National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Months before a state regulatory deadline, the Energy Department and its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant have stopped using emergency above-ground waste storage space at the mine, according to a Monday regulatory filing. “On February 9, 2017, [DOE and Nuclear Waste Partnership] reconfigured the TRU [transuranic] mixed waste in storage in the […]

A federal judge on Monday ordered that 1 metric ton of plutonium be removed from South Carolina, but did not set a schedule for that to happen. The state sued the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration last year, claiming they had breached a 2003 agreement to by Jan. 1, 2016, […]

The prime contractor at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina illegally fired an employee in 2014 for cooperating with a congressionally led investigation into whistleblower retaliation at the site, according to DOE’s Office of Hearings and Appeals. The quasi-judicial Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) subsequently ordered Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) […]

The prime contractor at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina illegally fired an employee in 2014 for cooperating with a congressionally led investigation into whistleblower retaliation at the site, according to DOE’s Office of Hearings and Appeals. The quasi-judicial Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) subsequently ordered Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) […]

The Nuclear Threat Initiative has named former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz its new chief executive officer and co-chairman of its Board of Directors. Moniz, a Ph.D. physicist, served under the Barack Obama administration as head of the Department of Energy from 2013 to 2017. He left his position upon the inauguration of President […]

The Trump administration is reconsidering every piece of U.S. nuclear arms policy – even the broad end goal of global nuclear disarmament – in its upcoming Nuclear Posture Review, a senior National Security Council official said Tuesday. “We’re being encouraged . . . to do a real honest-to-God, bottom-up review, to rethink things from the […]

New Mexico Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall on Tuesday introduced a resolution that calls on the secretary of the Navy to name the next nuclear submarine the “USS Los Alamos” in honor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s contributions to the service. The senators’ press release noted that 2018 will be the 75th anniversary […]

A federal judge on Monday ordered that 1 metric ton of plutonium be removed from South Carolina, but did not set a schedule for that to happen because she wants the Energy Department and the state – the two sides in a year-old lawsuit – to make that determination together over the next month. The […]

An advisory committee to the Savannah River Site is scheduled next week to discuss an international program that has previously sent, and is expected to continue sending, controversial shipments of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from other countries to the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) will on March […]

An advisory committee to the Savannah River Site is scheduled next week to discuss an international program that has previously sent, and is expected to continue sending, controversial shipments of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from other countries to the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. The SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) will on March […]

The Trump administration is reconsidering every piece of U.S. nuclear arms policy – even the broad end goal of global nuclear disarmament – in its upcoming Nuclear Posture Review, a senior National Security Council official said Tuesday. “We’re being encouraged . . . to do a real honest-to-God, bottom-up review, to rethink things from the […]

A federal judge on Monday ordered that 1 metric ton of plutonium be removed from South Carolina, but did not set a schedule for that to happen. The state sued the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration last year, claiming they had breached a 2003 agreement to by Jan. 1, 2016, […]

CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the contractor managing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility near Aiken, S.C., said in a new letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration that the agency is attempting to terminate the project through a campaign of consistent obstruction. NS&D Monitor obtained the March 8 letter, a response to the […]

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter Tuesday to the secretaries of defense and energy to express their opposition to recent recommendations made by the Defense Science Board on low-yield nuclear weapons and full-scale nuclear testing. The letter, penned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and 12 other lawmakers, highlights a December report by the independent […]

The Trump administration’s budget outline for 2018 proposes an 11 percent funding increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration while cutting overall funding for the Department of Energy. The White House released the budget blueprint Thursday, requesting $28 billion for DOE, down $1.7 billion or 5.6 percent from its 2017 annualized level under the continuing […]

Motor carriers of radioactive sources are not directly inspected for compliance with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s security requirements, the Government Accountability Office found in a report released last week. Radioactive sources, used worldwide for medical, industrial, research, and other applications, are vulnerable to theft by groups seeking to create radiological “dirty bombs,” or devices that […]

South Carolina and the federal government are in talks on a potential settlement for a lawsuit in which the state alleged the government breached an agreement by not processing plutonium through the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson in February 2016 sued the Energy Department, then-Energy Secretary […]

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter Tuesday to the secretaries of defense and energy to express their opposition to recent recommendations made by the Defense Science Board on low-yield nuclear weapons and full-scale nuclear testing. The letter, penned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and 12 other lawmakers, highlights a December report by the independent […]

CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the contractor managing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility near Aiken, S.C., said in a new letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration that the agency regularly obstructs MOX construction in an effort to terminate the project. NS&D Monitor obtained the March 8 letter, a response to the NNSA’s […]

A federal judge dismissed Tuesday part of South Carolina’s lawsuit in which it alleged the federal government had breached an agreement with the state by not processing plutonium through the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. Specifically, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs dismissed the state’s assertion that the government’s failure to meet the […]

South Carolina and the federal government are conducting discussions toward settling a lawsuit in which the state has alleged that the government breached an agreement by not processing plutonium through the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson in February 2016 sued the Energy Department, then-Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration intends to issue a contract modification extending by four months Synergy Solutions’ personnel security and facility clearance programs support services, according to a notice posted Monday. The notice said the contract would be awarded March 29 to the Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based company. The work under this contract involves background investigations […]

Members of the Defense Science Board suggested Thursday that the United States keep its options open for someday enhancing the mission of the nuclear enterprise with activities including design competitions, resumed nuclear testing, and lower-yield warheads. The Defense Science Board is an independent expert advisory committee for the secretary of defense that currently has 46 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission lauded CB&I AREVA MOX Services, which is building the embattled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, for its construction program and oversight in an assessment of the contractor’s construction activities and safety performance during 2016. The regulatory body said in a March 2 letter to CB&I AREVA MOX Services that the […]

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up on news affecting the U.S. nuclear deterrent during […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission lauded CB&I AREVA MOX Services, which is building the embattled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, for its construction program and oversight in an assessment of the contractor’s construction activities and safety performance during 2016. The regulatory body said in a March 2 letter to CB&I AREVA MOX Services that the […]

New Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Friday said his alma mater’s bid for management of the Sandia National Laboratories helped teach him the value of the agency he once wanted to kill and now leads. Perry made light of his famous “oops” moment during a 2011 presidential debate in which he said he would eliminate three federal […]

The contractor building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility received less than 9 percent of its possible award fee in its latest performance evaluation, along with a stinging rebuke from the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA on Feb. 21 released to Savannah River Site Watch its fiscal 2016 performance evaluation report and […]

The absence of senior leadership at the Trump administration’s Cabinet agencies threatens to leave contractors without clear policy direction on matters including the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons and cleanup complexes, executives said Tuesday. There is no imminent end in sight to this dilemma, they acknowledged. Panelists at the ExchangeMonitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit spoke two […]

The Senate on Thursday confirmed James Richard “Rick” Perry as U.S. secretary of energy, installing the former Texas governor to the government’s top nuclear weapons, waste, and energy post after an uncontroversial 62-37 vote. Every Senate Republican and 10 Democrats voted for Perry. All 37 “no” votes were from Democratic senators, plus Vermont independent Sen. […]