Non-Proliferation

Time is dwindling for the Obama Administration to make a push for Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, but Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller said yesterday that she’s not giving up on one of the pillars of President Obama’s nuclear security agenda. The Administration has made little […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/20/2015 Russia’s annexation of Crimea, coupled with the Kremlin’s withdrawal from longstanding bilateral nuclear cooperation efforts and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent nuclear saber-rattling, has severed trust between Russia and the U.S. and continues to threaten international stability, former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said this week during a nuclear security panel […]

Moscow’s withdrawal from bilateral nuclear security cooperation efforts and hardball rhetoric on the nuclear front has endangered international stability and destroyed trust between Russia and the U.S., former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said yesterday during a panel discussion in Washington. “The rhetoric that’s being used now by Russia about nuclear weapons is, in my view, […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/13/2015 A “new Russian security doctrine” which “explicitly reprioritizes” nuclear forces poses a direct challenge to bilateral disarmament efforts, but the U.S. remains open to engaging Russia on a range of issues affecting strategic stability, according to Tom Countryman, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation. “We’re also realistic […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/13/2015 Interest in the Conference on Disarmament has waned in recent years as progress on disarmament issues has stagnated, and one of the last remaining observers of the forum is calling it quits. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and its disarmament programme Reaching Critical Will said this […]

At April’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference (RevCon) in New York, the U.S. will focus on assessing and updating the NPT action plan developed in 2010, and on better explaining its position on disarmament to states not aligned with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, according to Tom Countryman, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 3/6/2015 Days before the 45th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused NATO, the U.S. and other European countries of violating the NPT by conducting joint nuclear exercises. Russia in the early 1990s reduced its arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons by one-third and centralized its intercontinental […]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva accused NATO, the U.S. and other European countries of violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by conducting joint nuclear exercises. Lavrov also sought to highlight Russian nonproliferation efforts and took shots at U.S. and NATO nuclear policy. He remarked that in the early […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 A top Defense Department official last week identified a point of bilateral contention in the New START Treaty as a factor in U.S. deployment plans for the Long Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO).  “We did make an effort to address nuclear-armed cruise missiles in New START, and we didn’t have a […]

The U.S. has dismantled the last Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile silo as dictated by the New START Treaty, according to a Tweet yesterday by the Bureau for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance (AVC). New START requires the dismantlement of 50 Peacekeeper launch facilities at F.E. Warren AFB and one Peacekeeper test launch facility at Vandenberg […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 Despite growing tensions between the United States and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller said this week the Obama Administration won’t be swayed from continuing to pursue its arms control agenda with Moscow. “The situation in Ukraine is […]

Despite growing tensions between the United States and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller said the Obama Administration won’t be swayed from continuing to pursue its arms control agenda with Moscow. “The situation in Ukraine is quite terrible, honestly, and some say arms […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/13/2015 A joint statement issued by from participants of the P5 Conference in London last week reaffirming “a step-by-step approach to nuclear disarmament that promotes international stability, peace and undiminished and increased security for all” as the only realistic disarmament mechanism has prompted at least one disarmament advocate to ask for […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/6/2015 The Obama Administration’s decision this week to continue with construction on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Fiscal Year 2016 was met with praise from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who was among the lawmakers that fought against the Administration’s decision to put the project […]

Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller is announcing today at the P5 Conference in London that the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification’s first meeting will take place March 19-20 in Washington, according to a State Department official with knowledge of the event. The partnership was created to join […]

The Obama Administration’s decision Monday to continue with construction on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Fiscal Year 2016 was met with praise from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who was among the lawmakers that fought against the Administration’s decision to put the project into cold standby a year ago. […]

Bill Richardson was the Secretary of Energy when the Department of Energy began heading down the path to building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, and 15 years later, he’s still a supporter of the project. Writing in U.S. News and World Report Jan. 31, Richardson urged the Administration to move forward with the project despite […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/2/2015 The Obama Administration was widely criticized last year by arms control and disarmament experts for seeking to cut the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation budget, but the Administration is looking to now stabilize funding for the NNSA’s nonproliferation account in its Fiscal Year 2016 request, released today, asking for $1.94 […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/2/2015 The Obama Administration is requesting $345 million in Fiscal Year 2016 for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in what Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has called a “continuation” budget for the controversial project. The request, unveiled today, matches the amount of money Congress provided to keep […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 The U.S. should take a firm stance in insisting Russia comply with the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Budapest Memorandum, former State Department and U.S. military officials said at separate Senate Armed Services Committee hearings exploring general U.S. national security strategy this week. The U.S. has formally accused […]

Opposition to German Shipments Continues, Greenpeace Questions Legality  Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/30/2015 The Department of Energy and Belgium’s National Institute for Radioelements have signed a statement of intent on potentially processing in the United States highly enriched uranium targets that are residue from the production of molybdenum-99 for medical use, the National Nuclear Security […]

Former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for sharing classified nuclear weapons data to an undercover FBI agent. Mascheroni, 79, is alleged to have claimed that he could “deliver” a nuclear weapon to Venezuela in exchange for $793,000 during an […]

Greenpeace Germany is claiming that the proposed shipment of German highly enriched uranium to the Savannah River Site for processing would be illegal, the advocacy group said in a legal opinion released Monday. At question are 900 kilograms of HEU in the form of graphite spheres from the pebble bed AVR gas-cooled research reactor at […]

The Department of Energy and Belgium’s National Institute for Radioelements have signed a statement of intent on potentially processing highly enriched uranium targets that are residue from the production of Molybdenum-99 for medical use, the National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed late last week. The Department has explored whether the material could be processed in Savannah […]

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 […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/23/2015 While a Savannah River National Laboratory study has concluded that processing a difficult batch of German highly enriched uranium at the Savannah River Site is feasible, no decision will be made on accepting the fuel until a final environmental assessment is issued this summer, a Department of Energy  spokesman said […]

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, […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 James Doyle, the Los Alamos National Laboratory nonproliferation analyst who claimed he was let go by the lab after writing a paper advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons, has had his second whistleblower claim accepted by the National Nuclear Security Administration and began mediation with the lab this week. […]

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, […]

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 […]