National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The federal government wants the two men who stole more than $4 million while conducting work for the Department of Energy’s MOX project at the Savannah River Site to fork over enough money and assets to cover the total sum. In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, U.S. Attorney Beth Drake asked […]

A former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory official has landed in a senior Pentagon arms-control post, the Department of Defense announced Monday. Charles Ball was appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for threat reduction and arms control in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics: part of the Office of the […]

Sixteen Democratic senators on Monday protested President Donald Trump’s reported plans to direct the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to create a new low-yield nuclear warhead for submarine-launched missiles and expand the scenarios in which such weapons might be employed. “Creating new nuclear capabilities and widening their possible use conditions constitute an increase in […]

Longenecker & Associates has hired a new executive to lead its mission assurance team as it increases its workload in that area at two Department of Energy sites. Energy Department and nuclear navy veteran Craig Ferguson is now Longenecker’s group vice president for mission assurance, according to a Jan. 26 press release. The Las Vegas-based […]

The House’s top Department of Energy appropriator signaled Monday he might be interested in running the full Appropriations Committee next year after current Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) retires from Congress. In a Twitter message, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the blunt-talking, hard-nosed dentist-turned-lawmaker who chairs the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, said he has “always” […]

A New Mexico state Senate panel on Friday unanimously approved a bill that would ensure even nonprofit managers of Department of Energy national laboratories in the state would pay a gross receipts tax. Following approval by the New Mexico Senate’s Corporations and Transportation Committee, the next and last committee stop in the chamber before a […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is upping its vigilance against nuclear terrorism at an event some already consider radioactive in a metaphorical sense: Super Bowl 52. The big game this year will be played in Minneapolis between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles: teams whose fervent fan bases occasionally provoke resentment […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management anticipates it will in July issue a draft request for proposals for the Nevada Environmental Services Program at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). That is according to documents posted on a DOE procurement website for industry meetings held Monday and Tuesday in Las Vegas. The Office of […]

The Donald Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review would add new warhead work to the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) portfolio at a time when the agency’s budget is already stretched to the limit, nuclear-weapons experts — including the NNSA’s recently retired administrator — said this week. The semiautonomous Department of Energy branch, steward of […]

The Department of Energy’s plan for plutonium pit manufacturing will be made clearer in the Donald Trump administration’s 2019 budget request in February, agency officials told members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week. That is according to a presentation uploaded to the board’s website Jan. 19 after a briefing with Department of […]

The University of California and its mystery teammates have submitted a “clever” bid to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the next 10 years, the regent in charge of the institution’s national lab activities said in a public meeting late Wednesday. “We do have the most excellent bid,” Ellen Tauscher, the incoming chair […]

The federal government reopened Tuesday following a three-day shutdown, after Senate Democrats largely dropped their opposition to a stopgap budget bill to keep agencies open through Feb. 8. President Donald Trump signed the bill late Monday evening after it quickly passed through both chambers of Congress. The measure funds the Department of Energy (DOE) at […]

Steven Erhart  has been selected as the acting administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, leapfrogging the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch’s highest-ranking career civil servant at the helm until the Senate confirms the White House’s administrator-designate. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced the move Jan. 19 at the bottom of a press release acknowledging the […]

A suspicious package triggered an emergency response at the Pantex nuclear-weapon assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, on Jan. 16, but the details are on a strictly need-to-know basis, according to an official report from the Department of Energy. “On January 16, 2018, an operational emergency was declared, and the Emergency Response Organization was activated,” reads […]

In his farewell memo last week, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Sean Sullivan suggested he lost the confidence of the 120 staff members of the independent safety watchdog he led for a year and wanted to disband. “Our fine staff deserves to be led by an executive the staff believes in,” Sullivan, a board […]

French nuclear fuel cycle company New AREVA officially has a new name as of Tuesday: Orano. Orano is the result of a corporate restructuring AREVA initiated in 2016 that late last year resulted in the sale of the company’s nuclear power business to French utility EDF and other entities. What was left was almost entirely […]

Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration got an earful at a public meeting Wednesday over a contested power line for Y-12 National Security Complex’s new power substation. The substation will replace the existing, deteriorating power station for the Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. It will provide the power needed for Y-12’s […]

A federal lawsuit accusing the management contractor at the Savannah River Site of forcing a worker to retire due to his sleep apnea should be thrown out, according to a recommendation from a U.S. magistrate judge. Judge Thomas Rogers wrote in his Jan. 19 recommendation that Steven Baxley, a former employee of Savannah River Nuclear […]

The final version of the Donald Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review will arrive in early February, the Pentagon said Thursday. Dana White, the chief Department of Defense spokesperson, firmed up the date for the official release in a Pentagon briefing with the press. The long-awaited review, which leaked out in draft form earlier in January, […]

The Department of Energy’s plan for plutonium pit manufacturing will be made clearer in the Donald Trump administration’s 2019 budget request in February, agency officials told members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week. That is according to a presentation uploaded to the board’s website Friday after a briefing with Department of Energy […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management anticipates it will in July issue a draft request for proposals for the Nevada Environmental Services Program at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). That is according to documents posted on a DOE procurement website for industry meetings held Monday and Tuesday in Las Vegas. The Office of […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration could probably whip up a new low-yield warhead for submarine-launched ballistic missiles in “a couple years,” but doing so would slow ongoing programs to extend the life of current U.S. warheads, a former National Security Council official said Tuesday. “That’s something that the laboratories probably effectuate in a […]

A suspicious package triggered an emergency response at the Pantex nuclear-weapon assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, on Jan. 16, but the details are on a strictly need-to-know basis, according to an official report from the Department of Energy. “On January 16, 2018, an operational emergency was declared, and the Emergency Response Organization was activated,” reads […]

The federal government reopened Monday after a three-day shutdown, after Senate Democrats largely dropped their opposition to a stopgap budget bill to keep agencies open through Feb. 8. President Donald Trump signed the bill late Monday evening. The measure funds the Department of Energy (DOE) at fiscal 2017 levels, but allows the agency’s Inspector General’s […]

Top defense officials were scheduled to brief the Senate Armed Services Committee today in a closed session about the Donald Trump administration’s expansive Nuclear Posture Review, a draft of which leaked to the press in early January. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the Office of Senate Security in the Capitol Visitor Center. […]

Steven Erhart  has been selected as the acting administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, leapfrogging the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch’s highest-ranking career civil servant at the helm until the Senate confirms the White House’s administrator-designate. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced the move Friday at the bottom of a press release acknowledging […]

Sean Sullivan will resign from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety board on Feb. 2, a little more than a year after President Donald Trump elevated the longtime board member to chairman. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) announced Sullivan’s decision late Friday in a press release. In a memo to DNFSB staff, Sullivan said […]

In its last year on the job, National Security Technologies (NSTec) was praised for smooth handling of capital projects at the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, including its work to solidify designs for a new underground, non-explosive weapons-testing facility. National Security Technologies in 2017 wrapped up its management of the Nevada National Security Site for […]

Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies got praise for its contribution to nuclear warhead life-extension programs in fiscal 2017, along with hand-wringing over the departure of key personnel, in an annual performance report card from the government. That is according to a performance evaluation report published Thursday by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration […]

A third South Carolina jurisdiction has officially called on the Department of Energy to move production of plutonium pits — the fissile hearts of nuclear warheads — to the Savannah River Site from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. On Tuesday, the city of North Augusta, which neighbors the Savannah River Site, passed a […]