National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The Department of Energy kept mum this week on how many responses it received to a request for information (RFI) from vendors potentially interested in landing a long-term environmental cleanup contract at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Responses were due Nov. 30 for the RFI issued Nov. 13. The Energy Department is looking at […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration believes manufacturing plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina might be cheaper than keeping the work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency settled on Savannah River after ruling out the Idaho National Laboratory as part of a congressionally […]

Bids on the next management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are due in a matter of days. Texas A&M University is in the hunt, but even at the 11th hour, the university refuses to provide any details about the role it hopes to play at the storied nuclear […]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has begun analyzing whether the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico would be a viable facility for storage of plutonium that would be downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its fiscal 2017 budget, Congress mandated that the nongovernmental research organization conduct […]

The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., this week asked the Department of Energy again not to despoil the natural landscape near the Y-12 National Nuclear Security Complex with power lines for a next-generation uranium-processing plant. The Department of Energy (DOE) contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority to build the lines on a hilltop known locally […]

A former Sandia National Laboratories employee who allegedly swindled more than $2 million from the federal government pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. It was part of a plea bargain that Carla Sena, a former contracting official at the Albuquerque, N.M.-based lab, agreed to with the […]

Department of Energy nuclear budgets will stay at fiscal 2017 levels through Dec. 22, under a short-term continuing resolution Congress approved on Thursday. President Donald Trump was expected to sign the stopgap budget bill after deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Without the new spending bill, federal funding would run out after midnight […]

A former Sandia National Laboratories employee who allegedly swindled more than $2 million from the federal government pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. It was part of a plea bargain that Carla Sena, a former contracting official at the Albuquerque, N.M.-based lab, agreed to with the […]

The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., on Monday asked the Department of Energy again not to despoil the natural landscape near the Y-12 National Nuclear Security Complex with power lines for a next-generation uranium-processing plant. The Department of Energy (DOE) contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority to build the lines on a hilltop known locally […]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has begun analyzing whether the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico would be a viable facility for storage of plutonium that would be downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its fiscal 2017 budget, Congress mandated that the nongovernmental research organization conduct […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico reported 25 breaches of its state hazardous waste facility permit during fiscal 2017, according to a recent filing with the New Mexico Environment Department. The 25 infractions in the budget year ended Sept. 30 are far less than noted in preceding years, when the annual […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed Monday it is evaluating whether it can manufacture plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina instead of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as currently planned. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency settled on Savannah River after ruling out the Idaho National Laboratory as […]

Department of Energy nuclear budgets will stay at fiscal 2017 levels through Dec. 22, under a short-term spending bill the head of the House Appropriations Committee introduced Saturday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like the rest of the federal government, has been held at last-budget spending levels since early September, when Congress signed a continuing […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to consider at least one nuclear safety recommendation to the Department of Energy during closed-door meetings in early December, according to notices published Monday. The specific topics to be discussed by the five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Dec. 6 and Dec. 18 are unknown. In notices posted online, the […]

The Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee, a centrifuge in Texas, and the national heavy water inventory are among the management challenges the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office foresees for the agency in fiscal 2018, according to a Nov. 27 special report. The Inspector General’s (IG) Office fretted that DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

A federal discrimination lawsuit filed against the Savannah River Site’s liquid waste contractor was terminated this week after the accuser failed to let the courts know if he wanted to continue the case. Jimmy Rouse, an African-American man who was employed by Savannah River Remediation (SRR), had several months to address the contractor’s request for […]

Assuming CH2M shareholders approve that company’s acquisition by Jacobs Engineering in a few weeks, Jacobs Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou sees the combined company getting off to “a running start.” During a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Nov. 21 following release of Jacobs’ quarterly earnings, Demetriou said he has already visited many CH2M […]

Controlling the costs of multibillion-dollar Cold War cleanup projects remains a struggle for the Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management, the DOE Office of inspector General said in a Nov. 27 special report. In the report, the Inspector General’s Office analyzed management challenges facing the department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

BWX Technologies has named Regina W. Carter as its senior vice president, government affairs and communications. Carters has been a vice president for the company since 2015. In addition to heading up government affairs and communications, Carter also serves as a member of BWXT’s executive staff and strategic planning team, BWXT President and CEO Rex […]

Terry Wallace will become director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory effective Jan. 1, replacing Charles McMillan, the lab announced Tuesday. Wallace is a stopgap director who will serve only about nine months at the helm Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) before a new management contractor — and a new director — steps in. That […]

The University of Texas’ (UT) Board of Regents on Monday narrowly approved a bid on a potentially decade-long contract to manage the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. The board voted 4-3 in favor of the motion, which will pair the university with at least one corporate partner as part of a limited liability […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge said Tuesday she needs to determine if her court can decide if South Carolina should receive $100 million from the Department of Energy over missed plutonium disposal deadlines at the Savannah River Site. In the order, Judge Margaret Sweeney granted DOE’s request to defer a ruling on the […]

Funding for federal agencies runs out Dec. 8, but Congress is working on another short-term fix to keep the government running for a little while longer, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday. The new budget year, fiscal 2018, began on Oct. 1, but the federal government for now remains funded at prior-year levels. “We’re […]

AECOM does not plan to be part of the next Los Alamos National Laboratory management team, a source said Thursday. The Los Angeles-based engineering services giant is one of the junior industry partners on Los Alamos National Security (LANS): the incumbent lab prime now managing the the roughly 70-year-old nuclear-weapons facility under a contract worth […]

The state of California is participating in a National Nuclear Security Administration program to reduce the possibility of medical isotopes becoming ammunition for dirty bombs, the semi autonomous Department of Energy agency said Tuesday. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Cesium Irradiator Replacement Program helps academic and medical institutions replace devices that use radiological materials, […]

More than 10 months into the Donald Trump administration, the White House has not nominated anyone to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) — something entirely consistent with the few organizational precedents the agency has established in its short history. Yet Trump prides himself on shattering Washington precedents and is, according to rumor, on […]

A new labor contract phased last week for about 900 Honeywell employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City National Security Campus, the union announced. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 778 ratified a new tentative agreement with management Nov. 19, the local said on its website. Members never went […]

Mission Support and Test Services officially took over management of the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site on Friday, the agency’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration said. The Nevada National Security Site is the former Nevada Test Site where the United States conducted explosive atmospheric and underground nuclear weapon tests. The site today conducts […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Orbital ATK’s [OA] stockholders on Wednesday voted in favor of their company’s being acquired by Northrop Grumman [NOC], keeping the pending deal on track for a close in the first half of 2018. The nearly $8 billion acquisition still must receive regulatory approvals. Orbital ATK said that holders of more than 99 percent […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) acknowledged the third test of 2017 for components of the updated B61-12 gravity bomb the agency is developing as part of the $1-trillion-plus U.S. nuclear modernization program. The two qualification flights took place Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the NNSA said in a […]