Stockpile Stewardship

Texas A&M University will manage a low-energy nuclear science center for the National Nuclear Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)  using a five-year, $10-million grant announced Thursday. With the grant, the College State-based university will operate the Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training and University-based Research (CENTAUR): a project that combines experimental and theoretical physics initiatives to “measure […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) stuck to its guns that it does not need to conduct further environmental reviews for its plan to perform bigger explosive tests nearby the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, a Thursday regulatory filing shows. “[A]fter considering all comments received, DOE NNSA has determined that the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants to perform larger explosive tests to support nuclear arms-maintenance and counterrorism research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to a Nov. 3 regulatory filing. The 65-year-old nuclear weapons research facility in Livermore, Calif., wants to increase the size of the non-nuclear explosive tests it is allowed to […]

Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame have received $27.5-million worth of Department of Energy grants to study high-energy physics potentially applicable to nuclear-weapon sustainment, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Tuesday. Cornell’s Multi-University Center of Excellence for Pulsed-Power-Driven High Energy Density Science will get $15-million to study high energy density plasmas from […]

Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame have received $27.5-million worth of Department of Energy grants to study high-energy physics potentially applicable to nuclear-weapon sustainment, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Tuesday. Cornell’s Multi-University Center of Excellence for Pulsed-Power-Driven High Energy Density Science will get $15-million to study high energy density plasmas from […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants to perform larger explosive tests to support nuclear arms-maintenance and counterrorism research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to a Nov. 3 regulatory filing. The 65-year-old nuclear weapons research facility in Livermore, Calif., wants to increase the size of the non-nuclear explosive tests it is allowed to […]

House and Senate negotiators charged with writing the final version of the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill plan to have their first formal meeting on Wednesday. While the session will occur behind closed doors, leaders of the House-Senate conference committee are scheduled to brief reporters beforehand. The House and Senate passed their versions of […]

General Atomics appeared a lock to once again win a contract, potentially worth more than $125 million over five years, to help the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) simulate conditions of a nuclear explosion. The San Diego-based company is the incumbent on the work under a nearly $150-million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract awarded in 2012 […]

General Atomics appeared a lock to once again win a contract, potentially worth more than $125 million over five years, to help the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) simulate conditions of a nuclear explosion. The San Diego-based company is the incumbent on the work under a nearly $150-million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract awarded in 2012 […]

At the prodding of a senior U.S. senator, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is working on a “thorough review” of its primary plutonium-pit production facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a spokesman for the semiautonomous Energy Department agency said Tuesday. In early August, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) — after reading […]

Amid fiery and furious fact-checking and blame-chucking in the general press over the credit President Donald Trump appeared to take for modernizing the U.S. nuclear deterrent, the National Nuclear Security Administration recently observed the 22nd anniversary of the White House prohibition on explosive nuclear-weapons testing. The steward of the national nuclear deterrent marked the milestone in […]

The Savannah River Site has conducted three tritium extractions in the current fiscal year, furthering the Department of Energy facility’s goal of providing the gas for the nation’s defense program. The DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Thursday that fiscal 2017 marks the first time the SRS Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) has conducted […]

A group of senators on Wednesday encouraged the U.S. secretaries of state, defense, and energy to implement a set of actions in the ongoing Nuclear Posture Review process meant to increase transparency and reinforce national nuclear policy positions. In a July 19 letter, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and 20 of their colleagues, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to extend its task order with TechSource Inc. for technical support services for the agency’s Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing and Institutional R&D Programs, according to a notice posted last week. The NNSA’s advanced simulation office provides technical guidance to create and manage computational modeling and simulation capabilities […]

Two senior Democrats in the House of Representatives have asked the Government Accountability Office to study the need for a new nuclear warhead that would be manufactured to fit onto both ICBMs and sea-launched ballistic missiles. At issue is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s first “interoperable warhead,” or IW-1, which would replace the land-based W78 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to extend its task order with TechSource Inc. for technical support services for the agency’s Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing and Institutional R&D Programs, according to a notice posted last week. The NNSA’s advanced simulation office provides technical guidance to create and manage computational modeling and simulation capabilities […]

The Nuclear Threat Initiative has named former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz its new chief executive officer and co-chairman of its Board of Directors. Moniz, a Ph.D. physicist, served under the Barack Obama administration as head of the Department of Energy from 2013 to 2017. He left his position upon the inauguration of President […]

The Trump administration is reconsidering every piece of U.S. nuclear arms policy – even the broad end goal of global nuclear disarmament – in its upcoming Nuclear Posture Review, a senior National Security Council official said Tuesday. “We’re being encouraged . . . to do a real honest-to-God, bottom-up review, to rethink things from the […]

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter Tuesday to the secretaries of defense and energy to express their opposition to recent recommendations made by the Defense Science Board on low-yield nuclear weapons and full-scale nuclear testing. The letter, penned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and 12 other lawmakers, highlights a December report by the independent […]

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter Tuesday to the secretaries of defense and energy to express their opposition to recent recommendations made by the Defense Science Board on low-yield nuclear weapons and full-scale nuclear testing. The letter, penned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and 12 other lawmakers, highlights a December report by the independent […]

Members of the Defense Science Board suggested Thursday that the United States keep its options open for someday enhancing the mission of the nuclear enterprise with activities including design competitions, resumed nuclear testing, and lower-yield warheads. The Defense Science Board is an independent expert advisory committee for the secretary of defense that currently has 46 […]

The United States and Russia can work together to address global nonproliferation and nuclear security threats even if bilateral relations remain tense, according to Ambassador Linton Brooks, former head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. In a Monday interview with NS&D Monitor, the veteran nuclear security expert noted that President Donald Trump has regularly […]

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up on news affecting the U.S. nuclear deterrent during […]

Rick Perry, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of energy, said during his confirmation hearing Thursday with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that he would work alongside Congress to address the cost of the U.S. nuclear modernization program. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) noted that the current plan to modernize each leg of the […]

The Sandia National Laboratories’ Weapons Evaluation Test Laboratory (WETL) reached its testing baseline for just four of eight U.S. nuclear weapons systems over a three-year period, the Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office said in a report Monday. The primary culprit was unanticipated equipment downtime, along with a new safety program and a change in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has issued a request for quote (RFQ) for a technical, engineering, and programmatic services blanket purchase agreement through which it expects to make multiple contract awards. The RFQ is open to General Services Administration Professional Services Schedule holders that will support offices across the NNSA, as well as Department of […]

The Sandia National Laboratories’ Weapons Evaluation Test Laboratory (WETL) reached its testing baseline for four of eight U.S. nuclear weapons systems over a three-year period, the Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office said in a report Monday. The primary culprit was unanticipated equipment downtime, along with a new safety program and a change in the […]

The Department of Energy made significant advances in nuclear security and nonproliferation operations during the eight years of the Obama administration, as well as in cleaning up the legacy of its Cold War nuclear weapons operations, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Thursday in his Cabinet Exit Memo. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding “accelerated the […]

Sandia Corp. has received the highest marks among the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons labs in the agency’s newly released fiscal 2016 performance evaluations. Each national laboratory contractor was rated in six performance areas, each carrying a different weight, which were used to determine the award fees the contractor would receive for the […]

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, announced this week as the nominee to become energy secretary in the Donald Trump administration, would be responsible for a massive program to ensure the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, sparking debate about whether he is qualified for the role – and whether management skill and bureaucratic experience matter […]