Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The Savannah River Site is hitting its self-imposed milestone to complete 60% of the design of the site’s plutonium pit facility, construction on which could start by December 2025, the head of the site’s prime contractor said Tuesday in a public meeting. “You’re talking somewhere between August and December of ‘25 is where I see […]

The story “NNSA, antis, get more time to negotiate agreement after agency loses pit lawsuit” [Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, Vol. 28 No. 39], should have said that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims said that “parties’ discussion and proposal should take into consideration Plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief.” The story should also have said […]

Karl Thedéen this week replaced Camilla Hoflund as president and CEO of Studsvik AB, the Nyköping, Sweden-based nuclear-power-services company announced Wednesday in a press release. Thedéen was most recently CEO Outpost24, a Swedish cybersecurity company. He had held the post since April 2021, according to Outpost24’s website. Thedéen was brought aboard at Studsvik as part […]

This Friday, Oct. 18, will mark the end of the official term for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chair Joyce Connery, but Connery will stay on longer to prevent the panel from losing a quorum, a spokesperson said Wednesday. A “quorum saving provision” in Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) rules allows Connery to stay […]

Jeff Allison’s retirement from his deputy manager position at Savannah River Field Office was announced Tuesday at the South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council meeting. A spokesperson from the Savannah River Field Office told the Monitor that Allison will retire at the end of the calendar year. Allison has served as the deputy manager since January […]

The Savannah River Site is hitting its self-imposed milestone to complete 60% of the design of the site’s plutonium pit facility, construction on which could start by December 2025, the head of the site’s prime contractor said Tuesday in a public meeting. “You’re talking somewhere between August and December of ‘25 is where I see […]

James Peery, who has a tenure of over 30 years at National Nuclear Security Administration laboratories, announced his retirement last week, Sandia National Laboratories confirmed to the Monitor Tuesday. Peery served as lab director for Sandia National Laboratories from January 2020 to present, according to his bio on Sandia’s website. A spokesperson for Sandia told […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday published a vision for the U.S. nuclear-weapons production complex that could exist in the decades when the last nuclear-arms-control treaty lapses and China finishes a major military modernization. The fruit of a year of work, the 40-page Enterprise Blueprint published Tuesday, and provided to the Exchange Monitor under […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions appointed James Dawkins as chief operations officer and executive vice president, according to Dawkins’ LinkedIn profile Saturday. In Dawkins’ new dual role, he will oversee the management and operations of National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) related programs at Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., according […]

The story “NNSA, antis, get more time to negotiate agreement after agency loses pit lawsuit” [Morning Briefing, October 9, 2024], should have said that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims said that “parties’ discussion and proposal should take into consideration Plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief.” The story should also have said that Tom Clements, director […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in observance of the U.S. Columbus Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024.

Commissioners from Santa Fe County, N.M., objected Tuesday to a project by Los Alamos National Laboratory that would build a power line through the Caja del Rio Plateau. In a letter from Santa Fe County commissioners to Ted Wyka, manager at Los Alamos Field Office, and Michiko Martin, regional forester at the U.S. Department of […]

The H Canyon Chemical Separations Facility at Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., began dissolving nuclear material from a Japanese research reactor, according to an agency press release. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency sent plutonium fuel, or Fast Critical Assembly fuel, from the reactor to the Savannah River Site. The Japanese agency also sent funding. […]

A federal judge last week did not reinstate an Iranian-born ex-professor to the University of Toledo in Ohio after the former faculty member sued the university on multiple counts of discrimination. Judge Jeffrey Helmick in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, western division, dismissed all of the plaintiff’s claims on Sept. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s office of radiological security hosted a workshop in Thessaloniki, Greece, to showcase technologies aimed at reducing terrorism risks, the agency said Friday. Representatives and regulators from Algeria, Greece and Italy attended the workshop on Sept. 17-18 to listen to and network with experts from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) […]

The Amentum-led nuclear cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee had yet to reply to a recent federal lawsuit by a former heavy equipment operator who claims he was unfairly fired in November 2021 for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. As of Friday, United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) had […]

More than a week into becoming publicly traded over the New York Stock Exchange, common shares of Amentum Holdings were trading at about $27 on Friday afternoon. Amentum Holding shares opened at $26.00 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and were hovering close to $27 a share that price during the first half […]

A little over a week into becoming publicly traded over the New York Stock Exchange, common shares of Amentum Holdings were trading at less than $25 at market close Tuesday afternoon. Amentum Holding shares were trading at $24.76 at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, according to Yahoo Finance. The Amentum stock opened the day […]

A federal judge last week did not reinstate an Iranian-born ex-professor to the University of Toledo in Ohio after the former faculty member sued the university on multiple counts of discrimination. Judge Jeffrey Helmick in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, western division, dismissed all of the plaintiff’s claims on Sept. […]

Here are some events related to defense nuclear matters that ExchangeMonitor staff are tracking this week. October 08 – Wyoming lawmaker planned to introduce a bill concerning the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel in the state. Legislative business was scheduled to begin in Cheyenne at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. Proceedings were to stream online. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s office of radiological security hosted a workshop in Thessaloniki, Greece, to showcase technologies aimed at reducing terrorism risks, the agency said Friday. Representatives and regulators from Algeria, Greece and Italy attended the workshop on Sept. 17-18 to listen to and network with experts from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) […]

The Amentum-led nuclear cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee had yet to reply to a recent federal lawsuit by a former heavy equipment operator who claims he was unfairly fired in November 2021 for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. As of Friday, United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) had […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Thursday released the fiscal year 2025 version of the stockpile stewardship and management plan (SSMP) to describe the agency’s plans to maintain the stockpile without testing nuclear weapons. “The SSMP is an annual document provided to Congress, the American people, and the global public. It is a […]

Mark Rutte, NATO’s new secretary general, said in a press conference Tuesday that despite “reckless and irresponsible” rhetoric from the Kremlin, he does not see an impending nuclear threat from Russia. “We should just acknowledge the fact that clearly, there is no imminent threat of nuclear weapons being used,” Rutte said at the press conference […]

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration was set to become landlord of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina effective Tuesday, Oct. 1. The nuclear-weapons agency will take over management of the 310-square-mile federal complex near the Georgia line from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which cleans up shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites. […]

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge will hear oral arguments Oct. 10 at the request of an AtkinsRéalis-led team that the judge ruled against last month in a $45-billion legal dispute over award of the Department of Energy’s liquid waste contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Senior Claims Court Judge Marian Blank […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday finished its First Production Unit of a plutonium pit for the planned W87-1 warhead, an agency press release said. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) verified, or “diamond stamped,” the pit, the fissile core of a warhead first stage, after it met the requirements for readiness to be […]

The Department of Energy did not adequately study the environmental effects of producing nuclear-weapon cores in two states, a federal judge ruled Monday in a three year-old lawsuit. But the judge in the case declined to halt construction of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., as requested […]

The Department of Energy has awarded a Knoxville business a $1.6-million contract to make upgrades to a pond on former uranium enrichment plant land at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a recent online procurement notice. SES Constructors LLC was awarded the contract to repair or replace the P1 Pond Weir Dam and […]

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration was set to become landlord of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina effective Tuesday, Oct. 1. The nuclear-weapons agency will take over management of the 310-square-mile federal complex near the Georgia line from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which cleans up shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites. […]