National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., could soon be approved to resume waste shipments to the Nevada National Security Site, Nevada’s federal site manager said Thursday at an online conference. The Y-12 certification was lifted following a 2019 disclosure that dozens of mislabeled containers of waste were sent to Nevada between 2013 […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based RSI Services is the winner of a potential five-year, $22-million small business contract to remediate Naval Reactors sites overseen by the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration in West Milton, N.Y. The set-aside cleanup contract for the Kesselring Site was announced Tuesday by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Under the […]

Paul Kreitz, who has helped manage planning and construction of pit production infrastructure at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the past two years or so, is leaving lab manager Triad National Security in late April, a lab official said this week. Kreitz was not one of Triad National Security’s key personnel. Before Los Alamos, […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could go offline for a major ventilation upgrade right around the time the Los Alamos National Laboratory starts casting new nuclear weapon cores and generating a slew of new defense transuranic waste, a lab official said Wednesday at the online Waste Management Symposia conference. “As we progress in our nuclear […]

The Department of Energy could lengthen contract transition periods under the new procurement model, possibly to 120 days, federal officials said Wednesday during the online Waste Management Symposia. Transition to the Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. venture at the Hanford Site in Washington state, which ended in January, showed 60 days is insufficient to sort […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based RSI Services is the winner of a potential five-year, $22-million small business contract to remediate Naval Reactors sites overseen by the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration in West Milton, N.Y. The set-aside cleanup contract for the Kesselring Site was announced Tuesday by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Under the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday formalized a decision to immobilize some 350 kilograms of plutonium used in a Japanese research facility into glass-like cylinders at the Savannah River Site rather than sending the material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency put the official stamp on […]

Plutonium pits and command and control are the top nuclear priorities for Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) in the next federal budget cycle, the head of the House Armed Services Committee said Friday. The Joe Biden administration has yet to roll out its fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, blaming the hold-up on an allegedly intractable Donald […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor, which began producing tritium for nuclear weapons on Nov. 19, will irradiate a bit more than half as many tritium-producing rods as hoped in fiscal year 2021, the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency had aimed to irradiate […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has improved oversight of contracts and operations since last year, but the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency could stand to do more, the Government Accountability Office said this week in its annual update on high-dollar, “high-risk” issues. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “has continued to show leadership […]

Kim Budil took over as the 13th director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California this week. The younger of the two nuclear weapons design laboratories announced the change at top in late January. Budil replaced William Goldstein, who retired after six years as director and 36 years at Livermore. Budil takes over with […]

Karen Skelton has been named a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, DOE announced this week in a press release. Skelton comes to the Joe Biden administration from California, where she spent the last decade as the CEO and founder of Skelton Strategies, a policy and political consulting firm working on energy, climate, technology  […]

Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tenn., received a long-expected $57-million contract to design and demonstrate highly enriched uranium conversion and purification for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency announced this week. If the BWX Technologies subsidiary’s pilot meets the agency’s goals, the company could earn a follow-on contract to perform some of the uranium work […]

Active confirmed COVID-19 cases among civilian nuclear weapons workers declined for a sixth straight week, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tally of cases among its federal and contractor personnel. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency had received reports of 43 new confirmed cases this week, a spokesperson said Friday, with active […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management still has much work to do on oversight of contracts and operations, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday in its annual update on high-dollar, “high-risk” issues. The DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, which seemed to get a more generous review, “has continued to show leadership commitment […]

Karen Skelton has been named a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, DOE announced Wednesday in a press release. Skelton comes to the Joe Biden administration from California, where she spent the last decade as the CEO and founder of Skelton Strategies, a policy and political consulting firm working on energy, climate, technology  and […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor, which began producing tritium for nuclear weapons on Nov. 19, will irradiate a bit more than half as many tritium-producing rods as hoped in fiscal year 2021, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency had aimed to irradiate 992 […]

Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tenn., last week received a long-expected $57-million contract to design and demonstrate highly enriched uranium conversion and purification for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency announced Monday. If the BWX Technologies subsidiary’s pilot meets the agency’s goals, the company could earn a follow-on contract to perform some of the uranium […]

Kim Budil was set to take over as the 13th director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on Tuesday. The younger of the two nuclear weapons design laboratories announced the change at top in late January. Budil replaces William Goldstein, who was to retire after six years as director and 36 years at […]

The City of Oak Ridge remained on the lookout this week for the fromalizing of a National Nuclear Security Administration contract that would, against the city’s wishes, move some uranium conversion and purification work to Nuclear Fuel Services from the Y-12 National Security. “The transfer of this function could begin with a Phase I contract […]

The Department of Energy and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection are hammering out some type of legal settlement over shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste sent last decade to the Nevada National Security Site from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, according to minutes of an advisory committee meeting posted online. “Progress has been […]

The Department of Energy and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection are hammering out some type of legal settlement over shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste sent from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee to the Nevada National Security Site, according to minutes of an advisory committee meeting posted online. “Progress has been made on […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann security company, this week protested the Department of Energy’s recently-announced award of a $1-billion Savannah River Site security services award to a Securitas-led team. The bid protest, dated Monday Feb. 22, matched the DOE solicitation number for the Security Services Contract at Savannah River awarded Feb. 12 to the SRS Critical Infrastructure […]

Jennifer Granholm was sworn in Thursday as secretary of energy after the Senate confirmed her by a wide, bipartisan margin to lead the Department of Energy and the almost $30-billion-a-year worth of nuclear weapons and waste programs that make up more than half the agency’s budget. “DOE’s core missions — promoting scientific discovery, maintaining the […]

Someone at the Y-12 National Security Complex died from complications related to COVID-19 this week, casting a pall over the continuing downward trend of new confirmed cases across the civilian nuclear enterprise. The fatality brings the total of confirmed fatal cases at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) during the roughly year-long global pandemic to […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann security company, this week protested the Department of Energy’s recently-announced award of a $1-billion Savannah River Site security services award to a Securitas-led team. The bid protest, dated Monday Feb. 22, matched the DOE solicitation number for the Security Services Contract at Savannah River awarded Feb. 12 to the SRS […]

The Department of Energy and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection are hammering out some type of legal settlement over shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste sent from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee to the Nevada National Security Site, according to minutes of an advisory committee meeting posted online. “Progress has been made on […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons assembly hub in Texas was scheduled for more or less back to normal operations on Monday after asking non-essential personnel to remain home for most of last week during Texas’ disastrous deep freeze. “Pantex operations are back to normal schedule today,” a spokesperson for the Bechtel National-led plant […]

In what could be one of the final motions in the case before it heads toward a trial, the ex-chief financial officer of Mission Support and Tests Services repeated his argument that a federal anti-corruption law aimed at public companies applies to the private contractor, and that he filed whistleblower disclosures about financial impropriety at […]

A Tennessee environmental group is not planning to sue the National Nuclear Security Administration again over the Uranium Processing Facility, despite reserving the right to do so in a recent court filing. “[W]e have no plans at the current time to file additional litigation,” Ralph Hutchison,  coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, wrote […]