National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

One of two men accused of stealing more than $4 million from the federal government while working for the Savannah River Site’s MOX program could face up to five years in prison after entering into a plea agreement on Friday. Meanwhile, the other suspect has waived his right to a speedy trial and wants the […]

Thom Mason will leave his post as director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee on July 1 to join Battelle as a senior executive, the Department of Energy site announced last Friday. Mason, a physicist who has served for a decade as ORNL director, is set to become senior vice president for laboratory […]

Linton Brooks, a career naval officer and former head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, on Wednesday received the Johnny Foster Lifetime Achievement Award at the ExchangeMonitor’s 2017 Nuclear Deterrence Summit. The award, named in honor of the longtime Energy and Defense departments hand who directed the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the 1960s, recognizes […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday approved Critical Decision (CD)-4 for the High Explosives Pressing Facility (HEPF) at the Pantex Plant, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said Wednesday at the ExchangeMonitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington, D.C. CD-4 indicates readiness to operate the facility, following the construction phase. The agency in 2011 began building the […]

The second round of bidding for the Nevada National Security Site management and operations contract appears to be in its final stages, executives with one of the competing companies said Tuesday. Leidos resubmitted a proposal after the previous contract award to a newly acquired business segment was rescinded last year, according to Elizabeth Porter, senior vice president […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s work may be hindered by a congressionally mandated cap on federal employees, a former agency official said Wednesday. Madelyn Creedon, who served as the agency’s principal deputy administrator from 2014 to Jan. 20, noted that Congress directed a cap of 1,690 federal employees for the NNSA, excluding the offices of […]

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 Department of Energy’s Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories on Wednesday were named to Reuters Top 25 Global Innovators list, a ranking of “publicly funded institutions doing the most to advance science and technology,” according to the global news organization. Los Alamos, in New Mexico, landed at No. 24, while California-based Livermore rounded […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday approved Critical Decision (CD)-4 for the High Explosives Pressing Facility (HEPF) at the Pantex Plant, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said Wednesday at the ExchangeMonitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington, D.C. CD-4 indicates readiness to operate the facility, following the construction phase. The agency in 2011 began construction of […]

Several nongovernmental organizations on Wednesday enouraged Congress to discontinue funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility being built at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The Project on Government Oversight, Savannah River Site Watch, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and National Taxpayers Union signed the letter sent to lawmakers, highlighting a newly […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s stinging evaluation of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility’s contractor has been publicly released, revealing an overall award fee percentage in the single digits. The NNSA on Feb. 21 released to Savannah River Site Watch its fiscal 2016 performance evaluation report and award fee scorecard for CB&I AREVA MOX Services […]

The second round of bidding for the Nevada National Security Site management and operations contract appears to be in its final stages, executives with one of the competing companies said Tuesday. Leidos resubmitted a proposal after the previous contract award to a newly acquired subsidiary was rescinded last year, according to Elizabeth Porter, senior vice president for […]

One of two men accused of stealing more than $4 million from the federal government while working for the Savannah River Site’s MOX program could face up to five years in prison after entering into a plea agreement on Friday. Meanwhile, the other suspect has waived his right to a speedy trial and wants the […]

Thom Mason will leave his post as director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee on July 1 to join Battelle as a senior executive, the Department of Energy site announced Friday. Mason, a physicist who has served for a decade as ORNL director, is set to become senior vice president for laboratory operations […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s cybersecurity program is stable, improving, and has not faced any major incidents in recent years, the agency’s chief information officer told NS&D Monitor this week. The cyber program is “very strong,” both at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and at each of its sites around the country, Wayne Jones, […]

Global information technology provider Leidos this week reported higher earnings in the fourth quarter of 2016 and the full fiscal year, in part due to its acquisition last year of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) business segment. The company reported revenue of $2.58 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, up from […]

Sandia National Laboratories Director Jill Hruby nearly topped Business Insider’s list this week of the 43 most powerful female engineers of 2017 in the U.S. technology sector. Hruby came in at No. 2, behind only Peggy Johnson, executive vice president for business development at Microsoft. Barbara Rusinko, a president at major Department of Energy contractor […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week authorized the beginning of the W88 Alteration 370 program’s production engineering phase, part of the agency’s work in ensuring the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. The W88 thermonuclear warhead is deployed on the Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile carried on Ohio-class submarines. The warhead, in […]

Another group has announced its opposition to the anticipated shipments of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from a Canadian laboratory to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The Iroquois Caucus, a Canada-based coalition of seven First Nation communities, said in a prepared statement Wednesday it is “unanimously condemning a plan to truck 23,000 liters of highly […]

It has been 15 years since the last injury in operations of the Elza Switchyard at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, site management and operations contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) said Tuesday. The switchyard is a 161,000-volt electrical system that provides 100 percent of the electricity for the National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear […]

California-based power company Edison International is scheduled to announce its fourth-quarter and full-year 2016 earnings Tuesday afternoon. The company’s earnings call is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. Edison is the parent company of Southern California Edison, owner of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. A partnership of AECOM and EnergySolutions recently won a […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday reported modest revenue and operating income increases for both fourth-quarter and full-year 2016. Specifically, the shipbuilder reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.9 billion, a 0.9 percent increase from the same year-ending period of 2015. Meanwhile, it brought in $7.1 billion in revenue over the full year, up by 0.7 percent from […]

Editor’s note: This is the second 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 […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday reported modest revenue and operating income increases for both fourth-quarter and full-year 2016. Specifically, the shipbuilder reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.9 billion, a 0.9 percent increase from the same year-ending period of 2015. Meanwhile, it brought in $7.1 billion in revenue over the full year, up by 0.7 percent from […]

South Carolina’s new governor thinks the state Attorney General’s Office should refile its $100 million plutonium disposition claim against the Department of Energy. Meanwhile, a spokesperson said Attorney General Alan Wilson is still contemplating his next move after a federal judge last week dismissed the state’s monetary claim over DOE’s failure to meet its plutonium […]

The contractor managing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina this week issued a request for proposals for a fixed-price subcontract to install HVAC ductwork for the project. CB&I AREVA MOX Services said the subcontract will involve the installation of ductwork, supports, and […]

South Carolina’s new governor thinks the state Attorney General’s Office should refile its $100 million plutonium disposition claim against the Department of Energy. Meanwhile, a spokesperson said Attorney General Alan Wilson is still contemplating his next move after a federal judge last week dismissed the state’s monetary claim over DOE’s failure to meet its plutonium […]

Mum is the word on when shipments of highly enriched uranium (HEU) are scheduled to arrive at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina following a recent federal court decision against environmental groups seeking to block the transports from Canada. “In order to preserve operational security, DOE/NNSA does not comment on planned shipments of nuclear material,” a National […]

The contractor managing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina this week issued a request for proposals for a fixed-price subcontract to install HVAC ductwork for the project. CB&I AREVA MOX Services said the subcontract will involve the installation of ductwork, supports, and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is extending for seven weeks its task order with TechSource Inc., for technical support services for the agency’s Office of Major Modernization Programs, according to a notice posted this week. This NNSA office is responsible for the execution of weapon-related modernization programs in support of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, “from […]