, Triad — led by the nonprofit trio of Battelle Memorial Institute, longtime Los Alamos manager the University of […]

A trio of advocacy groups asked the Department of Energy and the Pentagon to provide a little budget bump for three National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)-funded optics facilities across the country, including one in Rochester, N.Y., the Donald Trump administration tried to cancel last year. In a letter last week, the groups urged Energy Secretary Rick […]

A Democratic House with a Democratic Armed Services Committee chairman who is openly skeptical of the established nuclear modernization program is perhaps the most plausible consequence of the 2018 midterm elections, for those who watch the National Nuclear Security Administration. Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) are not in particularly competitive races. In […]

After about a month of negotiations, the Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility could not agree to settle their differences over some $1 million in disputed payments related to raises the company gave 55 employees a few years ago. “Unfortunately, the parties’ efforts have not resulted […]

Triad National Security is set today to take over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, ending a decade-long experiment in running the nation’s oldest nuclear weapons laboratory as a for-profit business. The transition was still on track for Thursday, a Triad spokesperson wrote in a Wednesday email. The company — led […]

While it did not generate the same level of attention as a security scare last week at the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Nevada National Security Site also dealt with an incident — for which the culprit was an ultimately harmless cell phone. According to a Department of Energy (DOE) summary posted Wednesday, a suspicious […]

The Department of Energy on Monday said it has started moving a metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina. The statement came after three federal appeals judges on Friday shot down the agency’s argument that a lower court’s order to remove the material from the state by Jan. 1, 2020, was legally flawed. Barring an escalation to […]

A trio of advocacy groups asked the Department of Energy and the Pentagon to provide a little budget bump for three National Nuclear Security Administration-funded optics facilities across the country, including one in Rochester, N.Y., the Donald Trump administration tried to cancel last year. In a Wednesday letter, the groups urged Energy Secretary Rick Perry […]

Despite its unusual circumstances, the 10-year contract for legacy cleanup at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico is off to a good start for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B). The contractor has about 500 employees at the lab, but fewer than 100 came over in April from prior environmental […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) won’t rule out pressing Triad National Security, the incoming management contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to apply for federal nonprofit status. The company apparently hasn’t done that yet, and its new host county hopes it never does. The NNSA “is focused on making the transition […]

In another sign the final end of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) might be near, South Carolina is trying to negotiate a settlement with the Department of Energy over $100 million the state says it is owed because the unfinished, now-terminated plant never processed plutonium. That is according to an order filed Tuesday […]

The first round of layoff notices at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will be issued at some point in November, with impacted employees expected to exit in early 2019, the contractor building the Department of Energy plant said in an Oct. 22 letter to employees. The notice was first reported Tuesday […]

The internal emergency response organization at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, responded Tuesday to what the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) described as a “security event" involving an ultimately harmless parked car. “Just before noon on October 23, a routine inspection at Pantex identified a potential concern with a vehicle in the John C. […]

The contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina performed well during its emergency response drills earlier this year, but needs to improve its response in several areas, according to a new agency report. In a detailed assessment of the SRS Emergency Management Exercise Program, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments […]

Representatives of seven companies attended a mandatory preproposal briefing for a contract to build custom road equipment needed to transport tritium to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., from a commercial nuclear power plant in Tennessee, according to a document the Department of Energy published online Tuesday. The companies that attended the August meeting, […]

In another sign the final end of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) might be near, South Carolina is trying to negotiate a settlement with the Department of Energy over $100 million the state says it is owed because the unfinished, now-terminated plant never processed plutonium. That is according to a Tuesday order filed […]

Representatives of seven companies attended a mandatory preproposal briefing for a contract to build custom road equipment needed to transport tritium to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., from a commercial nuclear power plant in Tennessee, according to a document the Department of Energy published online Tuesday. The companies that attended, and the number […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries has hired two former officials with the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration to lead a performance assessment team for company affiliates doing work at nuclear sites around the country. Kim Lebak, who managed the NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory Field Office from 2014 through 2017, and Doug Dearolph, who […]

The first round of layoff notices at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will be issued at some point in November, with impacted employees expected to exit in early 2019, the contractor building the Department of Energy plant said in an Oct. 22 letter to employees. The notice was first reported Tuesday […]