National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Judgements varied here this week between two senior civilian nuclear-weapons leaders as to whether the National Nuclear Security Administration would meet some legally binding deadlines to produce new nuclear weapon cores this decade. Questioned about the deadlines by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor during the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, the head of National Nuclear […]

The Joe Biden administration said this week it will nominate former National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation hand Corey Hinderstein, currently at the non-government Nuclear Threat Institute, as the agency’s deputy administrator for defense non-proliferation.  “An accomplished leader and well-known expert on #nuclear #security matters, Corey has the knowledge and skills to lead the #NNSA nonproliferation […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor and maker of nuclear submarine reactors and components attributed to non-recurring costs such as commercializing a line of medical isotopes, plus higher interest rates. Net income for the second quarter ended June 30 was $59.4 million or $0.62 […]

ALEXANDRIA — Congress should not relax legal deadlines to produce plutonium pits this decade, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged it won’t meet at least one of them, nuclear-weapons managers here said Wednesday. “I would say no,” Michael Thompson, said here Wednesday when asked whether Congress should change the law so that […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would essentially receive its 2022 budget request under a spending bill the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up Wednesday, matching the funding the full House approved last week. Unlike the House, however, Senate Appropriators approved the $72 million the Joe Biden administration sought for the planned W93 submarine launched ballistic missile […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Materials for the third and final Nightshade subcritical plutonium test at the Nevada National Security Site have shipped out from the Los Alamos National Laboratory ahead of a shot planned for the fall, the head of the lab’s weapon’s program said here Wednesday. Nightshade C had been scheduled to fire in Nevada […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Whatever changes the Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review prescribes to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national defense strategy, the nuclear production complex will have the same needs as it does now, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs office said here Tuesday. “I recognize […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. —The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility team has staffed up to about 400 people and, despite near-term competition for specialized skill sets from other nuclear-weapon sites, should easily be able to flex up to its full complement of 1,800 when it comes time to cast pits next decade, the site contractor’s head of […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Judgements varied here Tuesday between two senior civilian nuclear-weapons leaders as to whether the National Nuclear Security Administration would meet some legally binding deadlines to produce new nuclear weapon cores this decade. Questioned about the deadlines by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing during the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, the head of […]

Frank Rose is officially principal deputy administrator of the the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency announced Monday. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm conducted a virtual swearing in for Rose, who lives in Massachusetts, according to a tweet by Jill Hruby, herself sworn in as administrator of the National Nuclear […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recommended granting a 40-year license extension to Westinghouse Government Services’ Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, which among other things manufactures the rods used to restock the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons. The recommendation was part of a draft environmental impact statement published Friday.  The 40-year extension would kick […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor and maker of nuclear submarine reactors and components attributed to non-recurring costs such as commercializing a line of medical isotopes, plus higher interest rates. Net income for the second quarter ended June 30 was $59.4 million or $0.62 […]

Jill Hruby was sworn in this week as the sixth administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, she wrote in a Twitter post on the official government account for the nuclear-weapons agency’s leader. Today, surrounded by my family, I was sworn in as #NNSA Administrator by @SecGranholm. Leading the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to […]

A House Armed Services panel this week called for a briefing about delays to a bomb and warhead refurb at the National Nuclear Security Administration and a new report on planned subcritical testing facilities. The strategic forces subcommittee wrote the requirements into a report appended to its portion of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense […]

The roughly 1% annual increase the Joe Biden administration proposed for civilian nuclear weapons programs is “minimally sufficient” to keep warhead and bomb modernization on track in 2022, but maybe not beyond, a joint Pentagon-Department of Energy nuclear acquisitions group told Congress recently. The Biden request of roughly $20 billion for the National Nuclear Security […]

By voice vote on Thursday, the Senate confirmed Frank Rose as principal deputy administration of the National Nuclear Security Administration, providing a backstop for Administrator Jill Hruby, who was confirmed last week. It took a little more than three months to get Rose confirmed. Rose was one of the four witnesses in a May 27 […]

On a party-line vote Thursday, the House approved a spending bill that would give the National Nuclear Security Administration the requested $20 billion or so for fiscal year 2022: a budget the Nuclear Weapons Council called “minimally sufficient.” The budget is part of a seven-bill minibus appropriations package that the White House has said it […]

Bidders for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s potentially 10-year, $30-billion contract to manage two of the country’s main nuclear-weapons production sites have until the second week of August to turn in their final proposals, the agency said this week. The final proposal revisions are due at 4 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 9, the semi-autonomous […]

Some 200 craft workers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California wrapped up a three-day strike on Thursday to protest what they called the lab management contractor’s unwillingness to bargain over a mandatory on-call policy. The Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers (SPSE) Local 11 – University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of […]

A House Armed Services panel on Tuesday called for a briefing about delays to a bomb and warhead refurb at the National Nuclear Security Administration and a new report on planned subcritical testing facilities. The strategic forces subcommittee wrote the requirements into a report appended to its portion of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense […]

The roughly 1% annual increase the Joe Biden administration proposed for civilian nuclear weapons programs is “minimally sufficient” to keep warhead and bomb modernization on track in 2022, but maybe not beyond, a joint Pentagon-Department of Energy nuclear acquisitions group told Congress in a letter dated Friday. The Biden request of roughly $20 billion for […]

Jill Hruby was sworn in Monday as the sixth administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, she wrote in a Twitter post on the official government account for the nuclear-weapons agency’s leader. Today, surrounded by my family, I was sworn in as #NNSA Administrator by @SecGranholm. Leading the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to advance […]

Some 200 members of the Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers were scheduled to begin a three-day strike Tuesday at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to protest what they call unfair labor practices, the union said Monday. “The 200 strikers will spread out across the lab’s gates,” the union wrote in a press […]

An auxiliary manufacturing space, known as Kansas City East and Building 23, should be christened in the fall, the president of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main non-nuclear parts maker said this week. The headcount at the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) is “currently around 5,500 with plans growing to 6,000 here before the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration planned to host discussions soon with teams that bid on the potentially 10-year, $30 billion combined management and operations contract for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex, sources said this week. It was unclear at deadline whether the agency planned to invite bidders for traditional oral presentations […]

The Senate on Thursday confirmed ex-Sandia National Laboratories director Jill Hruby as the sixth administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The vote was 79-16. Hruby’s swearing in at the Department of Energy had not been scheduled at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security and Deterrence Monitor. The semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is the […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted 23-3 to approve the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, the panel said in a Thursday press release about the legislation that authorizes more than $20 billion in spending for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The committee’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the policy bill that sets […]

An internal Department of Energy watchdog gave Consolidated Nuclear Security a public calling-out, but no other penalty, for letting an employee at the Pantex Plant in Texas work in radioactive areas for six months last year after the contractor realized the person had lost their dosimeter, according to a report published this week. The employee […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted 23-3 to approve the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, the panel said in a Thursday press release about the legislation that authorizes more than $20 billion in spending for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The committee’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the policy bill that sets […]

Wednesday’s deadline for members of the House of Representatives to submit amendments to a six-bill spending package that includes the House Appropriations Committee’s 2022 spending proposal for the Department of Energy, appears to have passed without effortrs to dramatically alter the chamber’s nearly $7.8-billion budget for the Office of Environmental Management. A deadline scan of […]