National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

MERCURY, Nev. — The next U.S. laboratory for testing nuclear weapons without nuclear explosions will be done a year or two sooner but cost more than forecast this spring, officials said here Wednesday. The officials spoke to the Exchange Monitor and other media outlets during a press tour of the Nevada National Security Site, organized […]

MERCURY, Nev. — The next subcritical experiment in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Nimble is scheduled to fire in April, senior officials at the Nevada National Security Site site told the Exchange Monitor Wednesday. The experiment, named Nob Hill, would be the second in the three-shot series of experiments. The first experiment, called Twin Peaks, took […]

Federal and state agencies on Tuesday said they did not look for a radiation source, since recovered, that went missing in New Jersey earlier this month. Spokespersons for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection all said in emails Tuesday that they did […]

The Senate on Monday easily cleared a procedural hurdle to tee up a vote on an annual defense policy bill while the House prepared for a vote on another stopgap budget. The Senate voted 83 to 12 to end debate on a version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that drew widespread, though […]

Procurement bosses at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management could roll out the next solicitation in March, according to a DOE notice dated Monday. A draft request for proposals (RFP) for the next Infrastructure Support Services for DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky could be out as early as March, the Environmental Management Consolidated […]

Roger Rocha was appointed president of the prime contractor at Nevada National Security Site effective Monday, the site announced in a press release Monday. Rocha, the interim president since September when his predecessor resigned, now will take responsibility for all activities overseen by the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) at the Nevada National […]

Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Exchange Monitor Friday that the U.S. does not need to critically test, even in a new administration. “If it’s based on purely technical considerations, we are confident that we can get the information we need staying subcritical,” Adams said. “We […]

As of Dec. 8, the New Mexico Environment Department has 37 pages of emails with comments on the Department of Energy’s plan to define legacy transuranic waste for disposal at DOE’s deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Dec. 8 is roughly mid-way in the public comment period that runs through Jan. 3, on DOE’s […]

The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which the House passed on Wednesday, would set the National Nuclear Security Administration’s spending cap at $24.9 billion for the fiscal year. The number, hashed out last weekend behind closed doors by a bicameral conference committee, is only about 0.2%, or $57 million, less than what the White House […]

The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the National Nuclear Security Administration’s spending cap at $24.9 billion, passed the House 281-140 Wednesday. The bill now heads to the Senate, which is still controlled by a 51-member majority of Democrats and Democratically aligned Senators in the lame duck session that will end in a matter […]

With field work done, a groundwater monitoring study is underway for a new low-level radioactive waste landfill being built at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, DOE said Tuesday. Earlier this year, 30 acres were cleared and roads rerouted so subcontractor CTI and Associates can study groundwater at the site of the […]

Businesses interested in leasing warehouse space for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state now have until Dec. 30 to formally express interest in a deal with the Leidos-led landlord contractor at the nuclear cleanup site. Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) initially published an online procurement notice Nov. 23 seeking a lease on […]

A bill unveiled Saturday authorizes the National Nuclear Security Administration to spend slightly less than requested in 2025 and makes the agency’s production facilities a legal part of U.S. nuclear deterrence. The agency would be allowed to spend about $24.9 billion in fiscal year 2025 under a compromise National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That would […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex has entered fiscal 2025 facing more than a half-trillion dollars in environmental liability, the rising threat of cyber-attack and the need to revive plutonium pit production. Those are a few takeaways in a DOE Office of Inspector General (OIG) management challenges report about the department’s Office of Environmental […]

Development of the nuclear warhead for the Air Force’s next cruise missile so far is not affected by the early parallel development of a sea-launched variant of the warhead for the Navy, the commander of the eighth Air Force said Wednesday. “I have not heard anything like that at all,” Major General Jason Armagost, commander […]

Development of the nuclear warhead for the Air Force’s next cruise missile so far is not affected by the early parallel development of a sea-launched variant of the warhead for the Navy, the commander of the eighth Air Force said Wednesday. “I have not heard anything like that at all,” Major General Jason Armagost, commander […]

When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

A federal judge granted the order Tuesday to vacate a judgement favoring environmentalists in a plutonium pit lawsuit and stop the case from going to an appeals court. The defendants, the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), asked district judge Mary Geiger Lewis to vacate her Sept. 30 judgement validating […]

When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

More than half of the transuranic waste shipments hauled away from the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in fiscal 2024 came from plutonium downblending, a DOE spokesperson said last week. In response to an inquiry from Exchange Monitor, the spokesperson said via email that 35 of the 59 transuranic waste shipments sent to DOE’s  […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will conduct low-altitude helicopter flights Dec. 2-13 over downtown Washington, to detect radiation threats ahead of the 2025 presidential inauguration, the agency said in a press release. The Nuclear Energy Support Team’s (NEST) aircraft, now a Leonardo AW-139, will scan for background radiation by flying at low levels in the […]

The federal government last week asked a judge to vacate a judgement favoring environmentalists in a plutonium pit lawsuit and stop the case from going to an appeals court. The defendants, the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), asked district judge Mary Geiger Lewis to vacate her Sept. 30 judgement […]

When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

A 2019 law ordering production of pits at Los Alamos is not a substitute for a required environmental analysis of the program that, an antinuclear activist said this week in court, the National Nuclear Security Administration still has not done. “There is no such exemption here, and Congress cannot order the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration collaborated with Japan’s Kyoto University to convert a reactor to run on high-assay low enriched uranium, according to an agency press release.  The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology first agreed to convert Kyoto University Critical Assembly’s (KUCA) fuel in a […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security is seeking a firm to test for leaks in one of its glovebox systems at Y-12 National Security Complex, according to a source sought notice posted Nov. 14 on sam.gov. The Bechtel National-led manager at the uranium processing hub for deployed nuclear weapons in Oak Ridge, Tenn., estimated in the expression of […]

Hurricane Helene gave the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management one last emergency to deal with at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina before turning over control of the property to the National Nuclear Security Administration, a cleanup manager said Monday. Hurricane Helene “made for an interesting final weekend” before the cleanup office […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration conducted low-altitude helicopter flights starting Tuesday this week over Las Vegas, Nev. ahead of the city’s Grand Prix, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said. According to a post Monday from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on the website X, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) used its helicopters […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration, in asking a court to deny an activist’s amicus brief in an ongoing lawsuit, said it conducted a review of producing warhead cores in New Mexico.  At the end of October, Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group in Albuquerque, N.M., filed a proposed amicus brief saying […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will conduct low-altitude helicopter flights starting Tuesday this week over Las Vegas, Nev. ahead of the city’s Grand Prix, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said. According to a post Monday from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on the website X, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will use […]