National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The Department of Energy is picking up its option to keep Centerra Group on through at least Oct. 7 as provider of security at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina while the agency continues to review a 10-year, $1-billion follow-on contract awarded in February to Securitas CIS. A DOE spokesperson said in an email late last […]

Ex-Sandia National Laboratories employee Joshua Cordova has pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and now awaits a sentencing in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico after allegedly ripping off the government for somewhere between $75,000 and $140,000, according to a plea agreement filed last week. Cordova, who helped train military, law-enforcement and emergency […]

Early in-person voting started last week and runs through May 29, for the June 1 special election in New Mexico’s Congressional District 1, which is home to the Sandia National Laboratories. The seat was vacated by Rep. Debra Haaland (D), she was confirmed as the Joe Biden administration’s secretary of interior on March 16. The special election […]

The Department of Energy considers construction of a new 2.2-million cubic yard landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee vital to cleanup of contaminated sites the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a federal official said Wednesday.  The new onsite landfill will “make sure that we have enough disposal capacity,” […]

An April 16 staff report by a federal watchdog questions if the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration have fully learned lessons stemming from a drum breach and radiation release that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in February 2014. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

An April 16 staff report by a federal watchdog questions if the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration have fully learned lessons stemming from a drum breach and radiation release that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in February 2014. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

The Department of Energy was scheduled to brief a local agency-chartered advisory group on Wednesday about plans for a new landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.  A DOE draft record of decision is expected in July on the proposed Environmental Management Disposal Facility, designed to handle low-risk construction material from building demolition at […]

Ex-Sandia National Laboratories employee Joshua Cordova has pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and now awaits a sentencing in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico after allegedly ripping off the government for somewhere between $75,000 and $140,000, according to a plea agreement filed last week. Cordova, who helped train military, law-enforcement and emergency […]

There were 177 active, confirmed COVID-19 cases across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s civilian and contractor workforce in the first week of May, the agency reported Friday, keeping current infections around the plateau they fell to in April. Week-to-week, active cases among National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) civil servants and contractors was down by 55, […]

During a nearly three-hour budget hearing into which nuclear weapons seldom figured, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Thursday she supports building a two-state complex to produce at least 80 plutonium pits annually.  That’s among the most, if not the most, definitive statement of support any senior Biden-administration official has made for the National Nuclear […]

A program-independent review found the cost-floor for building the National Nuclear Security Administration’s planned, multibillion-dollar pit factory at the Los Alamos National Laboratory will be slightly higher than the official estimate, though the ceiling might be a little lower. The Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project (LAP4) and supporting infrastructure should cost between $2.93 billion […]

Teresa Robbins replaced Geoff Beausoleil as manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration field office responsible for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Site, according to the government’s nuclear health-and-safety watchdog. Robbins, one of Beausoleil’s two deputies at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Production Office, was set to take over May 1. Beausoleil […]

The Department of Energy is making plans for replacement of the emergency operations center at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by late 2028, according to one of the procurement documents published last week. Last week DOE issued its draft request for proposals for the Savannah River Site Operations Acquisition, a contract which could […]

A program-independent review found the cost-floor for building the National Nuclear Security Administration’s planned, multibillion-dollar pit factory at the Los Alamos National Laboratory will be slightly higher than the official estimate, though the ceiling might be a little lower. The Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project (LAP4) and supporting infrastructure should cost between $2.93 billion […]

Teresa Robbins replaced Geoff Beausoleil as manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration field office responsible for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Site, according to the government’s nuclear health-and-safety watchdog. Robbins, one of Beausoleil’s two deputies at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Production Office, was set to take over May 1. […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), whose district includes the Savannah River Site, on Monday asked the House Appropriations Committee to provide a total of $695 million in fiscal year 2022 for plutonium pit production at the Aiken, S.C. site: some $255 million more than the 2021 pit budget. The increase would entirely go toward construction of […]

The number of second-dose vaccines administered at the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee doubled this week with over 4,000 employees fully vaccinated across both sites, as the number of jabs continues to increase across the rest of the nuclear security enterprise,  NNSA’s Washington headquarters was tracking 232 active […]

The Department of Energy this week published the highly-anticipated draft solicitation for a potential 10-year, $21.5-billion management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The draft request for proposals (RFP) was published Wednesday on a federal procurement website to solicit questions and comments from prospective bidders by 4 p.m. Eastern time […]

The Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration this week appointed two new deputy managers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico. Jason Saenz will be the new deputy manager for technical operations and Paula “Erika” Wisdom will be the deputy manager for business, security and missions as a new […]

BY MATTHEW BEINART President Joe Biden announced this week he is nominating Frank Kendall, a former top acquisition official at the Pentagon, as the next secretary of the Air Force and Heidi Shyu, the Army’s former lead acquisition executive, to be the next undersecretary of defense for Research and Engineering. Both nominations were announced Tuesday […]

The Department of Energy this week published the highly-anticipated draft solicitation for a potential 10-year, $21.5-billion management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The draft request for proposals (RFP) was published Wednesday on a federal procurement website to solicit questions and comments from prospective bidders by 4 p.m. Eastern time […]

A week after a coalition of citizen groups threatened to sue without more environmental vetting, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration approved the first critical decision toward ramping up pit production at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Wednesday said it has approved Critical Decision […]

Kansas City, Mo.-based Burns & McDonnell recently named Willie Clark as its federal strategy director, the company announced this week. For the previous almost nine years, Clark had been the giant engineering corporation’s federal business development manager, according to the company’s Wednesday news release. He held positions with the National Nuclear Security Administration from 1987 […]

President Joe Biden this week formally sent to the Senate Frank Rose’s nomination to be principal deputy administrator for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Last week  Biden announced his intention to nominate Rose to the No. 2 slot at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration failed to follow federal best practices for acquisitions prior to ordering its $600-million El Capitan high-performance computing system, a congressional watchdog said in a report this week. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) urged National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to do a more detailed analysis of alternatives in the future, and […]

The Department of Energy Wednesday published the highly-anticipated draft solicitation for a potential 10-year, $21.5-billion management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The draft request for proposals (RFP) was published on a federal procurement website to solicit questions and comments from prospective bidders by 4 p.m. Eastern time on May […]

A week after a coalition of citizen groups threatened to sue without more environmental vetting, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration approved the first critical decision toward ramping up pit production at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Wednesday said it has approved Critical Decision […]

The Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration this week appointed two new deputy managers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico. Jason Saenz will be the new deputy manager for technical operations and Paula “Erika” Wisdom will be the deputy manager for business, security and missions as a new […]

President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally sent to the Senate Frank Rose’s nomination to be principal deputy administrator for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Last Thursday Biden announced his intention to nominate Rose to the No. 2 slot at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons […]

The Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday it has disposed of more than 100 “legacy” facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas. “For years now, we’ve been strategically removing legacy equipment and materials, packaging and shipping contaminated waste, and demolishing outdated facilities,” Jim […]