National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has selected a manager from the semi autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Cathy Tullis, to be its next chief of staff effective July 17. Tullis, currently chief of staff for the associate administrator for management and budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), will fill the […]

Less than a month remains for anyone interested in selling domestic uranium to the government for a congressionally directed to submit their bids to the National Nuclear Security Administration. In a 2021 spending bill, Congress appropriated $75 million to the semiautonomous Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons agency to set up a 1-million-pound natural uranium reserve […]

The Congressionally-created safety watchdog for nuclear defense facilities was not denied access to any Department of Energy records or personnel during the first six months of 2022. In a regular update to Congress, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said July 1 that the Secretary of Energy did not deny any written requests for […]

The Department of Energy has approved its plan to speed up spent fuel removal from the L-Basin storage area at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a Monday press release, DOE announced approval of what it calls accelerated basin de-inventory ABD, which would use H Canyon to dissolve spent nuclear fuel without processing […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has selected a manager from the semi autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Cathy Tullis, to be its next chief of staff effective July 17. Tullis, currently chief of staff for the associate administrator for management and budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), will fill the […]

Repeated changes in the the National Nuclear Security Administration’s strategy for producing new plutonium pits, plus the agency’s admission in 2021 that it cannot make a legal production deadline, is grounds for forcing the government to conduct an extensive environmental review of its two planned pit factories and other sites, a coalition of environmental groups […]

The Department of Energy has approved its plan to speed up spent fuel removal from the L-Basin storage area at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a Monday press release, DOE announced approval of what it calls accelerated basin de-inventory ABD, which would use H Canyon to dissolve spent nuclear fuel without processing […]

The Department of Energy has issued an enforcement letter to an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture and its subcontractor GEM Technologies over “concerns with improper asbestos exposure monitoring” during cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Mouse House. The DOE’s Office of Enforcement, however, plans no additional action against URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) or GEM over asbestos […]

Less than a month remains for anyone interested in selling domestic uranium to the government for a congressionally directed to submit their bids to the National Nuclear Security Administration. In a 2021 spending bill, Congress appropriated $75 million to the semiautonomous Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons agency to set up a 1-million-pound natural uranium reserve […]

A Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories said in a Tuesday filing a wrongful firing suit brought against it by a scientist who worked on data for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should remain in federal court. National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia said the wrongful termination suit brought by […]

The Department of Energy has taken care of seven of 25 priority issues identified by the Government Accountability Office in 2021 and should get to work on the rest, Congress’ investigative arm wrote in a letter to the agency. “We are also adding eight new recommendations related to project, program, and portfolio management; contract management; […]

The Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories said in a Tuesday filing a wrongful firing suit brought against it by a scientist who worked on data for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should remain in federal court. National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia said the wrongful termination suit brought by […]

Several nuclear weapons issues, touching on life extension programs, research prohibitions and more, could come up for debate on the House floor next week when lawmakers return to Washington. After a week at home for Independence Day, lawmakers were set to resume floor votes on July 12, according to the majority leader’s calendar. Looming large is […]

New Mexico agencies are receiving more than $12 million in grant money from the Department of Energy to help ensure safe transport of defense-related transuranic waste to the federal underground disposal site near Carlsbad and more broadly to help fund state oversight of nuclear waste. The federal agency announced the award in a Thursday press […]

House appropriators want to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration with all the funding it requested in 2023 to build plutonium pit factories in New Mexico and South Carolina and fund a megaton-capable bomb the White House wanted to kill. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act approved this week on a party line […]

Jamie Shimek, lead staffer on the appropriations panel that writes the first draft of the Department of Energy’s budget every year, will leave Congress and return to the national labs network, lawmakers said during recent budget debates. “She will be my newest constituent,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) said Tuesday during the House Appropriations committee’s markup […]

The House Appropriations this week approved a 2023 spending bill that included roughly the requested funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, one of which should get almost double the funding it will receive under the bill, a Republican Congressman said. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act should be “[r]aising the amount […]

The House Appropriations on Tuesday approved a 2023 spending bill that included roughly the requested funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, one of which should get almost double the funding it will receive under the bill, a Republican Congressman said. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act should be “[r]aising the amount […]

House appropriators want to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration with all the funding it requested in 2023 to build plutonium pit factories in New Mexico and South Carolina and fund a megaton-capable bomb the White House wanted to kill. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act, slated for a vote in the House […]

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled Tuesday to vote on the first draft of the 2023 spending bill that funds nuclear weapons and waste programs at the Department of Energy and other agencies.  Defense nuclear weapons and waste programs at DOE would receive roughly the funding requested for 2023, under the bill approved last week […]

The Department of Energy says it is conceivable that one company or joint venture could win both multibillion-dollar contracts being sought at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. In an online filing last week, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said such an outcome is not out of the question, provided […]

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted for more scrutiny of Department of Energy nuclear-weapon-site contracting and against a proposal to condition funding for the Secretary of Defense’s office on an intercontinental ballistic missile test. The votes were part of the committee’s debate of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee approved Tuesday. For the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency, the subcommittee proposed about $21.2 billion, short of the request by almost $180 million, or […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would be authorized to spend $375 million more than requested on a plutonium pit factory at the Savannah River Site in fiscal year 2023, if a bill passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee becomes law. The agency would also be allowed, along with the Navy, to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would be authorized to spend $375 million more than requested on a plutonium pit factory at the Savannah River Site in fiscal year 2023, if a bill passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee becomes law. The agency would also be allowed, along with the Navy, to […]

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted for more scrutiny of Department of Energy nuclear-weapon-site contracting and against a proposal to condition funding for the Secretary of Defense’s office on an intercontinental ballistic missile test. The votes were part of the committee’s debate of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee planned to debate on Tuesday. Meanwhile, under the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s recently unveiled bill, the budget for cleanup of shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites handled […]

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) has prepared an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, up for debate this week, that could withhold 10% of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget until the agency completes more reports about its plans to manufacture new nuclear-weapon cores. The amendment would alter the draft of the fiscal year 2023 […]

State lawmakers in South Carolina this week to approved distribution of $525 million from a federal settlement the state won in 2020 after the Department of Energy failed to meet deadlines for removing plutonium from the Savannah River Site. The bicameral state legislature’s House and Senate ratified a budget bill apportioning the money from the […]

Three uranium processing systems for nuclear weapons at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., will be delayed for six months or more, a federal nuclear safety agency reported last week. Y-12’s electrorefining and direct chip melt front-loading furnace projects each will be delayed six months, according to a recent report by the […]