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"The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that it has removed contaminated excess machine tools at Sandia National Laboratories in California under a low-cost plan that saved taxpayers millions by forging an innovative partnership with an outside vendor. "After overcoming several disposition challenges, we successfully executed a strategy that resulted in significant savings to NNSA and American taxpayers," said Randal S. Scott, Deputy Associate Administrator for Infrastructure and Environment. "The removal of the contaminated tools at Sandia California is another example of NNSA's commitment to turning a Cold War-era nuclear weapons complex into a 21st century nuclear security enterprise." Sandia California's Building 979 housed machine tools that had been used to support a wide array of research and development projects since the early 1990s. That work was completed in recent years, resulting in a determination that the tools were no longer needed by the Department of Energy and NNSA and could be disposed of as excess. "

From the early days of nuclear stockpiling to new focuses on cyberprotection in the Digital Age, Sandia National Laboratories has played a vital role in national security for 60 years, local, state and federal leaders acknowledged Thursday. The 60th birthday of the Albuquerque, N.M.-based facility, which includes the Livermore campus, was marked with a commemorative ceremony that drew representatives from the Department of Energy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office, the United States Congress and the state Legislature. For many, it was a rare glimpse into the birthplace of myriad science-based technologies over the past six decades. Lab Director Tom Hunter spoke at the event, commenting on the changes that have occurred since May 13, 1949 - the date then-President Harry Truman called for the operation of Sandia Laboratory in a letter to AT&T.

From the early days of nuclear stockpiling to new focuses on cyberprotection in the Digital Age, Sandia National Laboratories has played a vital role in national security for 60 years, local, state and federal leaders acknowledged Thursday. The 60th birthday of the Albuquerque, N.M.-based facility, which includes the Livermore campus, was marked with a commemorative ceremony that drew representatives from the Department of Energy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office, the United States Congress and the state Legislature. For many, it was a rare glimpse into the birthplace of myriad science-based technologies over the past six decades. Lab Director Tom Hunter spoke at the event, commenting on the changes that have occurred since May 13, 1949 - the date then-President Harry Truman called for the operation of Sandia Laboratory in a letter to AT&T.

"The NNSA announced last week that it had gotten rid of some contaminated "excess tools" at Sandia National Labs in California under a "low-cost plan" that saved taxpayers about $4 million -- the cost of disposing of the equipment at the Nevada Test Site. The savings came about because an Oak Ridge company -- Toxco Materials Management Center -- agreed to take title to Sandia's hot tools, with plans to clean them up and sell them."

If your kid accidentally blew apart a building, would you give them less supervision? This hands-off approach is exactly what the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is doing by giving the contractors who manage the nation's eight nuclear weapons sites (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Sandia National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, Pantex, Y-12, and the Kansas City Plant) a six-month break from many regularly scheduled oversight reviews.

If your kid accidentally blew apart a building, would you give them less supervision? This hands-off approach is exactly what the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is doing by giving the contractors who manage the nation's eight nuclear weapons sites (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Sandia National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, Pantex, Y-12, and the Kansas City Plant) a six-month break from many regularly scheduled oversight reviews.

"Official says he headed review of project A member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has disqualified himself from an upcoming key vote on the Yucca Mountain repository, saying he may have a conflict. George Apostolakis, a former nuclear science and engineering professor, disclosed he headed a panel that conducted a review on the nuclear waste project from March 2007 to March 2008 for Sandia National Laboratories, the lead science agency at Yucca Mountain. For that reason, he said in a statement Thursday, "I have concluded that I should recuse myself." The commission is expected to rule this summer whether the Department of Energy should be allowed to terminate licensing for a project it no longer wants to build. A panel of law judges within the NRC has decided that DOE cannot end the Nevada project unilaterally. The commission, which is the nuclear safety agency's ruling body, will determine whether that decision should be upheld or reversed. Apostolakis was one of three commissioners who had been urged to step aside on the Yucca Mountain vote, but for another reason."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released today a publication that provides new insights into how best to protect the public during a nuclear power plant accident. The publication is based on the results of focus groups and telephone surveys conducted in the Emergency Planning Zones (EPZs) around reactor sites. The data will help the NRC review its regulations and guidance related to emergency preparedness and determine if changes need to be considered to existing protective action strategies. Focus groups were used in 2007 to collect information that guided the development of the phone survey. The phone survey was administered in 2008 by Sandia National Laboratories, under contract to the NRC, to approximately 2,500 households randomly selected in order to obtain 800 completed, anonymous surveys.

A study scheduled to be presented at a meeting of the Nevada Test Site Community Advisory Board May 6 shows the maximum possible exposure to a normal shipment of radioactive material -- from a truck parked at a rest area -- would be one-sixth the ordinary background radiation level in Nevada for a whole year. Ruth Weiner, with Sandia National Labs, will present an assessment of the risks of exposure to shipments of radioactive material to the CAB at 6 p.m., May 6 at the Bob Ruud Community Center. She is part of a program named RADTRAN.

"Realizing that there is mounting doubt on the Hill in the wisdom of spending billions of dollars on four new buildings for the creation of new components for nuclear weapons, the directors of three national laboratories are going on the offensive. As Politico reports, the directors of Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories have challenged the findings, and frankly, the credibility, of one of the most independent and respected technical expert groups, JASON. Last year, JASON found that the life of the nation's nuclear warheads, including plutonium pits and HEU (highly enriched uranium) secondaries, can be extended safely and certifiably for decades without replacement."

John Fleck at the Albuqeurque Journal's blog noted an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that says that switching over control of national labs to the Department of Defense could have an adverse effect on the caliber of scientists who could be brought in to the labs for their research. Some experts who have studied or worked with the labs fear that change could reduce the quality of research. "They've already made it much harder for themselves to attract good people," said Hugh Gusterson, a professor of anthropology and sociology at George Mason University who has spent years studying the culture of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, talking about the management changes. A further shift, he said, "will just compound the difficulty."