National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

A new cost and schedule estimate for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new factory for nuclear weapon secondary stages will be done “soon” and will not change the scope of the project, the secretary of energy said this week in congressional testimony. The “baseline change proposal” for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National […]

The story “NNSA seeks study contractor for effort to mature Oak Ridge defense refining tech” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, March, 19, 2024] should have said that the National Nuclear Security Administration is developing uranium enrichment technology and that the agency has enough low enriched uranium to meet defense needs through the 2040s.

A federal district court judge in Tennessee has again refused to allow a group of more than 20 people to join a COVID-19 lawsuit filed by fired contractors at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site. U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough rejected a motion for reconsideration filed last month by prospective plaintiffs who say they […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday solicited bids for a one-year study about a pilot plant to test defense uranium-enrichment technology developed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Bids are due April 15, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wrote in a procurement notice posted online for the firm-fixed-price NNSA Domestic Uranium Enrichment Pilot […]

The White House this week requested about $25 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, more than $860 million, or 3.6%, above the 2024 appropriation signed into law late last week. The agency also said in the budget request that the cost of a planned South Carolina facility to make the nuclear-weapon first-stage cores called […]

PHOENIX — The Savannah River Site could send as many as 40 shipments of diluted surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2024, a manager at the Savannah River Site said here. Or maybe half that many, Lee Sims, K Area Facility Manager at Savannah River for the site’s Fluor-led prime contractor, Savannah […]

PHOENIX — The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is about 20% to its goal of adding 600 electric vehicles over the next few years, an executive with the site’s prime contractor said here Tuesday. The site currently has 116 electric vehicles and will add another 44 this year, Mike Swain, executive […]

PHOENIX — The Savannah River Site could send as many as 40 shipments of diluted surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2024, a manager at the Savannah River Site said here. Or maybe half that many, Lee Sims, K Area Facility Manager at Savannah River for the site’s Fluor-led prime contractor, Savannah […]

Funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons program would rise and funding for its nuclear-waste-cleanup programs would fall slightly year-over-year, under the fiscal year 2025 budget request President Joe Biden (D) released Monday. The Department of Energy had not released detailed budget justification documents as of Monday afternoon, but according to a document published Monday […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to hear from entities interested in building a massive, 2,000-acre clean-energy farm to help power the Nevada National Security Site outside Las Vegas. In an 18-page request for qualifications published Friday, the NNSA said it will choose one or more companies to develop and construct a facility capable of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to hear from entities interested in building a massive, 2,000-acre clean-energy farm to help power the Nevada National Security Site outside Las Vegas. In an 18-page request for qualifications published Friday, the NNSA said it will choose one or more companies to develop and construct a facility capable of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration stands to see its roughly $24 billion budget request fulfilled under the compromise funding agreement reached by Congress this week.   The House approved the bill on Wednesday by a vote of 339 to 85, the Senate was still debating the measure at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, […]

The NNSA intends to grant SHINE Technologies cost-share funding to build and operate a new facility for producing the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) without the use of highly-enriched uranium, according to a March 4 filing in the Federal Register. The agency filed an unpublished version of the decision last week. SHINE received a construction permit for […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration stands to see its roughly $24 billion budget request fulfilled under the compromise funding agreement reached by Congress this week.   The bill includes just over $19 billion for NNSA weapons activities and includes a requirement that the agency work with the scientific advisory group JASON to “conduct an assessment of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration stands to see its roughly $24 billion budget request fulfilled under the compromise funding agreement reached by Congress this week.   The bill includes just over $19 billion for NNSA weapons activities and includes a requirement that the agency work with the scientific advisory group JASON to “conduct an assessment of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to hear from entities interested in building a massive, 2,000-acre clean-energy farm to help power the Nevada National Security Site outside Las Vegas.  In an 18-page request for qualifications published Friday, the NNSA said it will choose one or more companies to develop and construct a facility capable of […]

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) this week implored fellow lawmakers to renew a program to compensate victims of Manhattan Project-era radiation exposure.  In a letter dated Feb. 26, Hawley asked his Senate colleagues to reauthorize the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which he said is “critical funding,” without which citizens exposed to radioactive materials during […]

Nuclear Naval reactor maker BWX Technologies is out of the submarine missile tube building business after completing its contracted work for the U.S. Navy and allied fleets in 2023, the company’s chief executive said on Feb. 27.  BWXT makes Common Missile Compartment tubes at its factory in Mount Vernon, Ind. The tubes are designed to […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., for 2023, which the maker of nuclear naval reactors and manager of nuclear weapons sites attributed Tuesday mostly to favorable adjustments on government contracts. For the year, net earnings were $246.3 million, or $2.68 per share, up about 7.7% from $238.6 million, or $2.60 a share in 2023. […]

All shifts were scheduled to report normally to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, again on Friday, even as nearby wildfires of historic intensity continued to burn.  The plant’s website shows normal scheduling for the day, swing and graveyard shifts on Friday. Workers were recalled Wednesday after operations at the National […]

Excluding equipment and construction, the National Nuclear Security Administration will spend about $1 billion over 10 years to study the effects of aging on nuclear-weapon cores, the Government Accountability Office reported this week. According to the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) unclassified review of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) classified “Research Program Plan for Plutonium […]

The leader of U.S. Strategic Command now counts a nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile among his “critical” nuclear modernization efforts, alongside a new stealth bomber, ballistic missile submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles.  Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton has, until Thursday, avoided specifically endorsing development of a nuclear-capable sea-launched cruise missile, or SLCM-N. He has said that […]

All shifts were scheduled to report normally to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, on Thursday, despite several wildfires still raging north of the site.  The plant’s website shows normal scheduling for the day, swing and graveyard shifts on Thursday. Workers were recalled Wednesday after operations at the National Nuclear Security […]

Nuclear Naval reactor maker BWX Technologies is out of the submarine missile tube building business after completing its contracted work for the U.S. Navy and allied fleets in 2023, the company’s chief executive said on Feb. 27.  BWXT makes Common Missile Compartment tubes at its factory in Mount Vernon, Ind. The tubes are designed to […]

Operations at the National Nuclear Security’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, were suspended Tuesday evening because of nearby wildfires, but workers were recalled for Wednesday’s shifts. Several large wildfires are burning north of Amarillo, where the NNSA’s nuclear weapons assembly-and-disassembly hub is located. They include the Smokehouse Creek Fire, which has burned half a million […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration is shopping around for a new Nevada Field Office headquarters in greater Las Vegas, a federal advisory board heard Wednesday evening. Jill Hruby, who heads DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, is slated to meet with Las Vegas officials next week in Washington, D.C., to discuss a […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration is shopping around for a new Nevada Field Office headquarters in greater Las Vegas, a federal advisory board heard Wednesday evening. Jill Hruby, who heads DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, is slated to meet with Las Vegas officials next week in Washington, D.C., to discuss a […]

A private equity firm that acquired and merged several businesses that work for the Department of Energy sold the rolled-up companies to Cadre Holdings, a Jacksonville, Fla., maker of law-enforcement equipment. Cadre acquired Alpha Safety Group, created by Benford Capital Partners of Chicago in 2021 from the former Nuclear Filter Technologies, for a little more […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority extended a contract for defense uranium processing with BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services, the company announced Wednesday. Under the two year, $122-million extension, Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tenn., will continue converting highly enriched uranium into low-enriched uranium for use in National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear weapons programs until June […]

The House of Representatives was in no rush this week to consider a Ukraine aid package that would also provide an infusion of funds for monitoring radiological threats in Ukraine combat zones, the Speaker of the House said. “We are not going to be forced into action by the Senate,” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the […]