National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

With the full House set to vote next week on a multi-bill spending package that would keep the civilian nuclear weapons budget about flat at about $20 billion, some Republican lawmakers have offered amendments to up funding for a proposed pair of ocean-going nuclear warheads. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) wants to transfer $19 million to […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed Department of Energy budget for fiscal year 2022 would slash funding for one of the potential disposal routes for surplus weapon-usable plutonium that has to be removed from South Carolina under terms of a record-setting legal settlement. Separately, the bill rejects the Administration’s plan to trim the Inertial Confinement Fusion […]

John “Devin” Biniaz was appointed deputy associate administrator for defense nuclear security, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday. In his new role at headquarters, Biniaz wil backstop Jeffrey Johnson, the head of the office responsible for physical and information security at the agency’s labs, plants and sites.  Biniaz was most recently assistant manager of […]

Jill Hruby was scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. confirmation vote in the Senate Thursday that would install the ex-Sandia National Laboratories director as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Hruby would be the sixth Senate-confirmed administrator of the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the part of the Department of Energy responsible for nuclear-weapons […]

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 […]

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 Tuesday. The headcount at the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) is “currently around 5,500 with plans growing to 6,000 here before the end […]

A fiery summer continues at the former Nevada Test Site, with another blaze reported in the southwest part of the site at Area 25 and 29, according to a press release. By Monday afternoon local time, the fire had spread across some 860 acres, compared with the 300 on which it was burning earlier in […]

House Appropriators didn’t go for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to trim the Inertial Confinement Fusion program’s budget by about $5 million in 2022 by using leftover 2021 funding to continue a portfolio of high energy density physics projects that can aid nuclear-weapons maintenance.  A bill approved Friday by the House Appropriations Committee would […]

The Department of Energy this week publicly released its long-delayed draft Record of Decision for a proposed new landfill to handle low-level radioactive waste from building demolition at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The 350-page draft on the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, dated June 22, now will undergo a 60-day review, by the Tennessee […]

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration is one of many political appointees for key national defense posts whose confirmation votes have been blocked in the Senate, multiple people have told Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Some of these people told the Monitor this week that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) had held Jill Hruby’s […]

With COVID-19 vaccines now widely available in the U.S., federal agencies including the Department of Energy are supposed to set plans by Monday to return personnel to offices. The White House Office of Management and Budget gave federal agencies until July 19 to “finalize their phased plans for reentry and post-reentry,” according to a June […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week it completed the first production unit of a refurbished submarine-launched nuclear warhead, setting the stage for a mass-production run that could begin early next year and which will fit the weapon with a new detonation system rated for 30 more years at sea. Workers at the Pantex […]

While nobody had walked off the job at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, some 240 people were set to go on strike at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California over what the union called the management’s refusal to negotiate terms of a mandatory on-call policy for some craft workers. The Society of Professionals, […]

The Savannah River Site has been running a four-shift glove box operation at its main plutonium-disposal program in the site’s K-Area for a little more than a month now, a site spokesperson said this week. The Aiken, S.C., site ratcheted up to four shifts from two on June 1, the spokesperson wrote Tuesday in an […]

On a party line 33-24 vote Friday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a 2022 civilian nuclear weapons budget that includes requested funding for proposed plutonium pit factories but withholds funds for a few smaller nuclear weapons programs. The full House had not scheduled a vote on the bill at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & […]

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration is one of many political appointees for key national defense posts whose confirmation votes have been blocked in the Senate, multiple people have told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.  Some of these people told the Monitor this week that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) had held […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday it completed the first production unit of a refurbished submarine-launched nuclear warhead, setting the stage for a mass-production run that could begin early next year and which will fit the weapon with a new detonation system rated for 30 more years at sea. Workers at the Pantex Plant […]

The Savannah River Site has been running a four-shift glove box operation at its main plutonium-disposal program in the site’s K-Area for a little more than a month now, a site spokesperson said Tuesday. The Aiken, S.C., site ratcheted up to four shifts from two on June 1, the spokesperson wrote in an email to […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is holding a long-anticipated virtual public hearing today on ongoing safety issues for tritium production and other work at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Witnesses listed on the agenda include the acting assistant secretary for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, William “Ike” White […]

The relatively flat National Nuclear Security Administration budget proposed by a House appropriations subcommittee on Monday “short changes” the national defense, the panel’s ranking Republican said Monday. The bill’s proposed “increase of less than 1% for the Weapons Activities does not even keep up with inflation,” Rep. Mike Simpson(Idaho), the ranking Republican on the House […]

Some 240 people were set to go on strike at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California over what the union called the management’s refusal to negotiate terms of a mandatory on-call policy for some craft workers. The Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers Local 11 – University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of […]

Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs would get almost exactly the funding they requested for fiscal year 2022, if the House’s first draft of the Department of Energy’s budget bill becomes law. The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee released its draft 2022 energy and water appropriations act on Sunday and planned to mark up […]

Shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from National Nuclear Security Administration operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were set to resume this week after being on hold since an ignition scare in February, according to the Department of Energy. “After a careful review of the drum event” […]

Terry Wallace retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory last week after a nearly 20-year lab career, which he capped by running the site on an interim basis in 2018, during the transition to non-profit management and operations contractor Triad National Security. Wallace’s last day was June 30, the lab announced in a retrospective published last […]

Responders at the Nevada National Security Site have completely contained the wildfires that broke out there last week in the site’s western region at Area 16, Area 29 and Area 30, the site said this week. The total estimated burn area was about 275 acres, according to a Tuesday press release from site management and […]

In a long-awaited legal settlement over six years of mislabeled, radioactive waste shipments to Nevada, the Department of Energy agreed to tighten waste-inspection standards at nuclear weapon sites and overhaul its solid waste permit with the state by early next year, Carson City’s top environmental official said this week. DOE will also have to revise […]

In a long-awaited legal settlement over six years of mislabeled, radioactive waste shipments to Nevada, the Department of Energy agreed to tighten waste-inspection standards at nuclear weapon sites and overhaul its solid waste permit with the state by early next year, Carson City’s top environmental official said this week. DOE will also have to revise […]

As part of President Joe Biden’s executive order to review policies issued by the Donald Trump White House, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking another look at its December 2020 approval of plans for a new landfill at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the agency said recently. DOE’s draft record of […]

In a long-awaited legal settlement over six years of mislabeled, radioactive waste shipments to Nevada, the Department of Energy agreed to tighten waste-inspection standards at nuclear weapon sites and overhaul its solid waste permit with the state by early next year, Carson City’s top environmental official said Wednesday. DOE will also have to revise the […]

Shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from National Nuclear Security Administration operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were set to resume this week after being on hold since an ignition scare in February, according to the Department of Energy. “After a careful review of the drum event” […]