National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Although the Department of Energy has nearly finished the first of four ongoing warhead modernization programs, the U.S. nuclear arsenal is “very close to zero-percent modernized,” the general in charge of the Pentagon’s nuclear forces said Wednesday. “We’re starting down that path,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said Wednesday in […]

WASHINGTON — Brent Park, the White House’s choice to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nonproliferation office, promised he would if confirmed weigh in on a big nonproliferation construction project Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants to protect in South Carolina. In a confirmation hearing that ended without anyone outright opposing the Oak Ridge physicist’s […]

One of the two men who pleaded guilty to stealing from the federal government while working for the MOX project at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is scheduled for sentencing on April 5. Phillip Thompson will be sentenced at 10 a.m. by U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs in Columbia, S.C. He plead guilty […]

President Donald Trump this week nominated current Lawrence Livermore hand Charles Verdon to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) roughly $9-billion-a-year nuclear weapons portfolio. The White House sent Verdon’s nomination to the Hill Tuesday. If recommended by the Senate Armed Services Committee and confirmed by the full Senate, Verdon would be put in charge […]

Thursday was the first day of SOC’s security contract at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site, where the Chantilly, Va.-based company will work for up to five years under a deal worth about $200 million, including options. SOC won the contract in 2017 but did not start work until recently after competitor […]

The Department of Energy in the fourth quarter of 2017 exercised an option worth more than $490 million on BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) naval nuclear propulsion parts production contract, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company announced nearly four months into 2018. “A variety of manufacturing and material procurement activities will be performed under these contracts that will primarily […]

BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden said Wednesday the company’s  Nuclear Services Group, which includes its business with the U.S. Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, is experiencing “a resurgence.” Much of that is due new cleanup business at DOE’s shuttered Cold War nuclear-weapon sites, but a large — if not unexpected — […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office has two new assistant managers to help conduct its oversight of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. WIPP is the nation’s only underground repository for disposal of transuranic waste from across the Department of Energy complex. James (Ed) Garza has been named assistant manager for […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) says the final request for proposals for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., could come any time now. The office said in a Feb. 6 procurement notice the final RFP could be issued within 15 to 45 days. One-on-one meetings […]

The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday it will begin the bidding process for the new Savannah River Site management and operations (M&O) contract by May 1. In an online announcement, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said that, within 30 to 60 days, it would issue a draft request for proposals (RFP) to kick off the […]

Although the Department of Energy has nearly finished the first of four ongoing warhead modernization programs, the U.S. nuclear arsenal is “very close to zero-percent modernized,” the general in charge of the Pentagon’s nuclear forces said Wednesday. “We’re starting down that path,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said Wednesday in […]

President Donald Trump has officially nominated the leader of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s nuclear weapons programs to run weapons programs for the full U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. The White House sent Charles Verdon’s nomination to the Senate late Tuesday, only a day after announcing the president’s intent to nominate the Livermore hand as deputy […]

The metric ton of plutonium South Carolina took the Department of Energy to court over in 2016 is unlikely to leave the state for years, but the agency is seeking more money from Congress to make a move happen sooner, according to its latest budget proposal. In its detailed 2019 budget request issued last week, […]

In a letter Tuesday to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, two Democratic senators questioned whether the prime contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California inappropriately billed the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to fight what the lawmakers called “whistleblower-related” cases in court. In particular, Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) questioned whether the […]

Colorado-based engineering firm Merrick & Co. announced Tuesday it has selected a familiar face to lead its Nuclear Services & Technology (NST) unit. Effective April 1, Merrick Vice President Scott Gustafson will become business unit lead for the NST team. Gustafson will replace John Buckle, who will become a part-time consultant to the firm. In […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a nomination hearing Thursday for two Trump administration picks to lead the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup and nuclear nonproliferation operations. The Senate panel will take testimony from Brent Park, nominated as deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, and Anne Marie White, […]

President Donald Trump plans to nominate current Lawrence Livermore hand Charles Verdon to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) roughly $9-billion-a-year nuclear weapons portfolio. The White House announced its intention in a press release late Monday. If recommended by the Senate Armed Services Committee and confirmed by the full Senate, Verdon would be put […]

It could be another year before the U.S. Department of Energy publishes an official cost estimate for the multibillion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) that Bechtel National is building in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency said last week in its detailed fiscal 2019 budget justification. At the same time, significant portions of the UPF at the […]

The Department of Energy in the fourth quarter of 2017 exercised an option worth more than $490 million on BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) naval nuclear propulsion parts production contract, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company announced nearly four months into 2018. “A variety of manufacturing and material procurement activities will be performed under these contracts that will primarily […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) says the final request for proposals for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., could come any time now. The office said in a Feb. 6 procurement notice the final RFP could be issued within 15 to 45 days. One-on-one meetings […]

One of the two men who pleaded guilty to stealing from the federal government while working for the MOX project at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is scheduled for sentencing on April 5. Phillip Thompson will be sentenced at 10 a.m. by U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs in Columbia, S.C. He plead guilty […]

The Department of Energy has shied away from discussions about settling a $200-million lawsuit filed by CB&I AREVA MOX Services, which is building a massive plutonium-disposal facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., the contractor alleged in a Friday court filing. MOX Services sued the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The Department of Energy said Friday it wants to do more plutonium chemistry and experiments in an existing building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of a plan to resume the lab’s production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores called plutonium pits. The move would mean raising the amount of plutonium-239, or its equivalent, allowed […]

None of the 21 drone sightings in 2016 at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina resulted in any significant findings, according to Department of Energy documents recently released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In some cases, what employees saw might not have even been a drone, the records indicate. In November 2016, […]

South Carolina should withdraw one of its two plutonium removal lawsuits – each seeking $100 million from the federal government – in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC) and amend the other suit to seek the full $200 million, a judge recommended late last week. Doing so would resolve the Energy Department’s complaint that […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has the technical and safety chops both to manufacture plutonium pits and to lead new research on the nuclear-weapon cores, the head of the lab’s weapons program said Wednesday amid an intensifying turf war over the Department of Energy’s plutonium mission. “Something that I’ve heard a […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory said Tuesday he is “confident” the Northern New Mexico nuclear weapons site could help create the low-yield nuclear warheads the Donald Trump administration requested in the Nuclear Posture Review released in early February. “Again, I go out on a branch, but I know from […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — To help hash out military requirements for two new low-yield nuclear warheads called for in the Trump administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review, the bi-agency Nuclear Weapons Council is planning a series of road trips to key Department of Energy nuclear weapons labs and production facilities this spring, a senior Pentagon official said here […]

Rich Abott Defense Daily By the end of 2019, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to identify the best ways to secure low-enriched uranium for U.S. nuclear-weapon programs over the next 20 years, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency wrote in response to a Government Accountability Office report published Friday. The National Nuclear Security Administration […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could turn the existing W76 warhead into the low-yield submarine-launched weapon requested by the Donald Trump administration by dialing back its explosive yield, a senior agency official said here Wednesday. “A low-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead capability, deemed the W76 Mod 2, will be fielded […]