National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Though the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to dramatically ramp up plutonium pit production around the time a key arms control treaty expires in 2026, there are no plans to test fire any weapons, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said Monday in New Mexico. Hruby sat through two hours of questioning – and occasional haranguing – […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, will have a new manager as of May 21. Jason Armstrong, currently manager of the NNSA’s Savannah River Field Office, will take over as manager of the Pantex manager for the production office beginning May 21st. This does not include leadership of […]

The Kansas City District Environmental Programs Branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will host its annual spring industry call at 10 a.m. Central Time on April 27, according to a notice on a federal procurement website. The call will update the status of current and upcoming solicitations and discuss overall workload, according to […]

Though the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to dramatically ramp up plutonium pit production around the time a key arms control treaty expires in 2026, there are no plans to test fire any weapons, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said Monday in New Mexico. Hruby sat through two hours of questioning – and occasional haranguing – […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is hiring for senior acquisition and construction management professionals with imminent application deadlines.  Through Monday, the NNSA is accepting applications for a deputy associate administrator for partnership and acquisition services in Washington. Applications for this and other NNSA positions can be submitted through the federal government’s job site, USAjobs.gov. Last […]

An employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory was blown off a ladder and severely burned in 2015 after spraying cleaning solutions on parts of a power substation that turned out to be electrified, according to a report on the incident published last week. After the resulting arc-flash, nine employees were sent to Los Alamos Medical […]

Some parallel efforts by the National Nuclear Security Administration and Defense Department to secure nuclear materials around the globe may be redundant if their individual mission goals are not more clearly defined, the Government Accountability Office found in a new report.  The GAO looked into 23 separate NNSA and DoD programs and found that “some […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, will have a new manager as of May 21. Jason Armstrong, currently manager of the NNSA’s Savannah River Field Office, will take over as manager of the Pantex manager for the production office beginning May 21st. This does not include leadership of […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments enforcement office is launching an investigation into the amputation of a worker’s finger at the Savannah River Site on Dec. 1, according to a letter sent to site President and CEO Stuart MacVean.  Dated March 23 but posted online on Tuesday, the letter says DoE will investigate […]

A labor shortage initially blamed on COVID-19, but which has outlasted the nationwide response to the pandemic, hamstrung construction of new nuclear weapons factories and forced a construction triage at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency’s administrator told lawmakers Tuesday. The construction or “craft” labor shortages at various sites contributed to several program delays, […]

After several years of planning, the initial discard of uranium solution from the new Accelerated Basin De-inventory program at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., was successfully transferred to the SRS liquid waste program from the H Canyon Chemical Separations Facility, the Department of Energy said last week. The newly implemented Accelerated Basin De-inventory […]

Belgium can use low-enriched uranium to produce a valuable medical isotope instead of the highly-enriched uranium it used to import from the United States for that purpose, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday. Converting Belgium’s National Institute of Radioelements medical isotope production to low-enriched uranium was marked as a major nuclear non-proliferations milestone. More […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is still looking for a successor to its first executive director of operations, who left in August, the board said in a recent report to Congress. “The board is actively recruiting to fill that vacancy in 2023,” according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s 33rd Annual Report to […]

The Biden Administration’s desire to cancel a new lower-yield nuclear submarine-launched cruise missile still doesn’t sit well with the leadership of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.  Both subcommittee Chair Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and ranking member Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) support a submarine launched cruise missile tipped with a nuke, called SLCM-N, at […]

Belgium can use low-enriched uranium to produce a valuable medical isotope instead of the highly-enriched uranium it used to import from the United States for that purpose, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday. Converting Belgium’s National Institute of Radioelements medical isotope production to low-enriched uranium was marked as a major nuclear non-proliferations milestone. More […]

A labor shortage initially blamed on COVID-19, but which has outlasted the nationwide response to the pandemic, hamstrung construction of new nuclear weapons factories and forced a construction triage at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency’s administrator told lawmakers Tuesday. The construction or “craft” labor shortages at various sites contributed to several program delays, […]

The Department of Energy and state and federal regulators agreed that the agency will finish cleaning up most liquid waste at the former plutonium production site near the Georgia line by 2037, the agency and the site’s prime contractor announced Tuesday morning. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, DOE and the U.S. […]

The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration was scheduled to testify Tuesday at 9 a.m. before the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, where she will take questions on the agency’s fiscal 2024 budget request. NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby will be joined by John Plumb assistant secretary of defense for space policy, Deborah Rosenblum […]

After several years of planning, the initial discard of uranium solution from the new Accelerated Basin De-inventory program at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., was successfully transferred to the SRS liquid waste program from the H Canyon Chemical Separations Facility, the Department of Energy said last week. The newly implemented Accelerated Basin De-inventory […]

Lawyers representing employees who accuse Consolidated Nuclear Security, manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge Tenn., of withholding wages have withdrawn from a proposed class action lawsuit against the contractor.  The motion to withdraw as counsel was granted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville on Monday. Justin […]

Australian leaders are concerned about the nuclear waste the country’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet, which the country will buy and then build under the AUKUS deal with the U.S. and U.K.  AUKUS also poses complicated questions of compliance for Australia, which is treaty-bound to neither produce or possess nuclear weapons or materials that could be used […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s longest-serving associate administrator Jeffrey Johnson, the chief of nuclear security, announced his retirement on Monday.  Johnson served eight years at NNSA following a 20-year career in uniform and seven years as a civilian employee with the U.S. Marine Corps, according to a statement from the NNSA. The NNSA did not […]

Citing a national security memorandum that describes a reduced need for the B83 thermonuclear gravity bomb, the National Nuclear Administration proposed cutting funding for the weapon in its 2024 budget request.  The NNSA proposed cutting $28 million from funding for management of the B83 in its fiscal 2024 budget request, owing to “updated program requirements […]

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlined the advantages of boosting High Energy Density (HED) research and identifies key challenges in the field.  The study, undertaken by the Committee on the Assessment of High Energy Density Science, was sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration.  Félicie Albert, deputy director […]

The Department of Energy could spend $20 million on tearing down contaminated old facilities at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California during fiscal 2024, or about $15 million less than what Congress approved for that purpose in fiscal 2023, according to the White House budget justification out last week. The DOE Office of Environmental […]

There are at least 500 too few employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which has contributed to a cost increase and schedule slip for the uranium processing facility under construction there, the Secretary of Energy testified in Congress Thursday. In its budget request for fiscal year 2024, the National Nuclear […]

Citing a national security memorandum that describes a reduced need for the B83 thermonuclear gravity bomb, the National Nuclear Administration proposed cutting funding for the weapon in its 2024 budget request.  The NNSA proposed cutting $28 million from funding for management of the B83 in its fiscal 2024 budget request, owing to “updated program requirements […]

Australian leaders are concerned about the nuclear waste the country’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet, which the country will buy and then build under the AUKUS deal with the U.S. and U.K.  AUKUS also poses complicated questions of compliance for Australia, which is treaty-bound to neither produce or possess nuclear weapons or materials that could be used […]

Lawyers representing employees who accuse Consolidated Nuclear Security, manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge Tenn., of withholding wages have withdrawn from a proposed class action lawsuit against the contractor.  The motion to withdraw as counsel was granted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville on Monday. Justin […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s longest-serving associate administrator Jeffrey Johnson, the chief of nuclear security, announced his retirement on Monday.  Johnson served eight years at NNSA following a 20-year career in uniform and seven years as a civilian employee with the U.S. Marine Corps, according to a statement from the NNSA. The NNSA did not […]