International

The United States should deploy nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe as a response to increasing Russian aggression in Ukraine, two senior Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee said late last week in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry. Calling Russian suggestions that it intends to deploy nuclear […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project will not be impacted by the recent Russian decision to suspend cooperation with the United States on nuclear security work, National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Derrick Robinson said this week. Russia informed the United States in December that it was cancelling all nuclear […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists this week moved the minute hand of its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” two ticks closer to midnight, citing unchecked climate change and global nuclear weapons modernization. The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board announced Jan. 22 that it was moving the clock from 5 minutes to 3 […]

NMP Hopes For Continued Role at Sellafield After Contract Termination Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/23/2015 In the wake of the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s decision to take back management of the Sellafield site, Nuclear Management Partners said this week that it hopes it or its parent companies will continue to play a role at the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The U.S. should pay attention to its nuclear structure and nuclear relations with Russia, because “we do not want, above all, a nuclear war to erupt,” during a period which has seen Russian President Vladimir Putin invoke the threat of nuclear weapons while invading eastern Ukraine, former national security advisor […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The first of three Conference on Disarmament (CD) sessions scheduled for this year convened on Jan. 19 in Geneva with renewed optimism—though no concrete signs—that the international negotiating body can break a longstanding deadlock and move any disarmament discussions forward. Speaking at the CD on Jan. 20, Amb. Robert Wood, […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/23/2015 Two worker deaths have occurred over two days in separate incidents at the Fukushima Daii-chi cleanup site, the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced this week. The deaths brings the total work fatalities at the site to three in the past year after a worker died from falling rubble while […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/23/2015 Four more communities in the Northern Ontario-area have advanced in the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s assessment to locate a repository site for the nation’s high-level waste, the NWMO announced this week. The communities include the City of Elliot Lake, the Town of Blind River, and the Townships of […]

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at 11 a.m. today will host an international news conference to announce the decision of its Science and Security Board of whether to adjust the minute hand of the historic “Doomsday Clock,” created in 1947 to symbolize and communicate the urgency of nuclear dangers to international public and political leaders. […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 The head of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry this week said Russia could revise its commitment to bilateral nonproliferation and disarmament, including the New START Treaty, the main agreement governing U.S.-Russian bilateral nuclear arms reductions, because of what Russia deems “unfriendly” U.S. actions, […]

Two worker deaths have occurred the past two days in separate incidents at the Fukushima Daii-chi cleanup site, the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced yesterday. The deaths brings the total work fatalities at the site to three in the past year after a worker died from falling rubble while digging a ditch last March. The […]

The management changes underway at the U.K.’s Sellafield site will not impact the site’s current contracts and supply chain approach, a Sellafield Limited official said yesterday. Last week the U.K. government announced that it will terminate Nuclear Management Partners’ contract to run the site and ownership of site license company Sellafield Ltd. will revert from […]

Russia informed the United States in December that it was cancelling all nuclear security cooperation programs with the U.S., according to aBoston Globe article published yesterday. The decision, sparked by increased tensions between the two countries over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, ends a two-decade relationship that has seen the U.S. spend billions of dollars to […]

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) convened yesterday in Geneva, and will periodically meet until March 27, for its first of three sessions in 2015, to discuss issues including nuclear disarmament. NGOs and disarmament groups, such as Reaching Critical Will, have criticized the CD for its lack of action in recent years. In 2013, the CD […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 Echoing the Obama Administration’s current stance, an independent panel of national security experts on Jan. 14 reiterated its recommendation published last month in a State Department report that the U.S. should work to bring Russia back in compliance with the INF Treaty and not withdraw from the agreement in an […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/16/2015 Kurion received a contract to develop a robotic arm to repair reactor primary containment leaks at the Fukushima Daii-chi Nuclear Power Plant, the company said this week. The contract from IHI Corporation calls for Kurion to produce its robotic system, entitled the ‘Fukushima Repair Manipulator,’ for a targeted deployment […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/16/2015 After the U.K. government’s decision this week to terminate Nuclear Management Partners’ contract to manage Sellafield, the site will now seek a “strategic partner” in industry for a long-term agreement to aid cleanup work. Under the new plan announced this week, ownership of site license company Sellafield Ltd. will revert […]

Nuclear Management Partners’ performance at Sellafield has improved in the last year and the decision to terminate its contract was based on issues with the site’s management model, U.K. Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey told members of the U.K. Parliament Tuesday. This week the U.K. government decided to terminate NMP’s […]

Kurion has been awarded a contract to develop a robotic arm to repair reactor primary containment leaks at the Fukushima Daii-chi Nuclear Power Plant, the company announced today. The contract from IHI Corporation calls for Kurion to produce its robotic system, titled the ‘Fukushima Repair Manipulator,’ for a targeted deployment of mid-2016 within the Unit […]

Nuclear Management Partners is “surprised” at the decision by the U.K. government announced yesterday that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will take over management of the Sellafield site from NMP. Under the new plan, ownership of Sellafield Ltd. will revert from NMP to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority over a transition period expected to take 12 to […]

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will take over management of Sellafield cleanup from contractor Nuclear Management Partners, the U.K. government announced today. NMP, composed of URS (now owned by AECOM), Amec and AREVA, has managed the site since 2008 as owner of the site license company Sellafield, Ltd. However, site management has received strong criticism […]

A 2014 report of the International Security Advisory Board on the state of U.S.-Russia relations will be the subject of a discussion at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Wilson Center. The event includes Angela Stent, Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs and Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown […]

NDA Says It’s Close to Issuing Conclusion on Alternatives for Sellafield  Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/9/2015 The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said this week that it is in the final stages of reaching a conclusion on potential alternatives for an approach to cleanup work at Sellafield. The British Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has questioned the […]

The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is nearing a decision on potential alternatives for management of cleanup work at Sellafield, the NDA said yesterday. In the fall of 2013 the NDA decided to extend for five years five years URS-led Nuclear Management Partners’ contract to manage Sellafield cleanup, but noted that it could end the contract […]

The Tokyo Electric Power Company announced yesterday the completed transfer of spent fuel assemblies from the Fukushima Daii-chi Unit 4 spent fuel pool.  The company had announced in November that it moved 1,331 fuel assemblies to a centralized storage common pool meant to store the used fuel, but Unit 4 still held 180 unirridiated fuel […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/19/2014 Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller said Dec. 17 she thinks Russia’s nuclear modernization hitherto has been “judicious,” but underscored that the U.S. would urge Russia to consider the level of stability that would be provided by any rail-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles—technology that Russian media […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 12/19/2014 The Senate confirmed a pair of Obama Administration nuclear weapons and arms control nominees this week, clearing Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities Robert Scher and Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance Frank Rose before adjourning. But the wait for Scher and Rose was quite […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/19/2014 President Barack Obama is required to submit quarterly reports to Congress detailing whether it remains in the national security interests of the U.S. to remain committed to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as long as Russia remains in noncompliance with the agreement, according to the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, […]

Dounreay Site Completion Pushed Out Four Years Due to Addition of Scope Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 12/18/2014 The completion date for cleanup work at Scotland’s Dounreay site has been pushed out four years to 2029 due to added scope that includes the removal of all nuclear fuels, the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced this week. […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 12/19/2014 The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Limited, formerly known as Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, successfully entered into a collective agreement this week with close to 900 United Steelworkers members. The agreement enables the continued work through 2016 and 2017 of 884 union members across CNL sites, including Chalk River. The […]