Several projects at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratories were among the winners last week of R&D Magazine 2016 R&D 100 Awards. The awards honor 100 innovative technologies from the past year.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California won an award for its GLO Transparent Ceramic Scintillator, which involves the nondestructive imaging of the 3D volume of complex objects. The technology, developed for the lab’s Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate, was funded by the directorate’s Enhanced Surveillance Program as part of the NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program to study the effects of aging on nuclear-weapon materials.
Another Lawrence Livermore winner was the Polyelectrolyte Enabled Liftoff (PEEL) project, which is conducted at the lab’s National Ignition Facility for the fabrication of thin membranes used as load-bearing elements for laser targets.
The Sandia National Laboratories also won for its UXI project, the fastest multiframe digital X-ray camera in the world, which Sandia said could be used for inertial confinement fusion experiment diagnostics. Another award winner was Sandia’s Pyomo v4.1, a project featuring software for the formulation and analysis of mathematical models.
Other recipients of R&D 100 awards included the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Entropy Engine, a computer hardware system for cybersecurity; Sandia’s stress-induced fabrication of functionally designed nanomaterials; and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications, done in conjunction with Los Alamos, Sandia, and other partners, which provides nuclear simulation tools to improve nuclear reactor operation.
NNSA Extends Technical Support Services Contract with TechSource
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Planning and Programming will extend for three months its contract with TechSource Inc. for technical support services, according to a notice posted Tuesday.
The modification extends the expiration of the current task order from Nov. 12, 2016, to Feb. 12, 2017, and adds $611,372.70 to the current ceiling price of $5.2 million, the notice said. TechSource will offer advisory services in areas including U.S. nuclear weapons policy; Defense Department and Nuclear Weapons Council processes; armed services nuclear operations; Nuclear Posture Reviews, NNSA nuclear security enterprise infrastructure; and nuclear science and engineering.
Specifically, the company will support analyses of alternatives for NNSA’s lithium production, tritium production, and Los Alamos National Laboratory Technical Area TA-55 reinvestment and Plutonium Modular Approach projects. The notice said TechSource has provided subject matter expertise in these areas for 18 months, particularly for methodology and research into evaluating alternatives and developing corresponding briefing materials.
The NNSA in August extended another TechSource contract until Feb. 11, 2017, for support to the agency’s Office of Major Modernization Programs on information and data management, construction management, infrastructure and facilities management, and program capability-based investments.
NSTec Seeking Small Business for Staff Recruitment
National Security Technologies (NSTec), the management and operations contractor at the Nevada National Security Site, is seeking small business managed service providers to recruit technically capable staff and manage a supplier network at various sites across the United States, according to a sources sought solicitation posted last week.
The service provider will recruit staff in areas such as general business support, project management, engineering, safety basis, counterterrorism operations support, information technology, and radiological control, the solicitation said. The contractor uses roughly 200 staff augmentation personnel at any one time, it said. The personnel are needed for locations in Nevada, New Mexico, California, New York, and Maryland, for periods that range from one week to multiple years.
“NSTec is considering consolidating its current subcontracts to one 5-year subcontract with [a managed service provider] to obtain cost savings, efficiencies, and process improvements while providing a diverse pool of highly qualified and effective personnel,” the notice said. Interested parties should submit a response on their fulfillment of requirements and desired capabilities by Nov. 30 to [email protected].
From The Wires
From The Economist: President Trump and the nuclear codes.
From The National Interest: The U.S. Air Force wants to “cyber secure” its nuclear weapons.
From the BBC: A U.S. nuclear weapon lost in the 1950s may have been found.
