National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Accelerating upgrades for the nuclear warhead slated to fly in the next decade on a new air-launched cruise missile would consume the single largest portion of the budget increase proposed for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear weapons programs in 2019, according to a detailed budget document released Friday. For fiscal 2019, the semiautonomous Department […]

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 semiautonomous Department of Energy agency wrote in response to a Government Accountability Office report published last week. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will complete […]

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was sworn in as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Thursday, officially putting the former National Security Council and Energy Department staffer in charge of a roughly $13-billion nuclear-weapons budget that is only set to grow. The NNSA announced the swearing-in Thursday in a press release. The Senate confirmed Gordon-Hagerty […]

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 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, according to the acting head of the Department of Energy weapons agency. “A low-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead capability, deemed the W76 […]

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, who the Senate confirmed last week to lead the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is expected to report to the agency’s Washington headquarters on Thursday, a source said Tuesday. A Department of Energy spokesperson did not reply to multiple requests for comment Tuesday about when Gordon-Hagerty, who would be the first woman […]

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 […]

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 […]

The White House requested roughly $31 million for the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in 2019, roughly even with the appropriation that now funds the independent health-and-safety watchdog of the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapon sites. The requested budget of $30.6 million is less than one percent lower than the $30.9 million the Defense Nuclear […]

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 (NNSA) will complete an […]

The Department of Energy announced Monday that it has selected a new Savannah River Site manager to replace Jack Craig, is retiring after three years in the role and 32 years of federal service. Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Budney will take over at the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C. While serving for nearly three […]

The White House has officially nominated Brent Park, a physicist from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s $2-billion-a-year nonproliferation portfolio, but the Senate Armed Services Committee had not scheduled a nomination hearing as of Friday. Park, whose nomination was sent to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, is now an associate laboratory […]

South Carolina stakeholders for the Savannah River Site denounced Monday a potential plan to process 34 metric tons of plutonium and ship it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., for permanent storage. That “dilute and dispose” option is the Department of Energy’s preferred approach for eliminating the plutonium, rather than continuing forward with construction and […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously confirmed Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to be administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), making her the first woman to lead the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch in its nearly 20-year history. A former staffer at the Department of Energy and National Security Council, Gordon-Hagerty was nominated by President Donald […]

Michael Budney will replace the retiring Jack Craig as manager of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Department of Energy announced Monday. Budney, a retired Navy captain, will be the top Department of Energy official at a site that employs about 11,000 civil servants and contractors and includes personnel from the agency’s National […]

The New Mexico Legislature has approved a bill that would, if signed into law, force nonprofit operators of U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories in the state to pay a gross receipts tax. Senate Bill 17 cruised through the legislature with little opposition this session, culminating with a 48-19 vote in the state’s House of […]

The Donald Trump administration this week proposed what would amount to a $2-billion-a-year raise for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) — a roughly $15-billion fiscal 2019 budget request that would accelerate existing nuclear-warhead refurbishment programs and consider making warhead cores somewhere other than New Mexico. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) fiscal 2019 budget request […]

A brief not-in-my-backyard bout between the city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) appears to have ended, with the agency announcing Thursday it plans by late 2019 to erect power lines and a substation for the future Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The semiautonomous Department […]

The New Mexico Legislature has approved a bill that would, if signed into law, force nonprofit operators of U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories in the state to pay a gross receipts tax. Senate Bill 17 cruised through the legislature with little opposition this session, culminating with a 48-19 vote in the state’s House of […]

The Department of Energy will not release its detailed budget request for fiscal 2019 until sometime within the next two weeks. That is according to a Tuesday message from a Department of Energy (DOE) official reviewed by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The official also said the annual “budget in brief,” a summary that might or […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to be the full-time administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. President Donald Trump nominated Gordon-Hagerty, a current government consultant and former civil servant, on Dec. 19. If confirmed by the full Senate, she would be the first woman and the fifth person to […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday proposed what would amount to a $2-billion-a-year raise for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) — a roughly $15-billion fiscal 2019 budget request that would accelerate existing nuclear-warhead refurbishment programs and consider making warhead cores somewhere other than New Mexico. The Department of Energy’s fiscal 2019 budget request also […]

Days before the end of the state’s legislative session, a New Mexico House of Representatives panel on Monday approved a bill that would levy a gross receipts tax on nonprofit national lab operators in the state. The House Taxation and Revenue Committee voted 10-5 to pass a bill that would if signed by Gov. Susana […]

The European Commission has approved Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] pending $7.8 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK [OA], moving the deal one step closer to completion. Northrop Grumman said it is still awaiting the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to complete its review of the deal, which was announced last September. The company expects the acquisition to close in the first […]

As the state’s legislative session nears a close, a committee in the New Mexico House of Representatives was set to vote today on a bill that would levy a gross-receipts tax on nonprofit national lab operators in the state — a category locals worry could include the next manager of the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

Strata-G LLC has won a $1 million contract from the Energy Department to conduct environmental sampling at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The sampling will support DOE plans for construction of an additional on-site disposal facility for hazardous and radioactive wastes at the Bear Creek Valley area of Oak Ridge, DOE said in a […]

The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission will remain frozen at fiscal 2017 spending levels through at least late March, under the stopgap spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday morning after an overnight government shutdown — the second of fiscal 2018. The bill is the fifth continuing resolution of […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s record of policing itself is “mixed at best,” and the agency might benefit from independent oversight by an entity such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said Tuesday. Pallone made his remarks during a House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee hearing on U.S. nuclear infrastructure. The lawmaker […]

President Donald Trump plans to nominate a nuclear physicist from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s roughly $2-billion-a-year nonproliferation division, the White House said Thursday. In a notice posted online, the administration said it intends to nominate Brent Park, who also serves as an ORNL associate laboratory […]

A federal judge has ordered a former Department of Energy subcontractor to pay back $4.4 million stolen from the federal government while conducting work for the Savannah River Site MOX project in South Carolina. Aaron Vennefron must pay the money via cash, forfeiture, and any other means needed, according to the order. Former project subcontractors […]