Connect with us

Politics

NNSA starts to chip away at its technical debt

Published

5 months ago

on

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s technology hasn’t kept pace with its mission demands.
This lack of investment has created a backlog of technology needs.

But now, the agency is trying to close its technology gap, said Jaime Wolff, the associate administrator for Information Management and chief information officer for NNSA.

Jaime Wolff is the CIO of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

“We should have been making many of these investments in technology over the past seven years, but we’re doing it today. That’s a huge differentiator,” Wolff said at the recent AFCEA Bethesda Energy, Infrastructure and Environment (EIE) Summit, an excerpt of which played on Ask the CIO. “We have to make those investments. Our systems and machines have to be supportive of the mission. As that mission expands, we have to be there to support them, and that’s we’re furious doing that right now. One of our top priorities is IT modernization, simply for that reason.”

Years of underinvestment by the NNSA has impacted not just technology but also buildings, roads and labs too.

For fiscal 2025, NNSA requested just under $25 billion, a 13% increase over 2024. As part of that increase, NNSA wanted $3.3 billion for infrastructure and operations, a 27% increase over 2024.

But with the full-year continuing resolution now in place, some of those investments remain in limbo.

Wolff, who spoke at the event before the Congress finalized the CR, said NNSA made some progress in 2024 and had big plans for 2025 and beyond.

“A lot of our sites are doing enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization projects. Many of those ERPs were implemented about 25 years ago. So as we get into that, that’s just indicative of how the entire organization is. Unfortunately, I’d say the same holds true for most federal agencies,” he said. “We have this giant backlog of technology that needs refreshed, and we’re in it. We’re driving really hard. If you just look at the core infrastructure in the ground, you have incredible requirement to update that infrastructure. When we have a 10-gigabit connection to a site, that really needs to be 400 or 500 gigabits because, in a modern environment, we are cloud-based across all networks and we need to be able to move data efficiently from one site to the next,” Wolff said. “That’s just one simple area but it’s true across every function that we have.”

Innovation at Sandia

At Sandia National Lab, John Zepper, executive director for information and security engineering and CIO, is addressing a similar technical debt challenge by crowdsourcing ideas from staff members.

He said through an internal platform, Sandia received over 1,100 ideas to save money and go faster in less than a month.

“We started tracking those. We saved almost $47 million just by looking at those ideas. These are people who are so passionate about fixing something it’s not even theirs. So just getting this innovation, which I also credit Jamie and Steven [McAndrews, NNSA deputy CIO] around, we have to be more efficient,” Zepper said. “We have to do it faster. We have to do it less expensive. We just started tracking that, and it’s been fantastic just to see the dynamics that it changes.”

He said the best idea of the month receives a “championship belt” as a way to add some fun and friendly competition to the effort.

“They wear it over their shoulder, like a heavyweight boxer. These are the things that when you have leadership that’s willing to take some risk, to go faster and to save money, that’s just right,” Zepper said.

One example of an idea that came from staff members is a better way to fix satellites after they have been launched into space.

“What if you could put a protective barrier around that satellite that could be upgraded from the ground? Then you write a translator into the hardware of the satellite and now you can upgrade that for 20-30 years,” Zepper said. “The cost of that and the savings are phenomenal, because you can redo that protective barrier over and over and over again.”

Reducing cyber tools

Along with innovation, Zepper said another top priority is digital engineering.

He said the agency uses digital twins, which provide a master design that can be analyzed and refined for innovation.

“You can run analysis on that model. You can take subsets of that and send it to Kansas City to be built or prototyped. The savings there alone could be fantastic, but if you have an authoritative source and you’re using that for digital engineering, there’s many, many things that can go faster,” he said. “You can be more efficient. You can try more designs. You can use data analytics to look at tolerances around your where you’re drilling holes, and look at the whether or not you have structural issues there. We are investing heavily in that area. We we’re trying to come up with a new format that’s neutral, that you can share those particular analysis and designs.”

Unlike Sandia, Wolff’s focus remains on improving the legacy infrastructure.

He said around zero trust and cybersecurity, NNSA plans to consolidate and maximize the number of tools it’s using.

“Those tools are offered across NNSA. Some are mandatory and some of them are shared across other parts of Department of Energy. Those tools need optimized, and that is incredibly important,” Wolff said. “We need to fully deploy them and take advantage of all the capability within them. How do we best use those tools? That’s going to be a long, large project because we really are talking a massive portfolio, both from a money perspective, but the number of machines that it’s touching.”

NNSA currently has 15 cybersecurity tools and is spending over $100 million on them.

Outside of cyber, Wolff said two other big priorities are deploying business tools, such as case management for human resources and customer relationship management applications, and expanding their support for the use of artificial intelligence.

The post NNSA starts to chip away at its technical debt first appeared on Federal News Network.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

Victor Reacts: This Is Almost Too Stupid to Be True – NYC Transgender Homeless Shelter (VIDEO)

Published

21 hours ago

on

August 9, 2025

By

Democrats continue to somehow subvert the lowest of expectations as they fight their woke crusades.

In a first ever virtue signal, New York City is set to open a transgender only homeless shelter.

The Gateway Pundit reported,

The city of New York is opening the nation’s first transgender-only homeless shelter.

The shelter, a partnership between a local LGBTQ nonprofit and the city government, will cost the city an extraordinary $65 million and will be the first transgender homeless shelter in the nation.

“ We’ve watched so many other corporations and foundations and businesses just like completely turn their back on the community and the city didn’t do it,” said Sean Ebony Coleman, founder and CEO of Destination Tomorrow, the nonprofit that will manage the shelter for the city.

“The city is keeping in line with what New York City has always been, a sanctuary city, a safe haven, but more importantly, a trendsetter when it comes to LGBTQ rights.”

The opening comes amid a broader homelessness crisis in New York City, where more than 100,000 people are estimated to be without stable housing on any given night.

The city’s shelter system is already stretched thin, with demand rising due to a combination of economic hardship, an influx of illegal aliens ,and a severe shortage of affordable housing.

Who cares about all the other homeless people in New York City each night, the transgender homeless come first.

Truth has become stranger than parody. With any luck, Democrats will continue down this path of self destruction that has been so thoroughly rejected by the American people.

The post Victor Reacts: This Is Almost Too Stupid to Be True – NYC Transgender Homeless Shelter (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Politics

Suspect in Deadly Montana Bar Shooting Captured After a Weeklong Manhunt

Published

21 hours ago

on

August 9, 2025

By

A weeklong manhunt has come to a close with the apprehension of Michael Paul Brown, a 45-year-old Army veteran, following a fatal mass shooting at The Owl Bar in Anaconda.

On August 1, 2025, at approximately 10:30 a.m., Brown entered The Owl Bar, where he lived next door, and opened fire with a rifle, killing four local residents: bartender Nancy Lauretta Kelley (64) and patrons Daniel Edwin Baillie (59), David Allen Leach (70), and Tony Wayne Palm (74).

A multi-agency effort, including state law enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, and federal resources, scoured the mountainous terrain surrounding Anaconda. Helicopters, K9 units, and tactical teams were deployed across the region.

A reward of $7,500 to $10,000 was offered for information leading to Brown’s capture.

On Friday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte confirmed Brown’s arrest via social media, acknowledging the rapid and resolute law enforcement response.

“The Anaconda shooter Michael Brown has been apprehended. Incredible response from law enforcement officers across Montana. Thank you to all partners for your commitment to the search. May God continue to be with the families of the four victims still grieving their loss,” Gianforte.

CNN reported:

Brown had been on the run since the “biggest” shooting in the state of Montana in a decade. He was arrested around 2 p.m. local time Friday near the search area in Anaconda and is now in the custody of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County authorities, according to the Montana Department of Justice.

Brown, an Army veteran, was seen on security footage fleeing The Owl Bar, where the fatal shooting occurred, investigators said. Since then, he had been sought by authorities representing at least 38 local, state and federal agencies traversing challenging terrain in the western Montana wilderness.

“I am proud of the unrelenting law enforcement effort this week to find and arrest Michael Paul Brown. The support we’ve seen for the community of Anaconda from across the state and the nation has also been remarkable,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a statement following the arrest. “The families and friends of the victims remain in my prayers.”

[…]

Brown served as an armor crewman in the US Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005, Lt. Col. Ruth Castro, a spokesperson with the US Army, previously told CNN.

Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, previously told CNN he struggled with his mental health during his time in the Army and was never the same after his service. Brown’s mental health got progressively worse with the passing of both of his parents, Boyle said.

The post Suspect in Deadly Montana Bar Shooting Captured After a Weeklong Manhunt appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Politics

WATCH: Fire Ravages World-Famous Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba, Spain

Published

21 hours ago

on

August 9, 2025

By

Fire breaks out in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Cordoba.

More than a tourist attraction, more than an architectural treasure, the Mosque-Cathedral in the Andalusian city of Cordoba, Spain is a historical monument and a spiritual center – so, all around the world, both the faithful and the history lovers are mourning as a massive fire consumes the building complex.

Newsweek reported:

“Firefighters are responding to the blaze at the major tourist attraction and UNESCO-listed heritage site in Andalusia. Footage shows thick smoke billowing out from the millennia-old building as flames lapped at its roof.

Firefighters from the city of Córdoba are still battling to extinguish the fire at the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba but local reports say the blaze is mostly contained as of 10 p.m. local time. The extent of damage is not yet clear.”

Being simultaneously one of the most significant buildings both in Islamic and in Christian architectural history, it began as a grand mosque in the 8th century and was transformed into a cathedral in 1236.

“The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, officially called the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, was built as a mosque over 200 years starting 785 CE. The mosque opened in 988 CE, and remained a Muslim site for nearly 300 years before the Christian conquest of Cordoba in 1236 CE.

The structure converted to a cathedral, undergoing additional modifications and building until one final, major addition in 1607 CE.”

Read more, from November 2024:

‘The Virgin of Paris’: Medieval Statue of the Virgin Mary With Baby Jesus, That Survived the 2019 Fire, Is Returned to the Notre Dame Cathedral Ahead of December Grand Reopening

The post WATCH: Fire Ravages World-Famous Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba, Spain appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Trending