Non-Proliferation

The Nuclear Security Summit scheduled to be held in Seoul at the end of this month is not likely to improve on progress made at the 2010 summit held in Washington, nuclear security experts from the Fissile Materials Working Group said yesterday. The Obama Administration’s goal to secure vulnerable nuclear material around the world in […]

A National Academy of Sciences panel formed three years ago will finally release its long-awaited report on technical issues facing the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty during a March 30 event at the National Academies’ Keck Building in Washington, D.C. When the Obama Administration asked the NAS to update its 2002 study on the CTBT, it was […]

The second Nuclear Security Summit begins today in Seoul, South Korea, and Obama Administration officials expect the gathering of world leaders to provide an opportunity to gauge progress since the first summit two years ago in Washington and continue to gather more nuclear security commitments from countries. In recent weeks, two high profile HEU cleanouts […]

President Barack Obama yesterday reaffirmed his intention to reduce the nation’s nuclear stockpile through additional negotiations with Russia, suggesting in a speech at Hankuk University in Seoul, South Korea that he would discuss the potential reductions with Russian President Vladimir Putin in May. In South Korea for the second Nuclear Security Summit, Obama’s comments reflect […]

As the Nuclear Security Summit continues in Seoul, South Korea, a coalition of advocacy groups is urging Congressional appropriators to shift money that the Administration has requested for USEC to nonproliferation programs facing cuts. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request included $150 million in its nonproliferation account for a research and […]

World leaders assembled for the second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul agreed that more work was needed to prevent nuclear terrorism, according to a lofty communiqué agreed to yesterday by officials at the gathering that was noticeably lacking in details. According to the broad communiqué, countries attending the meeting restated a goal to secure vulnerable […]

The New START Treaty celebrated its first birthday yesterday, and the State Department said this weekend that both the United States and Russia conducted the maximum 18 inspections of each other’s nuclear arsenals during the treaty’s first year. The State Department also said that the U.S. and Russia conducted 1,800 data exchanges during the treaty’s […]

Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher formally stepped down from her post yesterday and will transition to a new job as an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Tauscher, who oversaw the State Department’s negotiations with Russia on the New START Treaty and was the prime contact on […]

Rose Gottemoeller, as expected, has been named the acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, replacing Ellen Tauscher, who stepped down from the position Monday. Gottemoeller, the Administration’s lead negotiator on the New START Treaty with Russia, will head up the State Department’s “T” Bureau while still serving as Assistant Secretary […]

A group of nuclear security experts lashed out at the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request yesterday, suggesting that cuts to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation account and State and Defense Department threat reduction work represented a “major step backwards in the fight against nuclear terrorism.” The Fissile Materials Working Group, which is […]

Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman said Friday that some advocates of a “gold standard” for civil nuclear agreements that would require other countries to forgo enrichment and reprocessing have distorted the facts. “The relationship between 123 agreements and our restrictions on exporting enrichment and reprocessing technologies has unfortunately been mischaracterized,” Poneman said at the […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office raises questions about large carryover balances in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation program, though NNSA is strongly countering the GAO’s conclusions. “From fiscal years 2006 through 2010, only about half of the total annual funds available to the DNN programs were costed, or expended, […]

Following the retirement of Ken Bromberg in October, Pete Hanlon is now in place as Assistant Deputy Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Fissile Materials Disposition. Hanlon previously was executive staff director and military assistant to NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino. Before coming to NNSA he had a 25-year career in the U.S. […]

With the optimism sparked by President Obama’s vision for a nuclear weapons-free world having faded, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ symbolic ‘Doomsday Clock’ was moved one minute closer to midnight yesterday. The group of scientists shifted the minute hand on the clock from six minutes to five minutes to midnight, moving it back to […]

Too much of the weapons-usable nuclear material around the world remains poorly secured, according to a new index released yesterday by the Nuclear Threat Initiative that ranks 32 countries on their commitment to nuclear security. The Nuclear Materials Security Index predictably singles out Iran, Pakistan and North Korea as having the worst commitment to nuclear […]

The Obama Administration’s decision to not force countries to foreswear enrichment and reprocessing technologies as part of future civil nuclear cooperation deals is drawing criticism from Congress, and especially Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). Lugar, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, responded to a letter to Congress from the Administration describing its plans […]

A group of public health, medical, and nuclear non-proliferation experts sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers yesterday urging them to amend pending legislation to restrict the use of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 produced by Russia. In the Jan. 17 letter to Reps. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Ed Market (D-Mass.), the group of […]

If and when the Obama Administration ramps up its push for Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, its plan for modernization of the nation’s weapons complex and arsenal is almost certain to play a central role in the debate. But several nuclear weapons experts and supporters of the treaty suggested yesterday that the two […]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced an amendment Monday to the Defense Authorization Act that would give the Department of Energy a one-year extension on deadlines for disposition of plutonium in the Mixed Oxide Fuel Facility. Current law requires DOE to pay South Carolina a penalty of $1 million per day, up to $100 million per […]

Russia is no longer beneath the 1,550-warhead cap set by the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, according to semiannual data released about U.S. and Russian weapons required under the treaty. As of Sept. 1, Russia was deploying 1,566 nuclear weapons, up from 1,537 Feb. 1. Both countries have to be under the treaty’s 1,550-warhead cap […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative program has done a good job of managing dozens of contracts under its control, including on a major project in Kazakhstan, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General said late last week. Avoiding the concerns of small businesses about the amount of work given out under a […]

The Department of Energy will employ the Savannah River Site’s H-Canyon facility to help prepare up plutonium oxide feed for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility currently under construction at the site, the Department said yesterday. In total, H-Canyon will be used to produce approximately 3.7 metric tons of MOX feed using the non-pit plutonium […]

With the $88 billion plan to modernize the nation’s weapons complex and nuclear arsenal on the Congressional chopping block, senior Administration officials yesterday sought to create separation between the New START Treaty from the modernization plan that was generated during debate on the treaty, suggesting during a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing that […]