Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The Energy Department could in late February issue its final request for proposals for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to recently released presolicitation documents. The agency expects prospective bidders will have 30 calendar days from the date of the final RFP […]

The Energy Department could issue its final request for proposals in late February for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to recently released presolicitation documents. The agency expects prospective bidders will have 30 calendar days from the date of the final RFP […]

A civil-military panel approved designs for an upgrade of the W88 nuclear ballistic missile warhead carried aboard U.S. submarines, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday in a press release. Panel members, drawn from within and outside of the Department of Energy agency, approved system-level designs for the W88’s upgraded arming, fuzing, and firing (AF&F) […]

With fewer than six months left on the incumbent’s contract, the Department of Energy still has not started competition for the next Savannah River Site management and operations deal — the pact that includes running the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium program. The NNSA extracts tritium gas, which boosts the yield of nuclear weapons, at the […]

WASHINGTON — National Nuclear Security Administrator Frank Klotz told NS&D Monitor on Tuesday he will retire from the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency on Jan. 19. If he leaves the agency as planned in two weeks, the retired Air Force lieutenant general will have helmed the NNSA for three years, nine months, and 12 days, including […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration should prioritize work on existing warheads, but also modify some of those warheads for new nuclear capabilities, according to a draft of President Donald Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that leaked Thursday. Also, according to the leaked document, the agency should remain ready to resume explosive nuclear tests, and […]

The prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has demanded in federal court that its customer quickly return more than $20 million in contract fees the agency voided in 2016. It was the latest turn in a $200-million lawsuit CB&I AREVA MOX Services filed against DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office confirmed Tuesday that the state has resumed penalizing the federal government for its continued failure to remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS).   The state also noted it is considering appealing a U.S. District Court judge’s dismissal of one $100 million claim from South Carolina […]

In an end-of-the-year press release, the National Nuclear Security Administration bid farewell to three longtime employees who have retired. The three retirees, all of whom spent at least some time in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Defense Programs office are: Ralph Schneider, a Ph.D. physicist who was most recently director of the Office of […]

New Year’s is the time to take the measure of the 12 months to come, as much for those who watch the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons programs as anyone else. So, in the spirit of the season, this volume of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor begins with a list of things to expect for the […]

Norman Pattiz, the University of California regent who oversees the institution’s work with Department of Energy nuclear weapons labs, will resign in February, news outlets reported Wednesday. Pattiz, who has served about 16 years on the Board of Regents, informed board Chairman George Kieffer of his decision in a Dec. 28 letter posted online by […]

Rich Abbott Defense Daily A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress found that several technologies for the Columbia-class submarine program need more development and testing to prevent cost and schedule delays that could delay deployment of the lead submarine beyond a 2031 deadline. Twelve Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are planned to replace the existing 14 Ohio-class vessels […]

Norman Pattiz, the University of California regent who oversees the institution’s work with Department of Energy nuclear weapons labs, will resign in February, news outlets reported Wednesday. Pattiz, who has served about 16 years on the Board of Regents, informed board Chairman George Kieffer of his decision in a Dec. 28 letter posted online by […]

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office confirmed Tuesday that the state has resumed penalizing the federal government for its continued failure to remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS). The state also noted it is considering appealing a U.S. District Court judge’s dismissal of one $100 million claim from South Carolina in […]

The prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has demanded in federal court that its customer quickly return more than $20 million in contract fees the agency voided in 2016. It was the latest turn in a $200-million lawsuit CB&I AREVA MOX Services filed against DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

In an end-of-the-year press release, the National Nuclear Security Administration bid farewell to three longtime employees who have retired. The three retirees, all of whom spent at least some time in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Defense Programs office are: Ralph Schneider, a Ph.D. physicist who was most recently director of the Office of […]

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress found that several technologies for the Columbia-class submarine program need more development and testing to prevent cost and schedule delays that could delay deployment of the lead submarine beyond a 2031 deadline. Twelve Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are planned to replace the existing 14 Ohio-class vessels that provide the sea […]

The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday announced that it is prohibiting flights of unmanned aerial vehicles over seven Department of Energy sites around the country. Drone flights will be banned from the surface to 400 feet above ground level at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Los Alamos National […]

Katherine Herrera will become deputy technical director of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) effective Dec. 24, a spokesperson for the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety group said this week. In her new position, Herrera will help manage about two-thirds of the board’s full-time employees as the No. 2 official in the DNFSB’s Office of […]

Having just completed its $3.27 billion buyout of CH2M, Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering released new information Monday about its business going forward as a $15 billion engineering and infrastructure heavyweight. “Today, we are celebrating the creation of a new Jacobs,” Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou said in a news release. In the release, Jacobs praised CH2M’s […]

Weapons Complex Monitor will not be published on Dec. 29 in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Please look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018.

Centerra has won 96 percent of its potential fee award from the Department of Energy for providing a security force to protect the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In particular, DOE in a new award-fee scorecard praised Centerra-Savannah River Site for establishing and testing an “active shooter response plan.” Centerra was also cited for […]

Privately operated Bannister Transformation and Development has taken deed to an old nuclear-weapon support facility in Kansas City, Mo., the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed last week. The semiautonomous Department of Energy stockpile steward transferred ownership of more than 200 acres of the Bannister Federal Complex in November, according to an NNSA press release […]

Katherine Herrera will become deputy technical director of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) effective Dec. 24, a spokesperson for the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety group said this week. In her new position, Herrera will help manage about two-thirds of the board’s full-time employees as the No. 2 official in the DNFSB’s Office of […]

A recently leaked study that claims it would be cheaper to manufacture nuclear-weapon cores in South Carolina than New Mexico is full of holes, and an internal National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) document proves it, U.S. lawmakers from the Land of Enchantment wrote this week in letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. In a so-called […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Dec. 29 in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Please look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018.

The U.S. Department of Energy must remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The injunctive order from U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs grants one of the key demands in a 2016 lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Alan Wilson, but […]

At least where it concerns maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal under the care of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, the National Security Strategy that President Donald Trump released this week does not depart radically from the nuclear modernization plan set in place by his predecessor. The United States must sustain “a nuclear […]

The White House this week officially nominated National Security Council and Department of Energy veteran Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to replace retired general Frank Klotz as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency in charge of U.S. nuclear warhead stewardship and nonproliferation programs. The Donald Trump administration took the procedural […]

One of the parent companies of the prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility said Monday it will be acquired by Houston-based McDermott International in a $6-billion all-stock deal slated to close in the second quarter of 2018. At the close of the transaction CB&I, the Woodlands, […]