Sandia National Laboratories

The Department of Energy’s three nuclear weapons laboratories had all widely expanded teleworking Friday due to COVID-19, with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California taking drastic measures as its host county went into lockdown. After lagging behind the other two labs, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday it had implemented […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is transitioning to minimum-safe operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a move that by next Monday will sharply shrink staffing levels and curtail some scientific activity at the Department of Energy nuclear weapons facility. Livermore Director William Goldstein made the announcement Monday night after the government of […]

The Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in the early morning hours on Wednesday, testing a new fuse that would set off the nuclear warhead tipping that weapon, as well as its planned successor. The Air Force development test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California happened one year from the […]

New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation this month called on the Department of Energy to suspend a controversial order that the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) says has curtailed its access to nuclear-weapon sites. The Energy Department should lift the almost 2-year-old Order 140.1 to comply with recent changes to federal law that require […]

James Peery will become director of the Sandia National Laboratories on Jan. 1, after current director Stephen Younger retires, the multistate Department of Energy nuclear-weapon-engineering lab announced this week. Peery is now  associate laboratory director of national security sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. In that role, he succeeded Brent Park, […]

James Peery will become director of the Sandia National Laboratories on Jan. 1, after current director Stephen Younger retires, the multi-state Department of Energy nuclear-weapon-engineering lab announced Monday. Peery is now  associate laboratory director of national security sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. In that role, he succeeded Brent Park, who […]

Andrew McIlroy has become associate laboratories director for the Sandia National Laboratories California campus in Livermore, Calif., the New Mexico-based laboratory system said Wednesday. McIlroy now will lead the smaller, satellite campus of the main U.S. nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory, which employs about 1,000 people. Among other things, the campus includes the combustion research facility that studies […]

Andrew McIlroy has become associate laboratories director for the Sandia National Laboratories California campus in Livermore, Calif., the New Mexico-based laboratory system said Wednesday.  McIlroy now will lead the smaller, satellite campus of the main U.S. nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory, which employs about 1,000 people. Among other things, the campus includes the combustion research facility that studies […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed Wednesday that Stephen Younger will retire as director of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico effective Dec. 31, after two years managing the nation’s nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory. The local Albuquerque Journal reported the news first. In a short note to employees, provided by Sandia’s public affairs office, Younger said […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed Wednesday that Stephen Younger will retire as director of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico effective Dec. 31, after two years managing the nation’s nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory. The local Albuquerque Journal reported the news first, on Tuesday. “I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Younger for his […]

The Z Pulsed Power Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., was back online this week after a serious accident in June knocked the facility out of commission for three weeks, a senior laboratory employee said this week. The June 17 accident, which shook Sandia’s high-energy density physics lab longer and harder than […]

The Z Pulsed Power Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., was slated to come back online Wednesday after a serious accident in June knocked the facility out of commission for three weeks, a senior laboratory employee said this week. The June 17 accident, which shook Sandia’s high-energy density physics lab longer and […]

National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia appointed D.E. “Dori” Ellis deputy director of the nation’s nuclear-weapons-technology lab, the Honeywell-owned lab-manager announced Wednesday. Ellis will be the lab’s No. 2 executive behind director Stephen Younger. She will replace David Douglass, who will retire in June, according to a lab press release. Ellis is a longtime Sandia […]

National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia appointed D.E. “Dori” Ellis deputy director of the nation’s nuclear-weapons-technology lab, the Honeywell-owned lab-manager announced Wednesday. Ellis will be the lab’s No. 2 executive behind director Stephen Younger. She will replace David Douglass, who will retire in June, according to a lab press release. Ellis is a longtime […]

The New Mexico Legislature has again passed a bill that could require contractors operating the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories to pay the state’s gross receipts tax, even if the contractors are nonprofit organizations. The state House of Representatives in Santa Fe passed Senate Bill 11 on Sunday by a vote of 64-0. The […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is expected to receive 330 shipments of transuranic waste over the next 12 months, with some coming from sites that have not shipped material in years. The Energy Department and its WIPP contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, held a breakfast presentation Monday for New Mexico lawmakers, […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to receive 330 shipments of transuranic waste over the next 12 months, with some coming from sites that have not shipped material in years. The Energy Department and its WIPP contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, held a legislative breakfast presentation Monday for New Mexico lawmakers, […]

The State Department is relying in part on the Sandia National Laboratories to prioritize spending on global nonproliferation assistance programs, a senior State official said Tuesday. The New Mexico-based laboratory will help State’s bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation target financial aid to foreign countries based on the urgency of threats to the United States, […]

The State Department is relying in part on the Sandia National Laboratories to prioritize spending on global nonproliferation assistance programs, a senior State official said Tuesday. The New Mexico-based laboratory will help State’s bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation target financial aid to foreign countries based on the urgency of threats to the United States, […]

A sentencing date has been scheduled for the second man who pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government while serving as a subcontractor for the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Aaron Vennefron is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1 in Columbia, S.C., according to an order last week from U.S. […]

LA VISTA, Neb. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) may not be able to produce 80 nuclear-warhead cores a year by 2030, unless it resolves issues this year that have prevented it from converting an unfinished plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina into a weapons facility, the commander of U.S. nuclear forces said here […]

Months of testing in 2017 provided strong evidence that spent nuclear fuel can be safely transported by sea, road, and rail, according to a researcher with the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories. A team of researchers from the United States, South Korea, and Spain over 54 days from June to October collected 8 terabytes […]

Months of testing in 2017 provided strong evidence that spent nuclear fuel can be safely transported by sea, road, and rail, according to a researcher with the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories. A team of researchers from the United States, South Korea, and Spain over 54 days from June to October collected 8 terabytes […]

A federal judge in New Mexico last week sentenced a former Sandia National Laboratories contractor to three years in prison for fraudulently steering procurement money to a moving company she owned. U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo also ordered Carla Sena, the convicted 56 year-old former contractor from Santa Rosa, N.M., to pay back $643,000 […]

Laying out the annual weapons budget for some of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) major sites over the last decade yields little in the way of surprise: generally, the weapons budget is going up. Source: DOE Congressional Budget Requests (Laboratory Tables). Link: Interactive Version of Chart. Figuratively speaking, these trends were written on […]

In a blow to local interest groups that backed the measure, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have increased taxes for nonprofit entities that operate Department of Energy national laboratories in the state. Martinez vetoed the measure — which would have levied the states gross receipts tax on nonprofit […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory said Tuesday he is “confident” the Northern New Mexico nuclear weapons site could help create the low-yield nuclear warheads the Donald Trump administration requested in the Nuclear Posture Review released in early February. “Again, I go out on a branch, but I know from […]

As the state’s legislative session nears a close, a committee in the New Mexico House of Representatives was set to vote today on a bill that would levy a gross-receipts tax on nonprofit national lab operators in the state — a category locals worry could include the next manager of the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

Legislation that allows New Mexico to collect gross receipts taxes from nonprofit entities that run Department of Energy national laboratories there flew through the state Senate and now is set for its first committee stop in the House of Representatives. The House Taxation and Revenue Committee had not yet scheduled action on the bill at […]

It is time for Congress to take a look at the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories, and their contribution to the agency’s mission, according to Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). During a House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee hearing on DOE modernization last week, Barton said he plans to draft a bipartisan reauthorization bill for […]