Non-Proliferation

Editor’s Note 05/14/2019, 9:50 a.m. Eastern: the story was corrected to read that the U.K. shipped highly-enriched uranium to an undisclosed U.S. location. The United Kingdom has finished shipping 700 kilograms of excess highly enriched uranium to the United States from the former fast-reactor research site at Dounreay, Scotland, the U.S. and U.K. said Friday. The […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation office needs to end programs that have served their purpose, the head of that office told a panel of scientists here this week. “We know how to start a project, but we don’t know how to kill it,” Brent Park, NNSA deputy administrator for defense […]

CB&I AREVA MOX Services and a former subcontractor say they should not have to pay the $19.2 million the United States is seeking in a fraud lawsuit. In separate documents filed over the last week in federal court, the companies said they had no knowledge of alleged schemes to defraud the government during construction of […]

The State Department has kept the moribund U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) in a congressionally mandated annual report of arms-control compliance concerns. The agency expended some 80 words of the roughly 5,000-word Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments report to warn that Moscow’s 2016 supension of adherence to […]

A key figure in federal lawsuits involving weapon-usable plutonium moved last year to the Nevada National Security Sitehas retired from the Department of Energy, the agency confirmed this week. Henry Allen Gunter left DOE after a long federal career, a spokesperson for DOE’s Environmental Management Office at Savannah River confirmed in an email Tuesday. The […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation office needs to end programs that have served their purpose, the head of that office told a panel of scientists here Wednesday. “We know how to start a project, but we don’t know how to kill it,” Brent Park, NNSA deputy administrator for defense nuclear […]

CB&I AREVA MOX Services and a former subcontractor say they should not have to pay the $19.2 million the United States is seeking in a lawsuit. In separate documents filed in federal court, the companies said they had no knowledge of alleged schemes to defraud the government while working at the now-canceled plutonium recycling facility […]

A key figure in multiple federal lawsuits involving weapon-usable plutonium moved last year to the Nevada National Security Site from the Savannah River Site in South carolina has retired from the Department of Energy, the agency confirmed Tuesday. Henry Allen Gunter left DOE after a long federal career, a spokesperson for DOE’s Environmental Management Office […]

The State Department has kept the moribund U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) in a congressionally mandated annual report of arms-control compliance concerns. The agency expended some 80 words of the roughly 5,000-word Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments report to warn that Moscow’s 2016 supension of […]

The prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) sought and received a federal judge’s help Tuesday in ensuring that the rapidly downsizing company retains control of proprietary information at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. MOX Services has been shedding jobs since the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in October […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week revealed new details about its proposed dilute-and-dispose plan to eliminate 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium — including that the agency is close to beginning a yearlong environmental review of its new approach. The agency will release its draft dilute-and-dispose supplemental environmental impact statement “in the very […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday revealed new details about its proposed dilute-and-dispose plan to eliminate 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium — including that the agency is close to beginning a yearlong environmental review of its new approach. The agency will release its draft dilute-and-dispose supplemental environmental impact statement “in the very […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission blasted as unbalanced a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the small civilian agency should consider tighter regulation of nuclear material that terrorists could use in a radioactive dispersal device. In the report published April 4, the GAO said the NRC’s regulation of radioactive material storage should be stricter because of […]

The House Armed Services Committee should get access “in the very near term” to 810 authorizations the Department of Energy granted to still-unidentified U.S. companies to export nuclear-power technology to Saudi Arabia, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administrator (NNSA) said in congressional testimony. “The Department is moving aggressively to provide information and I […]

The contractor for the now-terminated MOX project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina tallied more than $54 million in cost overruns through “inadequate” management of its subcontract with North Carolina-based Intermech, according to a June 2017 assessment from the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The report further states that, […]

A court in the United Kingdom on Tuesday fined the government-owned entity that operates the Sellafield nuclear site £380,000 ($500,742) for a 2017 incident in which an employee was exposed to plutonium. Sellafield Ltd., owned by the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, pleaded guilty to violating the nation’s 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act. Along […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday defended the Donald Trump administration’s decision to pursue sales of U.S.-made nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia, including by granting seven unidentified companies approval to transfer some technology and expertise to the nation. On Wednesday, the Daily Beast reported, and Reuters confirmed, that the Department of Energy had granted […]

The Department of Energy said this week it has not yet decided whether to accept highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. There is no schedule for a decision to be made. While Germany would pay for the mission, the total cost and potential technology concerns are being […]

The head of U.S. Strategic Command this week again praised the advantages of a key treaty limiting the U.S. and Russia to 1,500 deployed strategic warheads, but said any follow-on accord should apply limits all other types of nuclear weapons. “We would like to have all nuclear weapons as part of a future strategic arms […]

The head of a House panel with oversight of U.S. nuclear weapons expressed hope Tuesday that the United States and Russia might be able to work together, in a post-Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty world, to prevent a nuclear standoff on NATO borders. Citing Russian noncompliance dating back about a decade, the Trump administration announced […]

Westinghouse got roped into a brewing political battle in Washington this week, when the Democratic-controlled House Oversight and Reform Committee ordered the White House to turn over records of the Donald Trump administration’s exploration of possible nuclear-power exports to Saudi Arabia. Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) directed the administration to by March 5 produce any records […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has ramped up downblending of a tranche of plutonium at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with work to increase further if the mission continues at a successful pace. In November, site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) increased operations to two 12-hour shifts per day, […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has ramped up downblending of a tranche of plutonium at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with work to increase further if the mission continues at a successful pace. In November, site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) increased operations to two 12-hour shifts per day, […]

Westinghouse got roped into a brewing political battle in Washington on Tuesday, when the Democratic-controlled House Oversight and Reform Committee ordered the White House to turn over records of the Donald Trump administration’s exploration of possible nuclear-power exports to Saudi Arabia. Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) ordered the administration to by March 5 produce any records […]

A second face-to-face between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was the biggest nuclear news of this week’s State of the Union address. From the dais in the House of Representatives, Trump told a joint session of Congress that he and Kim plan to meet Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam to continue […]

A planned second face-to-face between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was the biggest nuclear news of Tuesday’s State of the Union address. From the dais in the House of Representatives, Trump told a joint session of Congress that he and Kim plan to meet Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam to continue the […]

The United States would adopt an official policy not to start a war using nuclear weapons, under legislation announced Wednesday by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Democrat member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is mulling a presidential run. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the chamber’s Armed Services chair after […]

The United States will suspend its obligations under the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on Saturday, meaning it will be free to deploy missiles with a range of 310 miles to 3,100 miles anywhere in the world by Aug. 2. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the news early Friday morning. The U.S. […]

The United States would adopt an official policy not to start a war using nuclear weapons, under legislation announced Wednesday by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Democrat member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is mulling a presidential run. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), HASC chair, posted a draft version […]

Two of the Hill’s most notable nuclear doves on Tuesday pressed for passage of their newly refiled bill to ban the United States from using nuclear weapons to start a war. “In about the same time as it takes President Trump to launch a tweet, he could also order America’s armed forces to launch a nuclear […]