Non-Proliferation

While some activists are opposing a potential shipment of highly enriched uranium from the Dounreay research reactor site  in Scotland to the Savannah River Site, officials say they have no concrete plans yet for shipping the material. Some of the material from the Republic of Georgia being stored at Dounreay has already been sent to […]

The United States and Russia signed an agreement yesterday to expand cooperation between the countries’ nuclear weapons laboratories on areas including nonproliferation, nuclear technology, science, energy, and environmental issues. The “Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation on Cooperation in Nuclear- and Energy-Related Scientific Research […]

The House passed legislation this week that would extend the current U.S. civil nuclear agreement with South Korea until March 2016, two years beyond its current expiration date in March 2014. The bill passed late Tuesday by voice vote. The Obama Administration has sought the simple two-year extension to the agreement to give it time […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would study ways to reduce costs for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project under the House Armed Services Committee’s mark released yesterday for the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. In its FY14 budget request the NNSA cut funding for MOX and announced plans to slow down construction […]

Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services plans to issue layoff notices by the end of the week, according to a message sent to employees yesterday. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 request calls for $320 million for the project, approximately half of what is estimated to be needed to […]

In a move sure to set off a fierce fight at today’s House Armed Services Committee markup of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act, Republicans are withholding more than $70 million in Fiscal Year 2014 funds targeted for implementing the New START Treaty. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the panel’s Strategic Forces […]

Concerned about possible schedule slips on the B61 life extension program, House Republicans yesterday tied progress on the refurbishment effort to one of the Obama Administration’s signature nonproliferation program during a markup of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act. While also fending off attempts by Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee to roll […]

Provisions in the House Armed Services Committee version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act that would hinder the Obama Administration’s ability to implement the New START Treaty or limit the President’s ability to pursue arms control talks with Russia are likely to draw a veto threat from the President, arms control experts said […]

A host of nuclear weapons-related provisions included in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act are drawing opposition from the Obama Administration, which yesterday threatened to veto the bill if it included language limiting implementation of the New START Treaty or tying the hands of the president on future nuclear reductions. […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee authorized $583 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility as part of its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act, increasing the authorized funding for the project by $80 million in an effort to keep the program afloat while a review of the […]

The United States and Russia have extended the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Umbrella Agreement, agreeing to continue to cooperate on threat reduction activities in Russia. The existing agreement, first signed in 1992, expired Sunday, and the signing of the new agreement puts to rest fears that Russia would not want to agree to continue the […]

President Obama is expected to outline his vision for future nuclear reductions in a speech today on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, suggesting that the United States could reduce the size of its deployed nuclear arsenal by up to one-third, or to as low as 1,000 warheads. Obama’s speech, delivered at […]

st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Following an international meeting this spring on the Nonproliferation Treaty, a State Department official yesterday said he was disappointed by the focus by nonweapons states on the pace of U.S. and Russian disarmament. The preparatory committee meeting was held in April and May in Geneva to prepare for the next five-year review of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation is considering a massive reorganization, reshuffling its six offices into a more functional approach that reduces overlap between different program areas, NW&M Monitor has learned. While the NNSA declined to comment on its plans, the timing may be right to examine how the nonproliferation account […]

As the Administration seeks a two-year extension of the current civil nuclear agreement with South Korea, a State Department official said late last week said that there should not be any economic reason for a country to develop a new enrichment capability. The rights to enrich and reprocess have been a sticking point in negotiations […]

The United States will host an International Atomic Energy Agency-led security assessment at a Department of Energy nuclear facility, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told the IAEA International Conference on Nuclear Security yesterday. Moniz did not identify the site or a timeframe, but said that the IAEA’s International Physical Protection Advisory Service would conduct a mission […]

The Nuclear Security Summits initiated by President Obama in 2010 have succeeded in rallying international support toward efforts to secure nuclear materials around the world, but the efforts lack coordination, according to a report released yesterday by several groups. While noting that significant progress has been made as a result of the Nuclear Security Summit […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration yesterday completed a cleanout of Vietnam’s highly enriched uranium, removing 11 kilograms of HEU from a research reactor in a joint operation with the Russian Federation. The material, from the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute, was flown from Ho Chi Minh City to Russia, where it will be downblended into commercial […]

One of the top Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday offered a dim view of the prospects for the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty and urged the Obama Administration to wait until after the current 113th Congress to submit the treaty to the Senate. “I think it would be better not to take up the […]

The House last night passed by a vote of 390-3 the “Nuclear Terrorism Conventions Implementation and Safety of Maritime Navigation Act of 2013,” a bill necessary for U.S. implementation of amendments to two international treaties aimed at curbing nuclear terrorism. Addressing some acts not covered by current anti-terrorism laws, the bill addresses possessing radioactive or […]

A founder of the Global Zero movement to eliminate all nuclear weapons yesterday criticized the Obama Administration’s approach so far toward its stated goal of a nuclear-free world. Bruce Blair of Global Zero said that the group’s goal can only be realized with a comprehensive long-term plan. “You don’t get there by a kind of […]

Moscow has been hesitant to formally participate in another round of arms control negotiations with the United States, and a senior Russian official appeared to throw another hurdle in the way of those talks. In comments to Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggested that Russia was not interested in […]

Differences in the understanding of strategic stability from the U.S. and Russia threatens the likelihood of future arms control talks between the countries, according to Alexie Arbatov, the head of the Carnegie Endowment’s Moscow Center. In remarks yesterday at the Carnegie Nuclear Policy Conference, Arbatov said that relations between the U.S. and Russia are at […]

Longtime National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation official Ken Sheely is moving to the agency’s recently created Office of Infrastructure and Operations with a handful of other nonproliferation hands, he announced yesterday. Sheely told colleagues of the move in an email that was obtained by NW&M Monitor, though he did not say what position he would […]

A radionuclide monitoring station in Japan earlier this month detected evidence of North Korea’s Feb. 12 nuclear test, providing additional confirmation of the test and potentially bolstering the credibility of the monitoring regime linked to the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. The detection station in Takasaki, Japan, about 620 miles from the North Korean test site, detected […]

An international group of nuclear security experts is calling on worldwide leaders to begin work on establishing a global nuclear security regime at the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands. In a report released yesterday, the Nuclear Security Governance Experts Group (NSGEG) suggests that the current global nuclear security regime has been “too slow” […]

Senior National Security Staff official Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall has been named the White House Coordinator for Defense Policy, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Arms Control, a new position that encompasses the duties of former WMD czar Gary Samore. While Sherwood-Randall’s duties will include WMD and arms control, the job will also be broadened to include […]

Are the prospects for a new round of nuclear reduction talks with Russia increasing? Perhaps so, according to statements from Moscow and Washington late last that emerged from Geneva. Both acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov expressed optimism after the meetings, […]

Revamped Department of Energy nuclear export policies that have generated criticism from the nuclear energy industry are now drawing attention from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The committee wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu yesterday, informing him that it was “strengthening” its oversight of the nuclear export policies. DOE released new draft changes to […]

Approximately 150 pounds of highly enriched uranium has been removed from a research reactor in the Czech Republic in a multi-national effort led by the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Russian-origin material was removed from the Czech Republic’s Nuclear Research Institute in Rez and taken to Russia, where it will be downblended into nuclear fuel. […]