National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

David Wilson, a former official with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), joined Energy Department contractor Longenecker & Associates on Aug. 10 as a senior associate. Wilson, who spent 37 years with the state agency before retiring as its acting director in 2019, will take over a newly created post and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is preparing for its third virtual job fair of the summer, coming to a computer or connected device near you on Aug. 26. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, according to an announcement from the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency. Those interested […]

Thomas Summers, a former Air Force officer confirmed last month by the U.S. Senate for a post at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), will be sworn in on Monday. Summers will be vice chairman of the federal health-and-safety watchdog for defense-nuclear sites, DNFSB Manager of Board Operations Tara Tadlock said in a Wednesday […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory blamed a new type of glovebox glove for a June 8 incident that exposed at least one person, and likely more, to radioactive contamination from plutonium 238, the independent federal Defense Nuclear Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reported. Alarms sounded in Los Alamos’ PF-4 Plutonium Facility after a lab Actinide Material Processing […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management announced this week that Nicole Nelson-Jean, a familiar face in the weapons complex, will become head of field operations at the end of the month. A 28-year Energy Department employee and member of the senior executive service, Nelson-Jean now manages the Savannah River Site field office in South […]

If any of the factors that led to the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee shipping mislabeled radioactive waste to Nevada are present elsewhere in the Department of Energy complex, the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments did not find them in a year of looking, according to a recent report. The complex-wide evaluation“did not find […]

A building at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico used for performance tests on non-nuclear nuclear-weapon components opened back up for its regular work schedule Monday, following a a COVID-19 deep-cleaning. Sandia announced last week that one person in Building 720, home of the Ion Beam Laboratory, tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease […]

Michelle Reichert will next week become president and CEO of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the outgoing management and operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Bechtel National-led company said Friday. Reichert, currently chief operating officer for the prime, will replace Morgan Smith, who is retiring after […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday kicked off a long-awaited procurement of the next Savannah River Site management and operations contract with a request for information from industry about the award that will fund the Aiken, S.C., facility’s biggest nuclear-weapons programs. The agency will sort out the value, duration, and exact form of the contract […]

An employee at the Nevada National Security Site died of COVID-19, an agency spokesperson reported this week, marking the second confirmed fatality attributable to the viral disease among civilian nuclear-weapons workers. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spokesperson declined to identify the individual, or say what job this person did at Nevada.  However, the spokesperson […]

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee used a Thursday nomination hearing to spotlight his opposition to House legislation that would made it harder for the Department of Energy to collaborate with the Pentagon on future nuclear weapons budget requests. That result is something “some people … in the Department of Energy” would like, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it plans to conduct a new, broad environmental review of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Livermore’s last such review, officially known as a site-wide environmental impact statement, was in 2005. The new review will cover operations for the next 15 years. In that time, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will continue to bundle management of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas in the post Consolidated Nuclear Security era, according to a pre-procurement note posted on July 31. The single contract would be worth up to $28 billion over 10 years, including […]

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office repeated what some nuke-doubters in and out of Congress have been saying for a while: the bigger budget the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it needs to keep current and planned programs on track could eat other defense programs’ lunch. “Such an increase may require cuts […]

South Carolina and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be about to cut a deal in the state’s $200 million lawsuit over the federal government’s failure to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site, court papers show. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a joint motion to stay the […]

Insulated from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic by its large government contracts and a bread-and-butter nuclear Navy business, BWX Technologies this week posted a modest uptick in both profit and revenue for the second quarter of 2020. Quarterly net income rose $5 million to about $64 million, or $0.67 per share, from about $59 […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday kicked off a long-awaited procurement of the next Savannah River Site management and operations contract with a request for information from industry about the award that will fund the Aiken, S.C., facility’s biggest nuclear-weapons programs. The agency will sort out the value, duration, and exact form of the contract […]

By Cal Biesecker Defense Daily Leidos on Tuesday posted higher sales and earnings in its second quarter, driven by two acquisitions earlier this year and a payment related to patent infringement, more than offsetting higher than expected negative impacts from the ongoing pandemic. Net income increased 13% to $153 million, $1.06 earnings per share (EPS), from […]

A regional organization to promote communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico will soon need a new executive director for the second time in a little more than two years. The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) Board of Directors voted on July 30 to end its working relationship […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission aims by the end of August to decide on enforcement measures for apparent license and regulatory violations by International Isotopes that contributed to the release of cesium-137 last year at a hospital facility in Seattle. An NRC official noted the schedule at the end of a teleconference Tuesday that gave the […]

By Cal Biesecker Defense Daily Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday posted a steep drop in second-quarter earnings, mainly on charges at its shipyards due to efficiency and staffing challenges, at least some of which stem from COVID-19, and the company lowered its top and bottom line guidance for the year. On a conference call with […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it plans to conduct a new, broad environmental review of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Livermore’s last such review, officially known as a site-wide environmental impact statement, was in 2005. The new review will cover operations for the next 15 years. In that time, […]

A day after the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico had mostly reopened Building 823 after a case of COVID-19 among its workforce, the Department of Energy facility had to close down Building 720 after the disease caused by the novel coronavirus 2019 popped up there as well. Building 720, which houses the Ion Beam […]

South Carolina and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be about to cut a deal in the state’s $200 million lawsuit over the federal government’s failure to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site, court papers show. In a joint motion filed Thursday, lawyers for the two sides said settlement negotiations are ongoing and asked […]

The Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories said Monday it evacuated and closed Building 823 at its Albuquerque, N.M., facility after confirming a case of COVID-19 among the workforce there.  Sandia will now disinfect the building, which houses laboratory space used by Sandia’s geosciences program and others, and track down anybody there who had close contact […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will continue to bundle management of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas in the post Consolidated Nuclear Security era, according to a pre-procurement note posted online Friday. The single contract would be worth up to $28 billion over 10 years, including a […]

A regional organization to promote communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico will soon need a new executive director for the second time in a little more than two years. The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities Board of Directors voted Thursday evening to end its working relationship with Chicanos […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office covered some old ground last week: the bigger budget the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it needs to keep planned programs and programs of record on track could eat other defense programs’ lunch. “Such an increase may require cuts in other national defense programs to keep […]

The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in October 2019. Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending 6 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported contained Wednesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon site. The site is investigating the cause of the fire, which was […]