Life Extension Programs

The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico said Wednesday it is evaluating data from a safety test of the U.S. B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb. In the March 9 trial, a B61-12 test unit was placed on a 10,000-foot rocket sled track that launched the fake but otherwise realistic device into a steel and concrete wall. The intent […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) B61-12 life-extension program management faces some issues with scheduling, risk mitigation, quality assurance, and reserve funding, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office (IG) found in a report released Tuesday. The report offered a number of recommendations to address the issues; the NNSA said some have already been resolved, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) B61-12 life-extension program management faces some issues with scheduling, risk mitigation, quality assurance, and reserve funding, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office (IG) found in a report released Tuesday. The report offered a number of recommendations to address the issues; the NNSA said some have already been resolved, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it has officially OK’d the production engineering phase of the B61-12 warhead life-extension program, marking the program’s entry into the final phase of development before production. This milestone follows four years of work in the development-engineering phase, the NNSA said, noting that the first production unit is […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it has officially OK’d the production engineering phase of the B61-12 warhead life-extension program, marking the program’s entry into the final phase of development before production. This milestone follows four years of work in the development-engineering phase, NNSA said, noting that the first production unit is expected […]

The Navy, in partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has completed approximately 70 percent of the production run of the W76-1 re-entry body refurbishment program, Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), said on June 23 at a Peter Huessy breakfast. SSP and NNSA are working to extend […]

The Navy, in partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has completed approximately 70 percent of the production run of the W76-1 re-entry body refurbishment program, Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), said Friday at a Peter Huessy breakfast. SSP and NNSA are working to extend the life […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has authorized irradiation of up to 5,000 tritium rods every 18 months using two Tennessee nuclear reactors, one of seven options it was considering to meet national security requirements. The semiautonomous Department of Energy branch said in a record of decision released Wednesday that it would implement its preferred […]

An essential part of the scaled-down plans for the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant’s Uranium Processing Facility is to extend the life of some existing production facilities at the Tennessee complex in order to reduce the costs of new construction and keep the project’s overall price tag at or below $6.5 billion. The focus of those […]

Interoperability requirements for the core of nuclear warheads under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) “3+2” modernization strategy may lead to trade-offs and complications for the U.S. nuclear stockpile, according to a report by the independent science advisory group JASON. The NNSA publicly released the executive summary of the January 2015 report this week. The […]

Nuclear arms life-extension program (LEP) schedule and scope changes drove the largest increase in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) budget estimates from fiscal 2015 to 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released last Friday. In its fiscal 2016 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, the NNSA’s weapons activities budget estimate over 25 years […]

Nuclear arms life-extension program (LEP) schedule and scope changes drove the largest increase in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) budget estimates from fiscal 2015 to 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released Friday. In its fiscal 2016 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, the NNSA’s weapons activities budget estimate over 25 years of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Friday announced that it had finished dismantling W69 warhead canned subassemblies at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. The W69, a warhead that topped short-range attack missiles, was pulled from the nuclear arsenal in 1992. All W69s had been disassembled by 1999, according to a press release. “The […]

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Frank Klotz on Wednesday lauded the Obama administration’s progress in modernizing the nation’s nuclear warheads and conducting nonproliferation activities worldwide. Speaking at the ExchangeMonitor Nuclear Deterrence Summit about the NNSA’s $12.9 billion budget request for fiscal 2017, Klotz noted that the proposal includes $222.9 million to complete production of the W76-1 warhead by fiscal 2019; $616.1 million to […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016 A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Thursday said that program management and integrated schedule systems might improve implementation of the B61-12 life-extension program (LEP) and called for an increase in the number of federal staff to better oversee progress. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Department of Defense […]

The Crane (Ind.) Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center has awarded Teradyne, Inc., of North Reading, Mass., a sole-source $25 million firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the purchase of Trident 2 D5 testers, spares, instrument calibration, software, cables, and engineering, technical, and factory support services, the Defense Department announced yesterday. The testers will […]

Y-12 Lithium Supply Could Run Dry, GAO Says The Y-12 National Security Complex could run out of the purified lithium needed to refurbish nuclear weapons components as early as 2018 if additional actions aren’t taken to replenish the supply of top-grade material, the GAO said in a report released Monday. The GAO report criticized the […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex could run out of the purified lithium needed to refurbish nuclear weapons components as early as 2018 if additional actions aren’t taken to replenish the supply of top-grade material, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Monday. The GAO report criticized the National Nuclear Security Administration for perhaps […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/10/2015 Pantex has resumed work on the B61 and W80 warhead programs after a “code blue” situation at the plant in early May sidelined operations on the programs for weeks, a Pantex spokesperson told NS&D Monitor this week. The NNSA Production Office (NPO) on June 1 issued two Safety Evaluation Reports […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/10/2015 The Air Force and National Nuclear Security Administration completed the first development flight test of the B61-12 gravity bomb at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada on July 1, according to a July 8 NNSA press release. “This test marks a major milestone for the B61-12 Life Extension Program, demonstrating end-to-end […]

The Air Force and National Nuclear Security Administration completed the first development flight test of the B61-12 gravity bomb at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada on July 1, according to a July 8 NNSA press release. “This test marks a major milestone for the B61-12 Life Extension Program, demonstrating end-to-end system performance under representative delivery […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office approved Consolidated Nuclear Security proposals to resume work on the B61 and W80 warhead programs after a “code blue” situation at Pantex in May sidelined operations on the programs for weeks, according to a recently released Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report, dated June 5. The […]

Safety analysis engineering personnel of the Pantex contractor are preparing a “justification for continued operations” after an “electrostatic discharge (ESD) scenario” involving Army-Navy containers prompted the National Nuclear Security Administration to on May 5 declare a “code blue” at Pantex that paused operations on a nuclear warhead program until at least May 29, according to […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 6/19/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed this week that it has lifted the “Code Blue” designation at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant, according to NNSA spokeswoman Shelley Laver. Laver said the Code Blue, which involved a “new hazard scenario” for the B61 and B80 weapons operations, was initiated on May […]

Details of the rarely implemented “Code Blue” order at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant have not been revealed, but the National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed Monday that the Code Blue designation has been lifted. NNSA spokeswoman Shelley Laver said the Code Blue, which involved a “new hazard scenario” for the B61 and B80 weapons operations, […]

Navy Strategic Systems Programs last week announced it will contract with Charles Stark Draper Laboratories to ensure Trident 2 Guidance Systems are sustained throughout their life cycle. Draper won a $257.8 million contract on March 7, 2013 to alter the missile’s guidance system as part of life extension work. Draper’s work will involve detailed analysis […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor  4/24/2015 House appropriators are concerned that a heavy workload on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program could endanger the agency’s modernization efforts. In the report accompanying the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, House appropriators said they were worried that the “aggressive” schedule for […]

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill yesterday, and while there is a slight cut for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, subcommittee chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said funding for the agency’s warhead life extension programs has been preserved. […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/13/2015 A decision to replace the conventional high explosive (CHE) in the W88 warhead as part of a planned alteration was largely driven by a “problem” with the warhead rather than timing and workforce issues, Nuclear Weapons Council Chairman Frank Kendall told the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee last week. […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 A decision by the Nuclear Weapons Council to “refresh” the conventional high explosives (CHE) in the W88 warhead as part of a previously planned replacement of the warhead’s arming, fuzing and firing mechanism will push back the completion of a First Production Unit on the Navy portion of a planned […]