National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

An F-35A traveling at supersonic speeds successfully dropped a mock B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb from an internal compartment over the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday. The test took place in August in an F-35A Lightning II, according to a press release from the semi autonomous Department of Energy […]

Geoffrey Beausoleil will retire in April as the local federal official for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production office, which oversees the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, he said in an email. Separately, a senior DOE official tweeted Friday that Steve Erhart, a former policy […]

By John Stang The state of New Mexico has lately been noncommittal about when it might approve a pair of permits the Los Alamos National Laboratory needs to vent tritium gas into the atmosphere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the venting, but a spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) said Friday […]

On Wednesday, as Congress prepared for final negotiations on a must-pass bill that could increase the Pentagon’s say over civilian nuclear-weapons programs, the former head of those programs said the defense department needs less, not more, sway over such matters. The Pentagon and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Security Administration (NNSA), a semi […]

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. “Construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility [MFFF], initially estimated to cost about $4.8 billion, was […]

The chair of the House Armed Services Committee had bitter medicine in a big spoon for disarmament advocates Wednesday: getting rid of nuclear weapons is a losing message that may have cost Democrats a chance to slow down procurement of next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. “We’re losing this argument because we lost seats in the […]

The chair of the House Armed Services Committee had bitter medicine in a big spoon for disarmament advocates Wednesday: getting rid of nuclear weapons is a losing message that may have cost Democrats a chance to slow down procurement of next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. “We’re losing this argument because we lost seats in the […]

On Wednesday, as Congress prepared for final negotiations on a must-pass bill that could increase the Pentagon’s say over civilian nuclear-weapons programs, the former head of those programs said the defense department needs less, not more, sway over such matters. The Pentagon and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Security Administration (NNSA), a semi […]

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. “Construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility [MFFF], initially estimated to cost about $4.8 billion, was […]

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility was initially forecast to cost $4.8 billion, but “[i]n response to […]

The Navy is happy to share knowledge about weapons with the Air Force, so long as it does not actually have to share a nuclear weapon with the Air Force, the sea service’s director for strategic systems programs said Tuesday. “I think a couple years ago, commonality started to put us on a path where […]

When the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear reactor reactivates from a refueling outage that started Oct. 26, it will begin producing tritium for nuclear weapons for the first time, a National Nuclear Security Administration spokesperson said Monday. The specialized rods will start producing yield-boosting gas for nuclear weapons during Watts Bar Unit […]

In what could be a boon to submarine subcontractors and the broader nuclear-naval industry, the Navy is looking at buying components for Columbia-class submarines, especially boats that will follow the two already under contract, a little earlier, the head of naval reactors said Monday. “We’re looking at what we can do to further de-risk Columbia […]

Typical lumpiness in contracts with utilities held uranium fuel-broker and technology developer Centrus Corp. to a net loss in the third quarter of 2020, but the company expects to close out the year with a revenue bang, CEO Daniel Poneman told investors Friday. Also, Poneman said, construction of the company’s new, Department of Energy-funded uranium-enrichment […]

Steve Winberg was appointed acting under secretary of energy, replacing Mark Menezes who was elevated to deputy secretary according to a Dear Colleagues letter circulated late last week by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. Winberg was most recently the assistant secretary for fossil energy: a direct report to the undersecretary of energy.  Also, Brouillette wrote, […]

The state of New Mexico last week was noncommittal about when it might approve a pair of permits the Los Alamos National Laboratory needs to vent tritium gas into the atmosphere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the venting, but the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) had not as of Thursday decided when it […]

The same day the National Nuclear Security Administration requested proposals for a potentially decades-long contract to run two of its three major nuclear weapons production sites, Senate appropriators asked why there is so little competition for such contracts at the Department of Energy. The semiautonomous DOE weapons agency released the final solicitation Tuesday, the same […]

Lame-duck budget negotiations are officially underway, and the Senate’s opening gambit for the National Nuclear Security Administration was to give the agency the roughly $20 billion it sought for 2021: over $1 billion more than what the House of Representatives recommended. That’s according to a bill and an accompanying report the Senate Armed Services Committee released […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette kept close tabs on then-National Nuclear Security Administration boss Lisa Gordon-Hagerty for months, sending chaperones to her meetings with Congress and monitoring her personal calendar before abruptly demanding her resignation last week, a source told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. It was a dramatic end to a year of strife between the […]

Former National Nuclear Security Administration No. 2 Madelyn Creedon is part of President Elect Joe Biden’s (D) transition team, the Biden camp announced Wednesday. Creedon is one of 19 people on Biden’s Department of Energy beachhead team, which is led by Arun Majumdar: currently a professor at Stanford University’s department of mechanical engineering in California, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration recorded over 200 new cases of COVID-19 among its federal employees and contractors this week, and more than half those cases were still active at deadline Friday, an agency spokesperson said. With cases of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus spiking across the county, confirmed cases at the semi-autonomous […]

The same day the National Nuclear Security Administration requested proposals for a potentially decades-long contract to run two of its three major nuclear weapons production sites, Senate appropriators asked why there is so little competition for such contracts at the Department of Energy. The semiautonomous DOE weapons agency released the final solicitation Tuesday, the same […]

Former National Nuclear Security Administration No. 2 Madelyn Creedon is part of President Elect Joe Biden’s (D) transition team, the Biden camp announced Wednesday.  Creedon is one of 19 people on Biden’s Department of Energy beachhead team, which is led by Arun Majumdar: currently a professor at Stanford University’s department of mechanical engineering in California, […]

Lame-duck budget negotiations are officially underway, and the Senate’s opening gambit for the National Nuclear Security Administration was to give the agency the roughly $20 billion it sought for 2021: over $1 billion more than what the House of Representatives recommended. That’s according to a bill and an accompanying report the Senate Armed Services Committee […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette kept close tabs on then-National Nuclear Security Administration boss Lisa Gordon-Hagerty for months, sending chaperones to her meetings with Congress and monitoring her personal calendar before abruptly demanding her resignation last week, a source told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. It was a dramatic end to a year of strife between […]

The Department of Energy is pushing back against the narrative that Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was forced out of her job as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.  Gordon-Hagerty abruptly resigned Friday after more than two-and-a-half years in the top spot at DOE’s semi-autonomous nuclear-weapons agency. Her resignation letter, reportedly […]

Most congressional incumbents hung on this election, as they typically do, but a few open seats in a few districts and states that host National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites means there are a few new faces representing the neighbors of the nuclear security enterprise — or in the case of a New Mexico congressman […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday formalized a decision to make at least 50 nuclear-weapon cores a year at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., and environmental groups immediately raised the prospects of a lawsuit if the agency does not review the plan again. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency made its long-expected […]

The Navy this week awarded General Dynamics’ Electric Boat a $9.47 billion contract modification on Thursday for full construction of the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN-826) and continuing advanced construction for the second vessel. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts told reporters Thursday on a conference call that […]

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty resigned as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration after two years, eight months and 22 days as the head of the U.S. civilian nuclear weapons program, the agency announced Friday. The official statement gave no reason for the departure, which happened days after the still-unsettled U.S. election. At deadline, Democratic nominee Joe […]