National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The head of Air Force Global Strike Command is not concerned that the next-generation warhead for the next-generation nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile will be delayed because of a projected delay with one of the two plutonium pit-production plants that will supply the new warhead’s core. In a webcast address to the public and press Thursday […]

The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Program would be formally closed out once and for all by fiscal year 2022, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s latest budget request shows, and the agency’s replacement plutonium disposal program would take delivery of key hardware. The Surplus Plutonium Disposition (SPD) Program will combine facilities at the Savannah River Site […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., shipped low-level waste to the Nevada National Security Site in May for the first time in nearly two years after the desert site reinstated a certification that was yanked in 2019 following disclosure that Y-12 had sent 32 containers worth of improperly labelled waste to the […]

The Department of Energy spending request put forward Friday by the Joe Biden administration for fiscal 2022 would increase funding for environmental cleanup of past weapons work at several National Nuclear Security Administration sites. The DOE Office of Environmental Management budget for physical cleanup of this legacy contamination would rise by about a third, to […]

Among the highlights of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s detailed fiscal year 2022 budget request: it will cost more than double what the agency once estimated to convert a plutonium recycling plant in South Carolina into a factory for nuclear-weapon triggers; planned air- and sea-launched cruise missiles will share a nuclear tip; next year’s costs […]

A planned pit factory to be built at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., might take five years longer than the National Nuclear Security Administration wanted to produce its full load of war-ready nuclear weapon cores, the Joe Biden administration’s nominee to lead the agency said Thursday. A slip at Savannah River, one of […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory has hired enough criticality safety personnel to support planned manufacturing of nuclear-weapon cores at the New Mexico laboratory, but staff churn among these crucial workers is more common than the lab believes, a new DOE review said. Lab management and operations contractor Triad National Security “has adequately managed the training and […]

Once again, the Congressional Budget Office’s biennial cost estimate for the 10 years of nuclear modernization spending arrived just in time for the yearly federal budget debate on Capitol Hill. The latest congressionally mandated report from the non-partisan office covers planned spending from 2021 through 2030, during which Pentagon and Department of Energy programs are […]

The Savannah River Site in February completed upgrades to tritium processing facilities at the site’s H-Area that will allow personnel to fill tritium reservoirs for the planned B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb life-extension program, the site said Tuesday. The upgrades doubled the capacity of one of the site’s tritium lines capacity, according to a press release, […]

National Engineering and Technology Solutions of Sandia, the Honeywell-owned prime for the Sandia National Laboratories, agreed to a $152,000 settlement with the Department of Energy over the unauthorized disclosure of classified information at the lab some time around 2019. The fine was not the only penalty Sandia paid, but other details of the enforcement were […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]

As part of a roughly $20 billion 2022 budget request for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Joe Biden administration on Friday sought about 12% less for civilian nuclear weapons programs than the Donald Trump administration forecast would be necessary for the coming fiscal year. Overall, the 2022 spending request for the National Nuclear Security […]

After a lawsuit by gold companies forced it to back off its initial selection of a commercial site in Texas for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the Department of Energy is again shopping around for a contractor and Waste Control Specialists is again one of the finalists. That is a key takeaway from DOE’s notice […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]

After a lawsuit by gold companies forced it to back off its initial selection of a commercial site in Texas for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the Department of Energy is again shopping around for a contractor and Waste Control Specialists is again one of the finalists. That is a key takeaway from DOE’s notice […]

The Savannah River Site in February completed upgrades to tritium processing facilities at the site’s H-Area that will allow personnel to fill tritium reservoirs for the planned B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb life-extension program, the site said Tuesday. The upgrades doubled the capacity of one of the site’s tritium lines capacity, according to a press release, […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory has hired enough criticality safety personnel to support planned manufacturing of nuclear-weapon cores at the New Mexico laboratory, but staff churn among these crucial workers is more common than the lab believes, a new DOE review said. Lab management and operations contractor Triad National Security “has adequately managed the training and […]

Once again, the Congressional Budget Office’s biennial cost estimate for the 10 years of nuclear modernization spending has arrived just in time for the yearly federal budget debate on Capitol Hill. The latest congressionally mandated report from the non-partisan office covers planned spending from 2021 through 2030, during which Pentagon and Department of Energy programs […]

The former Sandia National Laboratories director nominated by President Joe Biden to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration was scheduled for a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Jill Hruby was slated to appear alongside three other Biden administration nominees, including Frank Rose, the man nominated to be her deputy at […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to relocate some transuranic waste from the Nevada National Security Site to the Idaho National Laboratory where it will be prepared for eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The transuranic material is what “we refer to as the Nevada spheres,” Robert […]

A wildfire at the Nevada National Security Site moved into an area containing radiological contamination from a Cold War-era test over the weekend and continued to burn as of deadline Monday, according to the former test site. “Estimates provided by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center indicate potential radiological exposures for onsite […]

In a budget hearing that was mostly a best-of, a couple Senators asked the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration about alternative means of meeting the mission objectives of the day, including by producing pits at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or buying, instead of enriching, uranium needed to produce weapons-tritium in the […]

Bechtel, Reston, Va., and Fluor, Irving, Texas, are leading separate bids for the potentially $10-year, $21.5 billion management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, people familiar with the competitive landscape said this week. Amentum, Germantown, Md., is also in the mix as a partner, one of these people said. The […]

COVID vaccination levels climbed at the Sandia National Laboratories this week and appeared to be headed toward a plateau at National Nuclear Security Administration production sites and the Nevada National Security Site, according to agency data. Across the agency’s federal and contractor workforce, confirmed active cases of COVID-19 — the viral disease caused by the […]

Kirk Lachman, a longtime hand around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex and current field office manager of the agency’s Office of Environmental Management at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, is retiring June 27. Lachman will be retiring from DOE after 30 years of federal service, a spokesperson for the agency said […]

Leo Sain, a senior executive at Amentum who has led joint ventures across the Department of Energy weapons complex, has died at age 73. Most recently Sain served as the decommissioning and demolition and waste management sector lead at Amentum. He died May 13, according to an obituary posted by Weatherford Mortuary in Oak Ridge, […]

In a budget hearing that was mostly a best-of, a couple Senators asked the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration about alternative means of meeting the mission objectives of the day, including by producing pits at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or buying, instead of enriching, uranium needed to produce weapons-tritium in the […]

House and Senate subcommittees were scheduled to hold hearings about the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2022 budget request on Wednesday, even though the White House was not expected to release the full budget request until May 27. The Senate-side hearing will be the first of the season dedicated to the civilian nuclear weapons programs managed […]

Bechtel, Reston, Va., and Fluor, Irving, Texas, are leading separate bids for the potentially $10-year, $21.5 billion management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, people familiar with the competitive landscape said Monday. Amentum, Germantown, Md., is also in the mix as a partner, one of these people said. The Savannah […]

As of Friday, with only weeks to go before it hoped to transition the sites to new management, the National Nuclear Security Administration had yet to hold discussions with bidders for the next contract to manage the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex, sources said. The new contract has a four-month transition period […]