Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The National Nuclear Security Administration may be underestimating the costs of its various weapons modernization programs by up to billions of dollars, raising concerns that some life-extension programs might be underfunded or even deferred, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Wednesday. The report said fiscal 2017 budget materials from the semiautonomous Department of Energy […]

BWX Technologies on Monday said it had secured a $76.2 million contract to produce more Common Missile Compartment (CMC) tube assemblies for next-generation U.S. ballistic missile submarines. This is the third contract the BWXT Nuclear Operations Group has received from General Dynamics Electric Boat for the tube assemblies, following deals in November 2014 and March […]

The Defense Department has formally begun preparing a new Nuclear Posture Review for the Donald Trump administration with the participation of interagency partners, including the State Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration. In a brief statement, the Pentagon on Monday said Defense Secretary James Mattis “directed the commencement of the review, which will be led by […]

Unprecedented shipments of liquid highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Canada to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will begin this spring, now that the 60-day window has closed to appeal a judge’s decision allowing the Energy Department transports. Groups that had sued against the shipments decided against appealing the directive. Judge Tanya Chutkan, of U.S. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday it is seeking providers for the transport of radioactive irradiated tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs). The request for information also said the agency wants to “identify small business concerns with the capability to perform the services” in order to assess a possible set-aside. The acquisition is meant to […]

The Defense Department announced Monday that it has formally begun preparing a new Nuclear Posture Review for the Donald Trump administration. In a brief statement, the Pentagon said Defense Secretary James Mattis “directed the commencement of the review, which will be led by the deputy secretary of defense and the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of […]

Unprecedented shipments of liquid highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Canada to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will begin this spring, now that the 60-day window has closed to appeal a judge’s decision allowing the Energy Department transports. Groups that had sued against the shipments decided against appealing the directive. Judge Tanya Chutkan, of U.S. […]

Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be in New Ellenton, S.C., on April 18 to discuss the agency’s latest performance evaluation of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility being built at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The regulator gave a positive review of 2016 operations at the plant intended to process 34 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is scheduled this spring to release a long-awaited physical security infrastructure plan as it wrestles with outdated alarms, sensors, and other protective measures at its sites, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency charged with sustaining the U.S. deterrent oversees four facilities that hold […]

The contractor for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee should in a matter of months deliver a new cost estimate and other information needed for the Department of Energy to sign off on construction of the complex. The Department of Energy expects by the end of fiscal 2017, Sept. 30, […]

A top U.S. general on Thursday joined military leadership and lawmakers in condemning the continuing resolution that is currently funding the government and is soon to expire, asking Congress to deliver a budget for the Pentagon in the coming weeks – even if it is subject to spending constraints. “This is the ninth year that […]

The contractor for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee is preparing a new cost estimate and other information needed for the Department of Energy to sign off on construction of the complex. The Department of Energy expects by the end of fiscal 2017, Sept. 30, to receive a design that […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is scheduled this spring to release a physical security infrastructure plan as it wrestles with outdated alarms, sensors, and other protective measures at its sites, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency charged with sustaining the U.S. deterrent oversees four facilities that […]

Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be in New Ellenton, S.C., on April 18 to discuss the agency’s latest performance evaluation of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility being built at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The regulator gave a largely positive review of 2016 operations at the plant intended to process […]

WASHINGTON — As contractors and locals wait to learn how much more funding their Cold War nuclear-cleanup projects might get in fiscal 2018 under the Trump administration’s proposed budget increase for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, the head of that office on Wednesday focused ruminations about next year’s budget on work that hasn’t […]

A National Nuclear Security Administration field office has identified need for improvement in several operational areas by the management and operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, according to a newly released Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board activity report. The DNFSB document, dated March 13 and […]

The nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia continue to fluctuate as the two countries work to meet the terms of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), according to the latest aggregate data Monday from the U.S. State Department. The 2010 bilateral accord requires each country by next February to cap its […]

Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear arm of financially imploding Japanese conglomerate Toshiba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, raising questions about the storied company’s staying-power in the nuclear decommissioning business even as it pledged continuity of operations during the reorganization. “We are focused on developing a plan of reorganization to emerge from Chapter 11 […]

The Government Accountability Office said this week it has accepted a request from two senior Democrats in the House of Representatives to study the value of a new nuclear warhead that would be manufactured to fit onto both ICBMs and sea-launched ballistic missiles. At issue is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s first “interoperable warhead,” or […]

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up on news affecting the U.S. nuclear deterrent during […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is after the Energy Department for a long-overdue update on the agency’s plan to tighten emergency preparedness at active and former nuclear weapons sites. Sean Sullivan, appointed DNFSB chairman by President Donald Trump in January, made the request in a Feb. 16 letter to then-acting Energy Secretary Grace […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is after the Energy Department for a long-overdue update on the agency’s plan to tighten emergency preparedness at active and former nuclear weapons sites. Sean Sullivan, appointed DNFSB chairman by President Donald Trump in January, made the request in a Feb. 16 letter to then-acting Energy Secretary Grace […]

A federal judge on Monday ordered that 1 metric ton of plutonium be removed from South Carolina, but did not set a schedule for that to happen. The state sued the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration last year, claiming they had breached a 2003 agreement to by Jan. 1, 2016, […]

In a message that was fundamentally preordained, the Trump administration on Thursday officially made clear that it opposes a treaty for a global ban on nuclear weapons, which will be debated next week at the United Nations. “We recently met with Ambassadors about the upcoming conference to establish a treaty banning nuclear weapons,” U.S. Ambassador […]

Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday reaffirmed the necessity of sustaining all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad and indicated the “level” of that deterrent is under consideration. “The need for a nuclear deterrent . . . requires a triad,” Mattis said during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee. “To determine what […]

The Trump administration is reconsidering every piece of U.S. nuclear arms policy – even the broad end goal of global nuclear disarmament – in its upcoming Nuclear Posture Review, a senior National Security Council official said Tuesday. “We’re being encouraged . . . to do a real honest-to-God, bottom-up review, to rethink things from the […]

Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday reaffirmed the necessity of sustaining all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad and indicated the “level” of that deterrent is under consideration. “The need for a nuclear deterrent . . . requires a triad,” Mattis said during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee. “To determine what […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is after the Energy Department for a long-overdue update on the agency’s plan to tighten emergency preparedness at active and former nuclear weapons sites. Sean Sullivan, appointed DNFSB chairman by President Donald Trump in January, made the request in a Feb. 16 letter to then-acting Energy Secretary Grace […]

CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the contractor managing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility near Aiken, S.C., said in a new letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration that the agency is attempting to terminate the project through a campaign of consistent obstruction. NS&D Monitor obtained the March 8 letter, a response to the […]

The Trump administration’s budget outline for 2018 proposes an 11 percent funding increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration while cutting overall funding for the Department of Energy. The White House released the budget blueprint Thursday, requesting $28 billion for DOE, down $1.7 billion or 5.6 percent from its 2017 annualized level under the continuing […]