National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

A draft site-wide environmental impact statement for the Los Alamos National Laboratory should appear in the summer or fall of 2023, the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week during public scoping meetings about the extensive environmental review of the nuclear weapons lab. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency took public comment on Tuesday […]

The South Carolina factory that serves as one of the pillars of U.S. nuclear weapons maintenance received a 40-year license extension from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said Monday. The Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility, whose main business is making uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors, was cleared to operate through Sept. 12, 2062. […]

Department of Energy contractor Parsons Corp. has been awarded a potential five-year contract worth up to $160 million for enterprise construction management services for DOE and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, the company said last week. The contract is a blanket purchase agreement with a one-year base period with four single-year options, the company […]

The second and larger of two nearly round-the-clock mining projects in Nevada to expand the main U.S. zero-yield, nuclear-weapon test site should wrap up in 2026, the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week. The agency approved the final design for the U1a Complex Enhancement Project (UCEP) 20 subproject June 23, about a week before […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration still awaits the all-clear from the Pentagon to begin mass refurbishment of its arsenal of B61 gravity bombs and W88 submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. The agency finished proof-of-concept versions of the refurbished weapons last year and had planned to begin mass production of the refurbed […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration still awaits the all-clear from the Pentagon to begin mass refurbishment of its arsenal of B61 gravity bombs and W88 submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. The agency finished proof-of-concept versions of the refurbished weapons last year and had planned to begin mass production of the refurbed […]

A draft site-wide environmental impact statement for the Los Alamos National Laboratory should appear in the summer or fall of 2023, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday in the first of two scheduled public scoping meetings about the extensive environmental review of the nuclear weapons lab. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency planned […]

The second and larger of two nearly round-the-clock mining projects in Nevada to expand the main U.S. zero-yield, nuclear-weapon test site should wrap up in 2026, the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week. The agency approved the final design for the U1a Complex Enhancement Project (UCEP) 20 subproject June 23, about a week before […]

The South Carolina factory that serves as one of the pillars of U.S. nuclear weapons maintenance received a 40-year license extension from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said Monday. The Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility, whose main business is making uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors, was cleared to operate through Sept. 12, 2062. […]

In one of its first public field hearings since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board will review operations at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico this November. During a Nov. 16 session in Santa Fe, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will look into both […]

Richard Tighe will be the president and chief executive officer of the Bectel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security, prime contractor of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the company announced Wednesday. Tighe replaces Bill Tindall, who retired in July. Gene Sievers, Gene Sievers, site manager for Y-12, […]

The Senate may not pass its big defense policy bill before voters decide who controls Congress in November’s midterm elections, the head of the chamber’s Armed Services Committee said Wednesday at an industry conference. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is “pushing hard” to get the chamber’s 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed before lawmakers bill […]

In one of its first public field hearings since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board will review operations at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico this November. During a Nov. 16 session in Santa Fe, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will look into both […]

The U.S. Navy has said that it would like to ship the country’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to a commercial shipyard for dismantlement rather than use its own resources to do the job, according to a recent draft environmental impact statement. “The workforce of the public shipyards of the Navy has been under tremendous pressure […]

Vector Resources, a women owned small business, recently protested the award of a potentially $53 million technical and administrative services contract at the Y-12 National Security Site to Sigma Science. Vector lodged two protests about the award with the Government Accountability Officer on Monday, the congressional investigator said on its website. Work under Sigma Science’s Y-12 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration sole-sourced a real-estate development contract to Tucson, Ariz.-based Tierra Right of Way to procure a parcel of land for the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri, which is “in dire need of new facilities.” The Kansas City National Security Campus, operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, is the […]

An air-launched cruise missile warhead was not the only major civilian nuclear-weapons program slowed by COVID-19 supply chain snafus, but it was the only one drastically affected by the pandemic response, a senior government official said Tuesday. “I wouldn’t say it was the only one that was impacted,” said Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser, principal […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration sole-sourced a real-estate development contract to Tucson, Ariz.-based Tierra Right of Way to procure a parcel of land for the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri, which is “in dire need of new facilities.” The Kansas City National Security Campus, operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, is the […]

Vector Resources, a women owned small business, recently protested the award of a potentially $53 million technical and administrative services contract at the Y-12 National Security Site to Sigma Science.  Vector lodged two protests about the award with the Government Accountability Officer on Monday, the congressional investigator said on its website. Work under Sigma Science’s […]

Citing someone who might be interested in a public hearing about the decision, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing more time for complaints about a license amendment that Nuclear Fuel Services needs to purify uranium for nuclear-weapons programs, the commission wrote Tuesday in the Federal Register. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has extended the window […]

An air-launched cruise missile warhead was not the only major civilian nuclear-weapons program slowed by COVID-19 supply chain snafus, but it was the only one drastically affected by the pandemic response, a senior government official said Tuesday. “I wouldn’t say it was the only one that was impacted,” said Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser, principal […]

Longtime Los Alamos National Laboratory manager Carolyn Zerkle will become deputy director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory effective Sept. 12, the California nuclear-weapon design lab announced Monday. Zerkle spent more than 30 years at Los Alamos, most recently as senior director for project execution. In that job, she was responsible for the entire portfolio […]

Lisa Daley Mangi will step in as the acting chief of staff for the National Nuclear Security Administration on Aug. 31, agency administration Jill Hruby said Monday. Daley Mangi, the current deputy general counsel for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency, will stand in for Doug Fremont, who planned to retire.  Fremont, a […]

Three years in prison are too few for a former Naval Reactors employee who wanted to sell stolen nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign government, a federal judge said last week. Thursday’s pronouncement by Judge Gina Groh, a Barack Obama appointee in the U.S. District Court for West Virginia’s Northern District, blew up a government […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to conduct a major environmental review of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is set to become a nerve center and manufacturing satellite for nuclear weapon cores this decade. The semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency announced the impending site-wide environmental impact statement in a Federal Register notice set to be published […]

In the latest mega-extension for a nuclear-weapons site-management contractor, the National Nuclear Security Administration locked in a Honeywell-led team for five more years at the Nevada National Security Site. Mission Support and Test Services, which also includes Jacobs Engineering and Huntington Ingalls Industries, will be on site from 2023 through 2028 under five one-year options […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration completed the smaller of two subprojects that aim to expand an underground, zero-yield nuclear-weapon testing laboratory in Nevada, the agency said Tuesday. The Access and Life Safety Infrastructure portion of the greater U1a Complex Enhancements Project hit the CD-4 milestone on June 30, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons […]

A University of Georgia research associate at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina was “treated and hospitalized for a few days for observation,” after being bitten by a poisonous copperhead snake July 22, a spokesperson said Wednesday. “The individual is fully recovered and returned to work,” Vicky Sutton-Jackson, a spokesperson for […]

Japan and the United States have removed all highly enriched uranium from a research reactor at Kyoto University and shipped the material to the U.S, according to a press release from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Transfer of the material began three years ago and ended with all 45 kilograms of the fissile isotope to […]

Workers claiming Consolidated Nuclear Security shorted a slew of employees out of a paycheck’s worth of work are taking the management and operations contractor for two major nuclear-weapons production sites to trial next summer, according to a recent scheduling notice. The trial will begin on June 13, 2023, according to a scheduling order signed last week by […]