National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

A federal judge has partially dismissed claims that the Savannah River Site’s primary contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), and one of its parent companies, Fluor Federal Services (FFS), unjustly benefited from their contract with the Department of Energy. On March 18, the U.S. Department of Justice sued SRNS, the management and operations contractor for […]

A senior National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official said Monday that fostering nuclear security relationships between U.S. and Russian technical experts, as was done in the 1990s, would play a significant role in restoring otherwise chilly relations between the two countries. “There is a quality to science-to-science relationships that transcends a lot of the political […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) received $39.2 million, or 87 percent, of its annual award fee for fiscal 2016 from the Department of Energy – a total amount earned for both its Environmental Management (EM) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) missions. The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor could have earned up to […]

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded $10 million in Phase II funding to SHINE Medical Technologies as part of the agency’s program to promote a domestic supply of molybdenum-99 (mo-99). The funding is part of a cooperative agreement, which involved a 50-50 cost-sharing arrangement between SHINE and DOE. The recent award […]

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, announced this week as the nominee to become energy secretary in the Donald Trump administration, would be responsible for a massive program to ensure the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, sparking debate about whether he is qualified for the role – and whether management skill and bureaucratic experience matter […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) received $39.2 million, or 87 percent, of its annual award fee for fiscal 2016 from the Department of Energy – a total amount earned for both its Environmental Management (EM) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) missions. The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor could have earned up to […]

A federal judge has dismissed part of a Justice Department claim that the Savannah River Site’s primary contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), and one of its parent companies, Fluor Federal Services (FFS), unjustly benefited from their contract with the Department of Energy. On March 18, the Justice Department sued SRNS, the management and operations contractor […]

The Sandia National Laboratories said Monday it is offering a series of open houses to provide information for small businesses interested in providing goods and services to the National Nuclear Security Administration facility in New Mexico. More than 70 companies have sent representatives to the seven meetings held since Oct. 4, according to a Sandia press release, […]

A senior National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official said Monday that fostering nuclear security relationships between U.S. and Russian technical experts, as was done in the 1990s, would play a significant role in restoring otherwise chilly relations between the two countries. “There is a quality to science-to-science relationships that transcends a lot of the political […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has processed 2 kilograms of plutonium since beginning its program in September to permanently dispose of 6 metric tons of excess non-pit material, according to DOE. The site said Sept. 30 its personnel had begun downblending the material at the site’s K Area Complex. After dilution, […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday awarded phase II funding to General Atomics for its molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) supply agreement with Sterigenics International subsidiary Nordion and the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center. Mo-99 decays into technetium-99m, which is used in imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, bone disease, and kidney disease. […]

The Energy Department is scrapping a never-used step in the Savannah River Site’s spent nuclear fuel (SNF) processing campaign following a potential inadequacy at the site’s L Area, where the fuel is stored. Maxine Maxted, the site’s program manager for SNF, addressed the issue Tuesday during a meeting of the Nuclear Materials Committee of the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is accepting bids for the new contract to provide protective force services at the agency’s Nevada National Security Site. The contract would feature a one-year base period, from June 1, 2017, to May 31, 2018, followed by four single-year option periods through the end of May 2022, says the request […]

VIENNA — Governments, industry, and international organizations should work together to boost the cyber defense capabilities at nuclear facilities worldwide, according to a report from the nongovernmental Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), released at a Wednesday side event during the International Atomic Energy Agency’s International Conference on Nuclear Security. NTI’s Outpacing Cyber Threats report says traditional cyber defense methods at […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) found deficiencies in Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) procedures to guide employees at the Pantex Plant in Texas on the proper disposal of classified information, resulting in four security incidents in recent years, according to a Nov. 30 enforcement letter to Morgan Smith, CNS president and chief executive. The […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 92-7 to approve the conference version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, sending it to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature. The compromise bill authorizes nearly $619 billion in spending through the end of the budget year on Sept. 30, the vast majority at the […]

A government shutdown loomed Friday as some Senate Democrats held hostage a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government and its Cold War nuclear cleanup work funded through late April. The House passed the so-called continuing resolution Thursday, then adjourned for the week. In the Senate, however, Democratic lawmakers led by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) […]

The United States and Russia have not held any discussions about resuming full implementation of the bilateral plutonium elimination agreement that Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended in early October, a top U.S. State Department official said Wednesday. Thomas Countryman, acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said in an interview with NS&D […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee said this week it received a 2016 Star of Excellence workplace safety award from the National Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association (VPPPA). The award, which recognizes facilities with a recordable injury rate 75 percent stronger than U.S. businesses in the same industry, was presented in September at the VPPPA […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration last week issued the request for proposals for the next protective force services contract at the Nevada National Security Site. The selected contractor, among a host of duties, would provide uniformed personnel to provide security at the NNSS, Remote Sensing Laboratory at Nellis Air Force Base, and North Las Vegas […]

The House of Representatives on Tuesday introduced the second stopgap spending bill of the 2017 fiscal year, under which federal agencies including the Department of Energy would keep their fiscal 2016 spending levels through most of April. If passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama as expected, the bill will extend fiscal 2016 […]

VIENNA – U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Monday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor the dilution and disposal of 6 metric tons of excess plutonium at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. Moniz announced during the opening ministerial segment of the IAEA’s International Conference on Nuclear Security: Commitments and Actions […]

The Department of Energy’s Enterprise Assessment office found deficiencies in Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) procedures to guide employees on the proper disposal of classified information, resulting in four security incidents over the past few years at the Pantex Plant in Texas, according to a Nov. 30 enforcement letter from to Morgan Smith, CNS president and […]

South Carolina wants a U.S. District Court judge to reconsider her recent opinion that she has no jurisdiction to rule on the $100 million the state is seeking in its lawsuit over disposition of DOE plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. State Attorney General Alan Wilson sued the Energy Department, Energy Secretary […]

With the impending ascension of former NASA hand Rex Geveden to the top spot at BWX Technologies, the Lynchburg, Va.-company has set an an outsider from the aerospace business in charge of an effort to grow the company’s legacy nuclear cleanup business with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. “We remain strongly committed to […]

The conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017, which the House of Representatives approved Friday, strips out language from an earlier version of the bill that could have given the Energy Department a route to kill the embattled MOX project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its last budget […]

With the impending ascension of former NASA hand Rex Geveden to the top spot at BWX Technologies, the Lynchburg, Va.-company has set an outsider from the aerospace business in charge of an effort to grow the company’s legacy nuclear cleanup business with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. “We remain strongly committed to that […]

Nuclear Navy vet Don Hoffman, longtime president of Excel Services Corp., in Rockville, Md., is reportedly out of the running to head the Department of Energy’s legacy nuclear cleanup operations, and Eric Knox, a former Energy Department civil servant with ties to the Yucca Mountain, is rumored to be in consideration, sources in Washington said […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration has received the implementation plan for extending the service lives of two decades-old enriched uranium processing buildings at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, an agency spokesman said this week. The Extended Life Program implementation plan for the nuclear-weapon site’s Buildings 9215 and 9204-2E is considered a controlled […]

President Barack Obama this week nominated nuclear energy industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve a full term on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Hamilton joined the board in August 2015, replacing the late Ken Mossman. If approved by the Senate, he would serve a full term of five years. Hamilton was president of nuclear fuel […]