National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Los Alamos National Laboratory will end on-site COVID-19 testing in July and shift most of the responsibility for preventing the spread of the disease on site to employees, according to a memo from lab director Thomas Mason. “Although regional case rates are expected to decrease over the next several weeks, public health experts predict COVID-19 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has not won Rep. Adam Smith’s (D-Wash.) unconditional trust, but it has convinced him to authorize the agency’s plan to produce plutonium pits in two states, the House Armed Services chair told reporters Wednesday. “Yes, I believe we are going to move forward with what the NNSA [National Nuclear Security […]

Triad National Security has made the Los Alamos National Laboratory a little safer since taking over as the prime contractor in 2018, but the National Nuclear Security Administration believes there is more work to do, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. Since taking the reins from Los Alamos National Security — removed eight […]

House authorizers want to kill a megaton-capable gravity bomb and a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile, but their counterparts in the Senate do not. The split on the Hill over the two weapons, which the Joe Biden administration wants to kill, was revealed Thursday in dueling National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA) for fiscal year 2023.  Democrats […]

Triad National Security has made the Los Alamos National Laboratory a little safer since taking over as the prime contractor in 2018, but the National Nuclear Security Administration believes there is more work to do, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. Since taking the reins from Los Alamos National Security — removed eight […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has not won Rep. Adam Smith’s (D-Wash.) unconditional trust, but it has convinced him to authorize the agency’s plan to produce plutonium pits in two states, the House Armed Services chair told reporters Wednesday. “Yes, I believe we are going to move forward with what the NNSA [National Nuclear Security […]

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 […]

State lawmakers in South Carolina were set this week to approve 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 each were set to convene at 12 […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the National Nuclear Security Administration hoping to see the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico producing 30 plutonium pits by 2026, the organization is working closely with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on plans for the increased transuranic waste levels, speakers told the RadWaste Summit Wednesday. With […]

The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee approved its contributions to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, kicking up to the full committee a package of reforms for the Nuclear Weapons Council and an order to study modernization of the Pantex Plant, among other things. The subcommittee completed its markup without debate […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the National Nuclear Security Administration hoping to see the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico producing 30 plutonium pits by 2026, the organization is working closely with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on plans for the increased transuranic waste levels, speakers told Radwaste Summit Wednesday. With the […]

Legislation unveiled Tuesday would put the deputy secretary of defense on the Nuclear Weapons Council once a year and attempt to put the Pentagon on the hook for some risk management in the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons enterprise. The proposal by the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is part of the National Defense Authorization […]

Confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 among contractors and civil servants working on site at National Nuclear Security Administration facilities more than quadrupled over the month of May, according to data provided Friday by a spokesperson at agency headquarters in Washington. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency had 547 confirmed cases, up from 132 confirmed […]

The Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services will get six more months tacked onto its contract to process depleted uranium hexafluoride in Ohio and Kentucky while the Department of Energy solicits bids for a follow-on contract that will include new work for active nuclear weapons programs. The incumbent, which also includes Westinghouse and Fluor, will now be […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new high-performance computing system, called Venado, assembled by Hewlett Packard and to be delivered in 2023, will be the first in the U.S. powered by the Grace central processing unit designed by Nvidia, the lab said. The lab announced the impending delivery of its next high-performance computer system at this […]

The Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week wrapped up key details of a memorandum of understanding they inked in February pledging full cooperation on safety at federal nuclear-weapons installations. The 19-page supplement announced by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in a Wednesday press release fleshes out specifics […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new high-performance computing system, called Venado, assembled by Hewlett Packard and to be delivered in 2023, will be the first in the U.S. powered by the Grace central processing unit designed by Nvidia, the lab said. The lab announced the impending delivery of its next high-performance computer system last week […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s airborne, radiation-sniffing Nuclear Emergency Support Team was to begin the first of four days of background sampling over Los Angeles on Wednesday ahead of the Ninth Summit of the Americas, the agency said. Ahead of the meeting of government, industry and community representatives from each American continent, a low-flying National […]

In a virtual address to a gathering of nuclear weapons professionals on Thursday, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration touted the White House’s Nuclear Posture Review for its support of civilian nuclear weapon programs, advocated for more exports of peaceful nuclear-energy technology and said that Russia’s war in Ukraine has resurrected old nonproliferation […]

A Georgia congressman released a written request that House appropriators accept the White House’s funding request for the Savannah River Site’s proposed plutonium pit factory and reject a proposed cut for the site’s H-Canyon chemical separations plant. Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) made the requests ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled Member’s Day hearing, an annual exercise in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration could do a better job tracking the performance of some $300 million worth of research and development activities in its Advanced Manufacturing Development program, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report published May 20. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency “may be using inconsistent measures across individual […]

Some nonproliferation news came out of President Joe Biden’s first trip to Asia this week, when Biden and  Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the Savannah River Site and Y-12 National Security complex had taken delivery of a combined 30 kilograms of uranium from three Japanese facilities. The shipment, completed in March, was part of […]

The big Cerro Pelado wildfire outside Los Alamos that has been burning for a month has grabbed the headlines, but it was neither the only wildfire in New Mexico nor the only one to break out near a National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear-weapons site recently. At the Sandia National Laboratories last week, workers reported the […]

The Department of Energy this week opened bidding for a pair of new long-term contracts to manage Cold War uranium-enrichment cleanup in Ohio and Kentucky, one of which includes some work for active nuclear weapons programs. The agency’s Office of Environmental Management, the nuclear-weapons cleanup steward, posted final solicitations online. The scheduled last day for […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday opened bidding for a pair of new long-term contracts to manage Cold War uranium-enrichment cleanup in Ohio and Kentucky, one of which includes some work for active nuclear weapons programs.  The agency’s Office of Environmental Management, the nuclear-weapons cleanup steward, posted final solicitations online. The scheduled last day for […]

The big Cerro Pelado wildfire outside Los Alamos that has been burning for a month has grabbed the headlines, but it was neither the only wildfire in New Mexico nor the only one near a National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear-weapons site last week. At the Sandia National Laboratories last week, workers reported the much smaller […]

Some nonproliferation news came out of President Joe Biden’s first trip to Asia today, when Biden and the Japanese prime minister announced the Savannah River Site and Y-12 National Security complex had taken delivery of a combined 30 kilograms of uranium from three Japanese facilities. The shipment, completed in March, was part of a four-year […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration could do a better job tracking the performance of some $300 million worth of research and development activities in its Advanced Manufacturing Development program, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report published Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency “may be using inconsistent measures across individual projects […]

This year, the National Nuclear Security Administration will finish an integrated master schedule for building a new plutonium pit manufacturing complex and this summer, and this summer, it will quantify delays to the W80-4 nuclear cruise missile warhead, the head of the agency told Senators Thursday. “We are in the process of integrating those schedules […]

Carlos Alvardo will temporarily step in as the No. 2 fed at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, with Gabriel Pugh, the plant’s most recent deputy manager, leaving for the Department of Energy’s National Training Center, according to an internal email. Sunday was Alvardo’s first day as acting deputy manager at […]