National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

A House Appropriations panel on Monday followed through with its promise not to grant a $20-billion budget request for civilian nuclear weapons programs in a fiscal 2021 spending bill that would also forbid preparation for a nuclear yield-test, limit Pentagon influence on Department of Energy budgets, and potentially slow development of a proposed new nuclear […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is still investigating whether any of 15 employees working on plutonium-238 oxide were internally contaminated with the material last month after the apparent puncture of a glove-box glove. “Fifteen Laboratory workers are being evaluated for potential exposure. The area inside the Plutonium Facility where this occurred has […]

The Energy Department confirmed Monday that an employee of the prime contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has died as a result of COVID-19. “I regret to inform you that we have lost a member of the SRNS [Savannah River Nuclear Solutions] team to a COVID-related death,” SRNS President and CEO Stuart […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was tracking 13 new cases of COVID-19 across the civilian nuclear weapons enterprise last week ahead of the Independence Day holiday. The weekly count of active cases rose to 46 from 33 as of Thursday, a spokesperson for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency told Weapons Complex […]

The Navy portion of the House Armed Services Committee’s draft of the fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill approved Tuesday would add two vessels over the Senate version and argued a second attack submarine is needed to maintain the Columbia-class schedule. The final HASC markup recommends authorizing the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, two Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 destroyers, one […]

Representatives of more than 40 companies attended the June 24 industry pre-proposal conference for the upcoming contract for cleanup of the Luckey Site in Ohio under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The Army Corps on June 26 posted the attendance list, along with the first tranche of […]

National Nuclear Security Administration sites this week started receiving respirators ordered in April to help protect personnel from COVID-19. It was forward progress in a week where COVID-19 cases nationwide continued to spike, and DOE headquarters cleared more federal employees to return to Washington-area buildings in the second phase of the agency’s return-to-the-office plan. As […]

To settle a 2018 lawsuit over storage of plutonium, the Department of Energy has tentatively agreed not to send more of the weapon-usable material to Nevada. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced the development in a June 26 press release summarizing the unpublished settlement between the Silver State and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). […]

The Department of Energy’s plutonium-pit production plant in South Carolina would get a little extra scrutiny, and civilian nuclear weapons programs would receive a little more funding than requested, under the major defense policy bill approved unanimously late Wednesday by the House Armed Services Committee. At about 15 minute before midnight, the committee approved its […]

The head of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said Tuesday he is optimistic his panel’s version of the next defense authorization bill will receive bipartisan support. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) predicted differences with the Senate on several key provisions, such as a new Indo-Pacific initiative, can be reconciled when the bill heads to conference. […]

About one-tenth of the 225,000 wearable personal respirator masks the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous nuclear weapons agency ordered in April had arrived at facilities as of Wednesday, and the rest are on their way. All of the masks ordered by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from Atlanta-area small business American Dream Builders LLC have shipped […]

The Sandia National Laboratories cleared out a couple buildings on its New Mexico campus last week after confirming positive cases of COVID-19 there, though one of the facilities reopened before the weekend was out. Sandia announced Friday that both Building 836 and Building 867 had closed after a postive test was confirmed among the occupants […]

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee anticipates bipartisan support for the panel’s version of the next defense authorization bill, while adding he wants to see provisions for the Pentagon’s chief management officer and troop movement from Germany addressed at Wednesday’s markup hearing. “I am hopeful, I would say very hopeful, that at […]

More National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees may return to work in Washington, D.C.-area headquarters buildings today at the start of Phase 2 of the Department of Energy’s return-to-work plan for federal personnel. There are about 1,000 NNSA employees at the Forrestal Building in downtown D.C., and the Germantown Building in nearby suburban Maryland. They […]

To settle a 2018 lawsuit over storage of plutonium, the Department of Energy tentatively agreed not to send more of the weapon-usable material to Nevada, the state said Friday. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced the development in a press release summarizing the unpublished settlement between the Silver State and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The labor group representing some 1,450 workers at the Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex last week struck a new five-year labor deal with the Tennessee site’s Bechtel National-led manager. Members of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council (ATLC), an umbrella organization representing upward of 20 unions, ratified the agreement June 18. The previous […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) ordered 2,000 custom lapel pins at a cost of about $5.45 each from Medalcraft Mint, of Green Bay, Wis., to mark the agency’s 20th anniversary. The NNSA did not specify, in its award to Medalcraft Mint, the people to whom it plans to distribute the pins. There are enough […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory got whacked with some $300,000 in fines this month for failing to notify the New Mexico state government about eight off-site waste shipments in 2017 and 2018. The eight shipments, comprising 18 containers, happened while contractor Los Alamos National Security was still in charge of the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapon lab. […]

The Department of Energy on Friday issued the final request for proposals (RFP) for a stand-alone management contract for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The laboratory contract is expected to be worth $380 million per year, or potentially $3.8 billion over 10 years. The agreement carries a five-year base period and an […]

A day after the National Nuclear Security Administration announced it would not pick up the remaining options on the existing management deal for its Y-12 and Pantex sites, the Government Accountability Office on Wednesday urged the agency to study whether the outgoing contractor’s cost-saving methods could work at other nuclear-weapon sites. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) […]

International Isotopes’ failure to adequately address the 2018 breach of a radioactive source at its Idaho headquarters contributed to a similar, larger event months later in Seattle, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Following a routine inspection earlier this year, the agency on Monday cited the Idaho Falls-based nuclear medicine company with apparent individual violations […]

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) said Tuesday she wants the next Department of Energy budget bill to prohibit spending that contributes in any way to nuclear-explosive tests. Titus made the request during the House Appropriations Committee’s annual member day hearing, which gives congresspeople a few minutes to publicly discuss measures they want in the various spending bills […]

The Department of Defense would get more control over the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget under the Senate version of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) unveiled this week. The Senate Armed Services Committee filed the text of the bill, which sets funding limits and policy for defense programs, late Tuesday evening. […]

The Department of Energy will not pick up the remaining options on Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract to manage the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and Pantex Plant in Texas, which now will expire after Sept. 30, 2021. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) will leave three years’ worth of options on the table, under […]

After a truncated hearing season filled with furrowed brows, skepticism, and hawkish posturing about unspent appropriations, the House Armed Services Committee is authorizing even more funding than the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) requested for fiscal year 2021 — and they’re not even cutting a submarine from the Navy to do it. Committee staff made […]

Centerra Group, the incumbent provider of paramilitary security at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has withdrawn a Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest over procurement of a follow-on contract. Centerra filed the protest May 8, but then withdrew it on June 9, according to a notice posted on the GAO website. The […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was tracking fewer active cases of COVID-19 across the civilian nuclear weapons complex this week, but the agency revised its tally to exclude Department of Energy employees in other branches. That cut 26 cases out of the agency’s weekly tally, which the NNSA  has shared with Nuclear Security & […]

Radioactive contamination is more widespread than first thought along a road outside the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The area is part of a tract of land, which includes the site of a planned housing development, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County a few years […]

International Isotopes’ failure to adequately address the 2018 breach of a radioactive source at its Idaho headquarters contributed to a similar, larger event months later in Seattle, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Following a routine inspection earlier this year, the agency on Monday cited the Idaho Falls-based nuclear medicine company with apparent individual violations […]

A day after the National Nuclear Security Administration announced it would not pick up the remaining options on the existing management deal for its Y-12 and Pantex sites, the Government Accountability Office urged the agency to study whether the outgoing contractor’s cost-saving methods could work at other nuclear-weapon sites. Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) in 2014 […]