The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) federal workforce fell nearly 12% as the agency’s workload reached its highest level since the Cold War, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
NNSA’s federal workforce declined by 236 employees, from 1,991 in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 to 1,755 in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, GAO said in the Oct. 15 report. The reduction came as the agency oversees a roughly $200 billion, two-decade effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons and related infrastructure.
The workforce reduction followed presidential directives issued in early 2025, which led NNSA to halt workforce planning and curtail hiring, according to GAO. A government-wide hiring freeze ran from the second quarter of fiscal 2025 through the first quarter of fiscal 2026, although national security personnel were exempt and NNSA hired 35 federal employees during that period.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the final environmental impact statement for Global Laser Enrichment’s (GLE) proposed laser enrichment facility located near the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky.
According to GLE’s Oct. 23 press release, NRC staff recommended issuing a license to construct and operate the facility. This issuance comes months after NRC published GLE’s draft environmental impact statement in April.
The proposed Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility, if constructed, would re-enrich depleted uranium tails from DOE’s legacy gaseous diffusion plant at Paducah. GLE said the re-enriched uranium tails will provide a new source of domestic uranium, conversion and enrichment production.
Berkeley, Calif.-based Deep Fission and Kansas’ Great Plains Development Authority have entered into a 25-year master energy purchase agreement on Oct. 20 that converts the company’s December 2025 letter of intent into a definitive agreement for a commercial project in Kansas.
Under the agreement, if Deep Fission’s project reaches an initial goal of 150 megawatts of electricity for commercial operation by September 30, 2028, then the agreement could allow for the company to build up to 2,000 megawatts by 2031, subject to an additional energy demand, according to the press release. The Great Plains Development Authority will purchase electricity from Deep Fission’s project.
In December 2025, Deep Fission and the Great Plains Development Authority signed an agreement to authorize the reactor company to develop its test reactor in Parsons, Kan. under the Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program.
Parsons Corp. Chief Financial Officer Matt Ofilos will resign Nov. 6 to pursue another professional opportunity, with former CFO George Ball returning on an interim basis as the company searches for a permanent successor.
Ofilos’ resignation is not related to any disagreement with Parsons over the company’s operations, policies or practices, the company said Oct. 28.
The Chantilly, Va.-based defense and technology contractor’s Board of Directors appointed Ball, a current board member and former Parsons CFO, to serve as interim CFO effective Nov. 6.
The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., will hold its next public meeting on Wednesday Nov. 4.
The New Mexico Environment Department has proposed modifying WIPP’s state operating permit for the second time in four years. The state and DOE have been in talks about the issue.
WIPP, managed for DOE, by Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Mountain Time. The session will originate from the Pecos River Village Conference Center on Muscatel Avenue in Carlsbad. A link for virtual registration is available online. WIPP is the nation’s only disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste.
The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., has hired Patrick Hefflinger as its new head of communications.
Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors announced Hefflinger’s appointment in a Monday news release.
Hefflinger, who has more than 15 years in the field, comes to WIPP after being a group vice president at the Ruder Finn public relations agency. He has also worked as a public affairs specialist for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
Finnish spent fuel management company Posiva Oy was granted an operating license on Oct. 22 for the encapsulation and its final disposal facility, Onkalo, for spent nuclear fuel in Olkiluoto, Finland, the company said.
The decision was approved by the government following a favorable safety assessment issued by Finland’s nuclear regulator, the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, in August according to Posiva’s Oct. 22 press release. Posiva is the first company in the world approved to operate a final disposal facility for spent fuel, the company said.
“This is a great and historic day for both Posiva and Finland,” Posiva President and CEO Ilkka Poikolainen said in the release. “In addition to comprehensive expertise, the stability of the society and the predictability of the operational environment were prerequisites for the operating license.”
Obituary
Lupe Neudecker, a former administrator at Los Alamos National Laboratory, died Oct. 8 in Albuquerque, N.M. at age 94, according to an online obituary.
Neudecker volunteered at the Los Alamos Historical Museum, and after she and her husband retired they split time between Los Alamos and Albuquerque.
