National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The White House has nominated longtime Lawrence Livermore hand William Bookless to fill the No. 2 slot at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration — a post that has sat vacant throughout the Trump administration. President Donald Trump nominated Bookless, now a Livermore senior physicist, on Aug. 16. If recommended by the Senate […]

The Department of Energy this week released a draft solicitation for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract that could be worth nearly $15 billion over 10 years, including construction of new tritium facilities to power up U.S. nuclear weapons. Interested parties can meet DOE officials on site for two days of one-on-one meetings and […]

William Cooper, the Trump administration’s nominee to become Energy Department general counsel, was passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a voice vote Thursday afternoon. The vote came after the panel’s business meeting was postponed Thursday morning, a committee staffer said. The nominee will now await action by the full Senate, […]

It would be “logical” for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to take over as landlord of the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., “at some point,” the site’s top federal manager told attendees of a local group’s breakfast meeting Wednesday. Savannah River Site Manager Michael Budney’s remarks before the Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness […]

Irene Qualters, most recently with the National Science Foundation (NSF), has been selected as associate laboratory director for simulation and computing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, incoming lab manager Triad National Security said Tuesday. In her new role, Qualters will be “responsible for high performance computing, theory, and simulation in support of the NNSA […]

An internal reorganization at Honeywell Aerospace has put the company’s work on four management and operations contracts with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under the management of single retired Air Force colonel. Effective July 16, the company’s aerospace segment put David “DJ” Johnson — a Honeywell man since retiring from a 23-year Air Force […]

The Board of Regents of Texas A&M University, one of the senior partners on incoming Los Alamos National Laboratory Manager Triad National Security, on Thursday said it appointed Katherine Banks vice chancellor for engineering and national laboratories. The move reflects Banks’ ascent to Triad’s governing board, an A&M spokesperson wrote in an email Monday. Banks […]

The South Carolina attorney general has revealed most of the argument he will use to convince a federal appeals judge that a lower court was right to stop the Department of Energy from canceling construction of an over-budget plutonium disposal project at the Savannah River Site. In an appellee brief filed Aug. 10 with the […]

The Energy Department wants to hear from businesses and universities that could test air ventilation systems for nuclear facilities. The department’s Office of Environmental Management issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice Thursday seeking input from vendors that can evaluate high-efficiency particulate air filters for use in high-hazard DOE facilities. These filters help protect […]

Effective today, longtime James Owendoff has left his job as the No. 2 official in the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) to become a special adviser on nuclear cleanup issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Mark Gilbertson, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for EM’s Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, […]

President Donald Trump on Monday signed the $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2019, officially setting budget limits for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons and cleanup operations. Trump did not mention either program during a signing ceremony before several hundred people at the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum in New York state. Congress […]

The White House on Friday announced the anticipated nominee to fill the No. 2 slot at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, which has been vacant throughout the Trump administration. Longtime Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory senior physicist William Bookless would take over as NNSA principal deputy administrator upon Senate confirmation, according to the […]

The Energy Department is doing early planning on a potential solicitation for teardown and removal of facilities at sites including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state. The department’s Office of Environmental Management on Aug. 9 issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for deactivation, decommissioning, and […]

The next incremental legal argument in a $200-billion-plus lawsuit over alleged mismanagement of a federal arms-reduction construction project in South Carolina is set for Sept. 11, court papers filed Aug. 1 show. The arguments were set in an order from U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler and will cover seven former cases now […]

The Energy Department could issue a draft request for proposals this month for a paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a recently updated list of major procurements from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The final RFP for the contract, forecast to be worth $1 billion to […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) replaced three recently retired executives effective immediately, the management and operations contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main weapons-production sites announced Monday. The Bechtel-led company appointed Doug Freund vice president for operations support; Ed Rogers vice president for business management and transformation; and Jason Trichel manager of internal audit, ethics, […]

LA VISTA, Neb. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) may not be able to produce 80 nuclear-warhead cores a year by 2030, unless it resolves issues this year that have prevented it from converting an unfinished plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina into a weapons facility, the commander of U.S. nuclear forces said here […]

With one day left to spare, the U.S. Energy Department announced Monday that it would extend by one year the contract for the Savannah River Site’s management and operations provider. The initial contract for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), a 10-year deal worth $9.5 billion, was set to expire on July 31. In its press […]

Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton said Thursday the company remains in pursuit of a multibillion-dollar liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina that the Department of Enregy is due to award again in a few weeks. Seaton offered his comments, without elaboration, during Fluor’s quarterly earnings call with Wall Street […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) will continue managing the Savannah River Site through July 31, 2019, under a long-expected one-year, $1-billion contract extension announced Monday. “This extension enables SRNS to continue to provide management and operating (M&O) services at SRS while DOE fosters competition for award of a follow-on competitive M&O contract,” the Department of […]

The U.S. Department of Energy will argue in September why a federal court in South Carolina should not have prevented the agency from shuttering the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Designed to convert weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel, construction at the unfinished MFFF was expected to halt around June 11, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) decision to study transferring some $300 million in annual defense nuclear materials operations to Tennessee from South Carolina is “routine,” according to the head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup mission at the Savannah River Site. “This is just a routine kind of process we always go through, especially […]

The Department of Energy is just days from sealing a one-year extension for the management and operations contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a senior official said Monday. “As you know the M&O contract expires on 31 July and any day now we’ll have an extension signed,” Michael Budney, manager of DOE’s […]

Come fall, Canadian-born, transplant-Tennessean Thomas Mason will be the latest in a line of Los Alamos National Laboratory directors stretching back to J. Robert Oppenheimer. But as of this week, when he took time after a Capitol Hill visit to speak with Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, he stressed he was only president and chief […]

Workers for Idaho National Laboratory cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho have full access to glove boxes following an extended suspension of operations after an employee suffered a puncture wound on June 5. The incident occurred while the employee was conducing cleanup activities in a glove box at the lab’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP). By […]

Bechtel National (BNI) is under new federal restrictions on issuing subcontracts and making large purchases in the wake of a routine audit of its purchasing systems by the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency. On July 20, Bechtel issued an internal “Procurement & Subcontracts Compliance Bulletin” with the subject head “Disapproval of BNI Purchasing System” for […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is sending two of its technical staffers on new assignments to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Matthew Duncan will become Oak Ridge resident inspector on Aug. 20, while Brandon Weathers will become an Oak Ridge resident inspector in December, the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) decision to study transferring some $300 million in annual defense nuclear materials operations to Tennessee from South Carolina is “routine,” according to the head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup mission at the Savannah River Site. “This is just a routine kind of process we always go through, especially […]

The U.S. Department of Energy will argue in September why a federal court in South Carolina should not have prevented the agency from shuttering the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Designed to convert weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel, construction at the unfinished MFFF was expected to halt around June 11, […]

WASHINGTON — The Congressman who represents the Y-12 National Security Complex is confident the weapons facility could handle the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium mission, should the agency eventually move the mission to Oak Ridge, Tenn. “I want NNSA [the National Nuclear Security Administration] to make the final decision, but the Oak Ridge Reservation can […]