Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The National Nuclear Security Administration intends to issue a sole source contract award for .45 caliber Smith & Wesson handguns, according to a solicitation posted last week. The handguns will replace the NNSA Office of Secure Transportation’s aging inventory of pistols, which “are showing signs of excessive wear and now have a limited serviceable life remaining,” […]

The Donald Trump administration is close to a mostly Republican Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but is still operating with a Democratic-leaning Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The White House in January began an ideological shift at both five-member groups, but the NRC, which regulates commercial nuclear power plants and civilian nuclear waste, is further along in its […]

The Donald Trump administration is close to a mostly Republican Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but is still operating with a Democratic-leaning Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The White House in January began an ideological shift at both five-member groups, but the NRC, which regulates commercial nuclear power plants and civilian nuclear waste, is further along in its […]

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed fiscal 2018 energy appropriations legislation in a 235-192 vote, after blocking a number of amendments from Democrats targeting the proposed increase in funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons activities account. Lawmakers this week debated a slew of amendments to the Make America Secure Appropriations Act of […]

Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the contractor newly chosen to run the Nevada National Security Site, has announced its incoming leadership team as it proceeds with transition activities at the facility. Two veterans of Department of Energy national laboratories will take the top spots at the Nevada facility: Mark Martinez is the incoming site […]

Two interconnected facilities at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina have stopped receiving nuclear materials due to growing infrastructure problems that could have significant consequences in the event of an earthquake. A newly released report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board noted the suspension of nuclear materials receipts at H […]

Northrop Grumman on Wednesday reported increases in both revenue and net earnings for the second quarter of 2017. Sales landed at $6.4 billion in sales in the quarter, up by 6 percent from $6 billion during the same quarter of last year.  The defense-contracting giant also brought in earnings of $552 million, up by 7 percent from […]

The Departments of Energy and Defense should better explain their 10-year nuclear deterrent modernization budget estimates and address future affordability concerns, the Government Accountability Office said in a newly released report. The GAO examined the DOD and DOE’s fiscal 2017 joint report, which places the total cost of the two Cabinet agencies’ nuclear modernization plans […]

Tom D’Agostino, former administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, has joined the board of directors of small modular reactor company NuScale Power, the company announced Monday. D’Agostino, who served as head of the NNSA from 2007 to 2013, replaces former board member Dave Dunning, NuScale said in a press release. He has been with […]

Northrop Grumman on Wednesday reported increases in both revenue and net earnings for the second quarter of 2017. Sales landed at $6.4 billion in sales in the quarter, up by 6 percent from $6 billion during the same quarter of last year.  The defense-contracting giant also brought in earnings of $552 million, up by 7 percent from […]

House Democrats are targeting the proposed increase in funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons activities account in the chamber’s fiscal 2018 energy and water appropriations bill by introducing a slew of amendments that seek to redirect money to other Energy Department offices. The House today will begin debate on the Make America Secure […]

Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS), the contractor newly chosen to run the Nevada National Security Site, has announced its incoming leadership team as it proceeds with transition activities at the facility. The National Nuclear Security Administration in May awarded the new management and operations contract at the site to MSTS, a partnership of Honeywell […]

Tom D’Agostino, former administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, has joined the board of directors of small modular reactor company NuScale Power, the company announced Monday. D’Agostino, who served as head of the NNSA from 2007 to 2013, replaces former board member Dave Dunning, NuScale said in a press release. He has been with […]

The Departments of Energy and Defense should better explain their 10-year nuclear deterrent modernization budget estimates and address future affordability concerns, the Government Accountability Office said in a newly released report. The GAO examined the DOD and DOE’s fiscal 2017 joint report, which places the total cost of the two Cabinet agencies’ nuclear modernization plans […]

Northrop Grumman is scheduled to discuss its second-quarter 2017 earnings during a webcast Wednesday, just weeks after dropping a protest over the recent contract award for management of the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site. The defense contractor in April reported $640 million in first-quarter net income and earnings per share of $3.63, up year […]

Two interconnected facilities at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina have stopped receiving nuclear materials due to growing infrastructure problems that could have significant consequences in the event of an earthquake. A newly released report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board states that H Canyon – a nuclear materials separation […]

The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility being built in South Carolina is on its way to becoming a sticking point between the House and Senate as they work toward settling on a single energy and water funding bill for fiscal 2018. House appropriators remain intent on saving the controversial Department of Energy project, while their […]

Energy Department contractor Honeywell on Friday reported 3 percent organic sales growth in the second quarter of 2017, with total net sales reaching $10.1 billion, up slightly from $10 billion during the same quarter of last year. The company reported a 10 percent year-over-year increase in earnings and earnings per share of $1.80 in the […]

A trio of nuclear watchdogs on Thursday filed suit in federal court to force the Department of Energy to conduct a new environmental evaluation before building the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims the National Environmental […]

The Savannah River Site has conducted three tritium extractions in the current fiscal year, furthering the Department of Energy facility’s goal of providing the gas for the nation’s defense program. The DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Thursday that fiscal 2017 marks the first time the SRS Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) has conducted […]

A group of senators on Wednesday encouraged the U.S. secretaries of state, defense, and energy to implement a set of actions in the ongoing Nuclear Posture Review process meant to increase transparency and reinforce national nuclear policy positions. In a July 19 letter, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and 20 of their colleagues, […]

Some military veterans could qualify for a new Atomic Veterans Service Medal, if an amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act the House approved Friday becomes law. The amendment offered by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Ma.) would allow radiation-exposed veterans — or in the case of a deceased veteran, next of kin — to request […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]

Members of the House of Representatives have thrown early support in the latest budget process behind sustaining funding for the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, but their colleagues in the Senate are so far silent on whether they will also again back the controversial program. The House version of the fiscal 2018 […]

Dan Parsons Defense Daily Efforts to slow modernization of the nuclear triad until the Defense Department completes a comprehensive study of the programs’ total cost largely failed to make it into the House version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which was approved Friday in a 344-81 vote. An amendment to the law that […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy and water appropriations bill calls on the National Nuclear Security Administration to address lingering cost and schedule concerns in its modernization and infrastructure programs as it boosts agency funding by nearly $1 billion. The legislation, which on Wednesday passed the chamber’s Appropriations Committee and will next be considered […]

Two bid protests filed over the award of the management and operations contract for the Nevada National Security Site have been withdrawn, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Friday. Transition activities for the M&O contract awarded in May to Mission Support and Test Services LLC (MSTS) will therefore resume Aug. 1, according to the semiautonomous Department […]

Members of the House of Representatives have thrown early support in the latest budget process behind sustaining funding for the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, but their colleagues in the Senate are so far silent on whether they will also again back the controversial program. The House version of the fiscal 2018 […]

A June 26 letter from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has provided new insight into safety design features for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Uranium Processing Facility. Details regarding progress of the Tennessee facility have been something of a secret since the project was significantly reconfigured in 2014 to encompass a mix of new […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]