National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Maybe by March, the National Nuclear Security Administration will understand the extent to which COVID-19 has delayed modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons, the agency’s top Washington-based weapons official said here Tuesday. Programs under review include the W80-4 air-launched cruise missile warhead, which the agency said last year looked to be affected by […]

ALEXANDRIA VA. — The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday would shed no light on the timeline for transitioning the agency’s two main weapons production sites to new management, though the transition was supposed to be halfway over by now. Meanwhile, Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel-led incumbent managing the Pantex Plant in […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The lead parent company of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions could take over construction of the Savannah River Site’s planned plutonium pit factory, with plenty of opportunities for subcontracting, an official with the site’s prime contractor said here Monday. “We’re looking at it, but I’m not going to stand here and say that […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — COVID related supply chain disruptions and pandemic-driven changes in workforce behavior has stressed an already lean procurement staff at the Sandia National Laboratories, which like the rest of the civilian nuclear weapons complex is managing much more spending as National Nuclear Security Administration weapons modernization programs ramp up, a labs procurement official […]

Confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration enterprise have tripled since January and are also three times higher than this time last year, according to data from agency headquarters. The civilian nuclear weapons steward also reported five confirmed COVID-19-related deaths since the first week of January, spokespersons from headquarters in Washington […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week laid groundwork to start competition on a contract for trucking tritium for nuclear weapons to the Savannah River Site from nuclear power plants in Tennessee.  At the very least, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency may need someone to make two trips over two years to […]

Editor’s note: this story corrects errors about the cost and schedule estimates for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s direct melt bottom-loading furnaces published in the January 29 edition of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor [Vol. 26, No. 4], “New Uranium Reclamation Furnace at Y-12 Starting Up in 2026, Defense Board Says.”    Bottom-loading furnaces at […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Emergency Support team took one of its radiation-sniffing Bell 412 helicopters out for what figures to be one of the last pre-Super Bowl patrols before the fleet trades up to new models, the agency said this week. The pregame, daytime-only flights in the vicinity of Los Angeles’ SoFi stadium, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration took a step toward forging another link in the nuclear-weapon supply chain of the 21st century late last year when it sought industry input about producing new quantities of high explosives for weapons. The agency has long foreseen the need for fresh nuclear-weapon-usable triaminotrinitrobenzene-based (TATB) energetics, and in October issued […]

Editor’s note: this story corrects errors about the cost and schedule estimates for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s direct melt bottom-loading furnaces published in the January 25 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, “New Uranium Reclamation Furnace at Y-12 Starting Up in 2026, Defense Board Says.”    Bottom-loading furnaces at the Y-12 National Security Complex, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Emergency Support team was scheduled to take one of its radiation-sniffing Bell 412 helicopters out for what figures to be one of the last pre-Super Bowl patrols before the fleet trades up to new models, the agency announced Monday. The pregame, daytime-only flights in the vicinity of Los Angeles’ […]

Steven McAndrews is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new deputy associate administrator for information management and deputy chief information officer, a senior agency official said. McAndrews on Monday become the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) second in command at the office that among other things handles the “operational, technical, and administrative functions in support of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration took a step toward forging another link in the nuclear-weapon supply chain of the 21st century late last year when it sought industry input about producing new quantities of high explosives for weapons. The agency has long foreseen the need for fresh nuclear-weapon-usable triaminotrinitrobenzene-based (TATB) energetics, and in October issued […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina should be ready to start shipping certain transuranic waste from downblended plutonium to its underground disposal site in New Mexico by the end of the summer, an agency official told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board Tuesday. The Savannah River Site (SRS) goal is […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina should be ready to start shipping certain transuranic waste from downblended plutonium to its underground disposal site in New Mexico by the end of the summer, an agency official told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board Tuesday. The Savannah River Site (SRS) goal is […]

The first of multiple bottom-loading furnaces designed to reclaim uranium scraps from the manufacture of nuclear-weapon components at the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is scheduled to start up in September 2026, an independent federal nuclear watchdog said recently. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to install four direct chip melt […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s counterterrorism office planned to replace its Bell-made helicopters with a pair of Leonardo-made aircraft, according to a contract award posted online this week. The roughly $35.5-million award covers “two (2) each Rotary Wing Aircraft in support of the [National Nuclear Security Administration] NNSA Office of Nuclear Incident Response” from  AgustaWestland […]

A worker at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium facility needed “outpatient treatment” after internal exposure to radiation following an apparent glovebox breach at the lab’s PF-4 plutonium facility on Friday, the lab said this week. The employee was one of six members of the Los Alamos’ Materials Recovery and Recycle Aqueous Chloride Team who […]

After state lawmakers broke up his district, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), the chair of the Armed Forces panel that writes the first drafts of nuclear-weapon policy each year, will retire from Congress when his term ends in January 2023, he said Tuesday. “There’s no way, at least for me in this election cycle, but there […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina should be ready to start shipping certain transuranic waste from downblended plutonium to its underground disposal site in New Mexico by the end of the summer, an agency official told the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board Tuesday. The Savannah River Site (SRS) goal is […]

A worker at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium facility needed “outpatient treatment” after internal exposure to radiation following an apparent glovebox breach at the lab’s PF-4 plutonium facility on Friday, the lab said Monday. The employee was one of six members of the Los Alamos’ Materials Recovery and Recycle Aqueous Chloride Team who were […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s counterterrorism office planned to replace its Bell-made helicopters with a pair of Leonardo-made aircraft, according to a contract award posted online Monday. The roughly $35.5-million award covers “two (2) each Rotary Wing Aircraft in support of the [National Nuclear Security Administration] NNSA Office of Nuclear Incident Response” from  AgustaWestland Philadelphia […]

After the omicron variant of COVID-19 delayed plans to return many workers to their offices, telework remained allowable and well-utilized for eligible employees across the civilian nuclear weapons complex last week, spokespersons said. As during the previous two years of the ongoing pandemic, policies were most liberal at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear-weapons […]

Civilian reactors in Tennessee notionally will sharply increase their output of tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons by the fall of 2024 to help the National Nuclear Security Administration produce its desired 2,800 grams of tritium annually during the government fiscal year that begins around that time, officials said this week. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

Three of the Department of Energy’s national laboratories are participating in an international survey aimed at testing the long-term effectiveness of safety systems that could be used in the storage of high-level radioactive waste, according to a press release this week. Lawrence Berkeley, Sandia and Los Alamos (LANL) National Laboratories are working alongside Swiss national […]

Less than a week after moving to get ahead of allegations that its award of a multi-billion-dollar sites operations contract was tainted by conflicts of interest and impropriety, the National Nuclear Security Administration had made no sudden moves to restart the year-long competition to find the next manager of its two main nuclear-weapon manufacturing plants. […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security has nearly installed all the glove boxes for a new uranium purification process at the Y-12 National Security Complex and hot commissioning should start early next year, a spokesperson said recently. Site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) put the electrorefining glove boxes and related equipment into Building 9215 last year, though installation […]

Less than a week after moving to get ahead of allegations that its award of a multi-billion-dollar sites operations contract was tainted by conflicts of interest and impropriety, the National Nuclear Security Administration had made no sudden moves to restart the year-long competition to find the next manager of its two main nuclear-weapon manufacturing plants. […]

Three of the Department of Energy’s national laboratories are participating in an international survey aimed at testing the long-term effectiveness of safety systems that could be used in the storage of high-level radioactive waste, according to a press release Tuesday. Lawrence Berkeley, Sandia and Los Alamos (LANL) National Laboratories are working alongside Swiss national rad […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security has nearly installed all the glove boxes for a new uranium purification process at the Y-12 National Security Complex and hot commissioning should start early next year, a spokesperson said recently. Site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) put the electrorefining glove boxes and related equipment into Building 9215 last year, though installation […]