National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration is the Department of Energy’s delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 64th annual General Conference in Vienna next week, the DOE nuke agency said Thursday. The annual meeting of the United Nations body, which promotes peaceful uses of nuclear energy and nuclear-weapons nonproliferation, is scheduled to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said it finished construction of a new 15 kilovolt electrical distribution system that will provide redundant power supply for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. In a press release Tuesday, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency said the Expand Electrical Distribution System hit its CD-4 milestone — […]

The paperwork went through Monday to officially extend Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies for another year as the management and operations contractor of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear-weapons components hub. A notice about the modification that picked up the Honeywell subsidiary’s option appeared on the federal government’s online hub for acquisition and procurement documents, […]

Congress’ fight over the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2021 budget poses “challenges” for rolling out new nuclear delivery systems and carrier vehicles that already are poised to debut “just barely in time,” the vice chair of the joint chiefs of staff said Thursday morning. “If you’ve been in the acquisition business in this building very […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved retired Army Gen. Lucas Polakowski to be assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs, and staff director of the joint civil-military group that coordinates nuclear weapons acquisition. Polakowski was one of six civilian nominations the Committee advanced in a meeting Tuesday, held just over a […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee is calling in the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and the undersecretary of defense in charge of nuclear weapons procurement for a very-late-in-the-season hearing on the civilian weapons agency’s budget. The hearing, “Matters Relating to the Budget of the National Nuclear Security […]

With Bruce Hamilton’s Sept. 12 resignation as chairman, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is back down to three members, two of them Democrats. The chairman unexpectedly resigned Aug. 31, apparently for family reasons, only weeks after he and the three other DNFSB members were confirmed for new terms by the U.S. Senate via voice […]

There will be no emergency management drills at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina until early 2021, according to a recently posted weekly report on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s website. An Aug. 21 report from board inspectors to Christopher Roscetti, the board’s technical director, indicated that leaders of the respective […]

The Air Force’s program to acquire a new fleet of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, which fast became a one-horse race that Northrop Grumman won, is a model for the sort of procurement ethos that will help the U.S. acquire new weapons as fast as China, the commander of U.S. nuclear forces said Monday. “China can […]

Turab Lookman, a former Los Alamos physicist, dodged a six-month prison sentence last week, when a federal judge sentenced him to five years probation and a fine for lying to federal investigators about his connection to China’s Thousand Talents program. With good behavior, Lookman’s probation might end sooner, according to the sentencing minute sheet filed […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration finished building a non-nuclear prototype of the B61-12, a refurbished version of the oldest deployed U.S. nuclear weapon that will homogenize four existing versions of the nuclear gravity bomb. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear weapons agency announced the milestone late last week in a press release. Personnel assembled the B61-12 first […]

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said Tuesday the final, conferenced version of the fiscal year defense authorization likely won’t be completed until after the Nov. 3 election. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the outgoing HASC ranking member, noted the conference committee will need to particularly work on settling differences between the […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that could reduce the National Nuclear Security Administration’s autonomy within the Department of Energy. With a pandemic raging in the final four months of an election year, the bill may not become law before the next session of Congress begins in January and kills […]

Confirmed active cases of COVID-19 among National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees rose by six this week, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency said Friday. The NNSA was tracking 104 active cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus on Friday, enough that the rate of confirmed cases outpaced recoveries by half a […]

Companies interested in managing the two main civilian nuclear-weapon production sites under a potential 10-year, $28-billion contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration will be allowed to visit the facilities on Sept. 22 and Sept. 24. The agency announced in June that it would not pick up further options on incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract […]

Addressing the elephant in the desert, an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday warned that ongoing nuclear-weapon maintenance will require a transuranic waste disposal site that is open beyond 2050: the current, best-case availability for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “From an NNSA perspective, with an enduring mission, […]

Addressing the elephant in the desert, an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday warned that ongoing nuclear-weapon maintenance will require a transuranic waste disposal site that is open beyond 2050: the current, best-case availability for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “From an NNSA perspective, with an enduring mission, […]

Having lined up a potential two-year extension for environmental remediation at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture is wrapping up work on the grounds of a former uranium enrichment complex, top managers said Thursday. Without offering much detail, leaders at URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR) affirmed they are also […]

Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes is scheduled today to visit two Wisconsin companies that aim to help re-establish the United States’ production capacity for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Menezes will tour facilities at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, and meet with executives from both companies, according to […]

Addressing the elephant in the desert, an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday warned that ongoing nuclear-weapon maintenance will require a transuranic waste disposal site that is open beyond 2050: the current, best-case availability for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “From an NNSA perspective, with an enduring mission, […]

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said Tuesday the final, conferenced version of the fiscal year defense authorization likely won’t be completed until after the Nov. 3 election. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the outgoing HASC ranking member, noted the conference committee will need to particularly work on settling differences between the […]

Companies interested in managing the two main civilian nuclear-weapon production sites under a potential 10-year, $28-billion contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration will be allowed to visit the facilities on Sept. 22 and Sept. 24. The agency announced in June that it would not pick up further options on incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract […]

Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., which should help students there start careers in the Energy Department’s weapons complex. South Carolina State, founded in 1896, is the only historically black college or university in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in […]

Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes is scheduled Friday to visit two Wisconsin companies that aim to help re-establish the United States’ production capacity for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Menezes will tour facilities at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, and meet with executives from both companies, according to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should stop managing the Y-12 National Security Campus and the Pantex Plant under a single contract, a Washington, D.C.-based group representing localities that host Department of Energy nuclear-weapon sites said Tuesday. “[D]oes one contract between two very different sites still make sense?” Seth Kirshenberg, executive director of the Energy […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider a bill this week that would tighten the secretary of energy’s control over the National Nuclear Security Administration. H.R. 8159, the ‘‘Department of Energy Organization and Management Improvement Act,’’ would make the change by amending the National Nuclear Security Administration Act to say that “Each officer or […]

The Pentagon is keeping a close eye on nuclear weapons life-extension programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic, but to date there have been no signs of any delays, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday. “I don’t believe that there have been any COVID-related implications to the life-extension programs,” Robert […]

To settle a lawsuit filed in 2016, the federal government will pay $600 million to South Carolina in recognition of the Department of Energy’s inability to remove several metric tons of plutonium from the state by a legal deadline of 2022, the parties said Monday. The money is expected by the end of September from […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week officially green-lit the Los Alamos National Laboratory to make 30 war-ready warhead cores in 2026 for next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles. Under the long-expected decision, the northern New Mexico weapon-design laboratory “will produce a minimum of 30 war reserve pits per year for the national pit production mission […]

The Pentagon is keeping a close eye on nuclear weapons life-extension programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic, but to date there have been no signs of any delays, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday. “I don’t believe that there have been any COVID-related implications to the life-extension programs,” […]