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 & Deterrence Monitor since late March.
There were 33 active cases at deadline Friday for NS&D Monitor, down from 41 active cases the week before, an NNSA spokesperson wrote in an email. The spokesperson did not say whether any of last week’s active cases were non-NNSA Energy Department employees.
The semiautonomous NNSA did not explain why it had previously counted cases in other sections of its parent agency.
Since a test in Washington state confirmed in January that the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus had reached U.S. shores, 60 NNSA employees have recovered from their confirmed cases, the agency spokesperson said.
The NNSA and its eight major sites — weapons labs, production plants, and the Nevada National Security Site — have not shared for months any COVID-19 data beyond confirmed positive cases. Sites typically require two-week quarantines for symptomatic workers, and for anyone who might have come into contact with such people before the onset of symptoms.
That has led to absenteeism numbers far greater than the number of confirmed infections. However, the agency has so far not quantified the effect, nor said whether it has delayed any ongoing weapons modernization or infrastructure construction programs.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California reported a total of 10 confirmed cases this week, up two from eight cases the week before, a spokesperson said.
The Sandia National Laboratories has 18 cases of COVID-19, including 14 cases in Albuquerque, N,M., and four in Livermore, Calif., up from 11 in Albuquerque and still four in Livermore last week, a spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico could not be reached for comment this week. The lab previously reported 11 confirmed cases.
Employees reporting to work at Los Alamos must submit to COVID-19 tests, if asked to take one. The lab is the only NNSA facility that has said it has a mandatory testing program. Los Alamos had performed around 1,200 COVID-19 tests, as of last week.
Sandia can also test for COVID-19 and had processed more than 1,300 employee tests, as of Friday. However, Sandia “does not have any plans to require employees to participate in mandatory COVID-19 testing,” a spokesperson said Friday.
The main NNSA production sites continued to bring people in for hands-on nuclear weapons work all throughout the now-relaxed national lockdown. At deadline, the Y-12 National Security Campus in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, both were back to normal operations with maximum telework, meaning anyone who can work remotely is doing so. Everyone else can report to the site.
Pantex normally has about 3,500 workers on-site, while Y-12 normally has about 6,000 personnel, including the construction workers building the Uranium Processing Facility. Construction of that next-generation manufacturing hub for nuclear-weapon secondary stages continues throughout the pandemic response in staggered shifts.
The NNSA has said it remains on track to finish building the new uranium facility at Oak Ridge by December 2025, although prime contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security now will leave the site years before that. The NNSA announced this week it would not renew the Bechtel National-led company’s contract to manage Y-12 and Pantex. The current management contract expires Sept. 30, 2021.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City National Security Campus in Kansas City, Mo., was at last communication in limited operations: a status defined by NNSA headquarters as one where “some normal operations have curtailed – either to proactively preserve resources for essential operations, or in recognition that it would be difficult to back away from certain operations quickly or safely if the situation changes.”
Last week, a Kansas City spokesperson told the Monitor that “[t]hrough the hard work and dedication of our workforce, [the site] has continued to meet mission requirements” during the pandemic response.
Spokespersons for the Kansas City National Security Campus could not be reached for comment this week. The production sites have not released their individual positive case counts.
The Nevada National Test Site transitioned into Phase 2 of its reopening plan on June 15. The former Nevada Test Site, which still hosts explosive subcritical plutonium experiments, has not said exactly how many people were supposed to return to work at the sprawling desert campus during this phase. However, the site’s plan is modeled after the broader Department of Energy’s return-to-work plan; in that scheme, Phase 2 involves the return of more support services contractors.
COVID-19 Cases in NNSA Host Regions
Following is Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s weekly digest of confirmed COVID-19 cases, including fatal cases, in the host cities and counties of NNSA nuclear weapons sites.
The figures below are the cumulative cases recorded since the first confirmed U.S. instance of COVID-19 in January.
Data come from a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and from select states, counties, and cities, where noted. The Monitor tracks weekly changes, using the latest data available at deadline, which is sometimes current as of the Thursday before publication.
Testing figures report the number of aggregate tests, not the number of people tested.
Kansas City, Mo. – Kansas City National Security Campus
The city so far has a total of 2,162 total confirmed cases and 31 deaths, up from 1,831 confirmed cases and 28 deaths last week. The city recorded over 150 more new confirmed cases this week than it recorded last week.
Statewide instances of new cases surged this week, with Missouri registering more than 19,700 confirmed cases and 996 total deaths, up from 17,400 15,707 confirmed cases and 948 deaths a week ago. There were some 600 more new cases reported statewide this week than last week. That roughly doubled the rate of growth in new cases from one week to the next.
More than 297,000 tests had been performed statewide, at deadline Friday, from 218,600 a week ago.
Missouri was among the first states to reopen businesses that shuttered for months to slow the spread of COVID-19, and to relax restrictions on the size of gatherings.
New Mexico – NNSA Albuquerque, Albuquerque; Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos
New Mexico had nearly 11,200 confirmed total cases and 485 deaths at deadline, up sharply from 10,153 cases and 456 total deaths a week ago. There were over 1,000 more new confirmed cases reported this week, compared with last week.
Bernalillo County, near Albuquerque and Sandia, had about 1,937 confirmed positive cases and 85 deaths at deadline, up from about 1,740 cases and 81 deaths last week. There were around 100 more new cases confirmed this week than last week.
More than 308,000 tests had been performed in New Mexico, rising from about 275,500 a week ago and 245,500 the week before that, according to the state and the Johns Hopkins tracker.
Los Alamos County had seven confirmed cases, flat compared with the week before. In the two months prior to last week, Los Alamos held steady at six cases.
Cases in some of the counties surrounding Los Alamos rose again this week, though not dramatically, and at a rate of increase about the same as last week’s.
Sandoval County had about 700 confirmed cases and 29 deaths at deadline, up from 656 confirmed cases and 27 deaths a week ago. Sandoval has a worse outbreak than any other county near Los Alamos, but the spread has slowed in June.
Taos County this week had 37 confirmed cases and one death, the first in the county so far confirmed from COVID-19. That is up from 33 cases last week. Rio Arriba had 89 cases and one death, no change from last week. Santa Fe, N.M., south of Los Alamos, had 206 confirmed total cases, up from 184 confirmed a week ago. Santa Fe’s fatal cases held steady at three for a fifth consecutive week.
Oak Ridge, Tenn., Anderson County – Y-12 National Security Complex
There were at deadline 81 confirmed cases and two deaths in Anderson County, Tenn., which includes the Y-12 National Security Complex. That is up from 69 confirmed cases a week ago, with no new deaths.
There were at deadline around 38,034 confirmed total cases and 567 total deaths statewide, up from 32,800 cases and 509 deaths a week ago. There were some 1,500 more new cases confirmed in Tennessee this week than there were last week.
About 727,500 tests had been performed in the state at deadline, up from 652,394 last week and 535,300 the week before, according to the state and the Johns Hopkins tracker.
Livermore, Calif., Alameda County – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (including Sandia, Calif.)
In Alameda County, near the Livermore lab, there were as of this week almost 5,400 confirmed cases and 128 total deaths at deadline, up from about 4,600 confirmed cases and 117 deaths a week ago. The number of new cases this week was around 400 higher than the number of new cases last week.
California, the largest and most populous state in the union, had more than 200,000 confirmed cases and 5,806 total deaths at deadline, compared with about 167,200 confirmed cases and 5,365 total deaths a week ago. There were over 9,000 more new confirmed cases in California this week than there were last week.
There have been nearly 3.7 million total tests performed in California, up from about 3 million last week and 2.6 million the week before that.
Aiken, S.C., Aiken County – Savannah River Site
Cases at the Savannah River Site itself again increased this week, and Aiken had about 30 more confirmed new cases over last week. Cases are spiking statewide in South Carolina, another early reopener. Since Memorial Day, new confirmed cases had by deadline risen by more than 18,000, compared with an increase of about 5,300 in the 32-day period preceding the holiday.
Aiken had around 314 confirmed cases at deadline Friday, with nine deaths. That’s up from about 250 cases and eight deaths a week ago.
The Savannah River Site itself had confirmed 52 total cases of COVID-19, up from 42 a week ago. At deadline Friday, a total of 37 site personnel who previously tested positive had recovered.
Statewide, South Carolina had 29,022 confirmed cases and 693 total confirmed deaths this week, up from about 21,533 confirmed cases and 621 deaths last week. The number of new cases confirmed this week was nearly 6,000 higher than the number of new cases confirmed last week.
There had been more than 333,000 tests performed in South Carolina as of deadline, up from about 280,523 a week ago and 230,057 the week before that.
Amarillo, Texas, including Potter and Randall counties – Pantex Plant
Cases soared week to week in Texas, one of the first states to end widespread social distancing and business closures. In May, cases spiked in the two big counties near the NNSA’s main nuclear weapons service center. The surge tapered off in June, but so has the number of new tests performed in the counties lately.
The Amarillo-area counties had a combined total of 3,675 cases and 45 deaths at deadline: 2,854 cases and 39 deaths in Potter; 771 cases and still six deaths in Randall, according to the Amarillo Public Health Department.
Last week at this time, the counties had a combined 3,590 cases and 45 deaths: 2,819 cases and 39 deaths for Potter, and 771 cases and six deaths in Randall.
The number of new cases this week was around 26 higher than last week, when the counties confirmed 240 fewer cases than the week before that.
The two counties had at deadline combined for 23,012 tests performed, apparently a downward revision from last week’s level of 23,640, which was up from 19,621 the week before that, according to the Amarillo health department.
The Pantex Plant, although within a stone’s throw of the Potter County line, is a federal property surrounded on three sides by the sparsely populated Carson County, which itself has reported only six confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Texas-wide, there were nearly 135,000 total confirmed cases and 2,317 total deaths, up dramatically from more than 101,500 cases and 2,132 total deaths last week. The number of new cases confirmed this week was more than 14,000 higher than the number of new cases confirmed the week before. The rate of growth in new cases about doubled, week to week, according to Johns Hopkins and the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
The state performed fewer new tests this week, too, with 1.6 million tests done in Texas at deadline. That is up from 1.4 million last week, and 1.1 million the week before that, according to the state and the Hopkins tracker.
Nevada – Nevada National Security Site
There were 75 confirmed cases in Nye County, Nev., near the northwestern perimeter of the former Nevada Test Site, up two from 72 a week ago. Nye County has had two fatal cases of COVID-19 at deadline, level with a week ago. There were five fewer new cases this week than last, for the county.
In Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County, which have most of the state’s cases and deaths, there were more than 11,878 cases and 405 deaths, up from around 9,852 cases and 390 total deaths last week. There were about 490 more new cases reported this week than the week before, according to the Hopkins tracker, which nevertheless marked a slowdown in the rate of growth of new cases, week-to-week.
Statewide, Nevada had nearly 14,859 cases and 495 deaths, up from 12,581 cases and 478 total deaths a week ago. The number of new cases recorded this week was higher by almost 400 than the number of new cases recorded the week before. There had been more than 255,500 tests performed in Nevada, as of deadline, up from about 230,000 a week ago and 193,254 tests a week before that, according to the state and the Johns Hopkins tracker.
Nationwide
There were at deadline 124,424 confirmed fatal cases of COVID-19 domestically, up 5,905 from 118,519 confirmed deaths last week, according to the Hopkins tracker.
The increase in fatal cases this week was higher than last week, when the Hopkins tracker showed around 4,600 new virus deaths — a slight dip from the week before that.
Fatalities lag new cases, which are on the rise. However, at press time, COVID-19 deaths had fallen by thousands, compared with the 10,000 new fatalities recorded week to week a little more than a month ago.
The U.S. has long been, and remains, the most infected nation on Earth, with more than 2.4 million confirmed cases, which is around 200,000 more than a week ago.
Since confirmation that the outbreak had hit the U.S., more than 660,000 people domestically had recovered from their bouts with COVID-19, making for more than 60,000 recoveries week-to-week, at deadline. There had been nearly 29 million tests performed in the U.S., up from 25 million a week ago, and up from 22 million the week before that.
