Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

UPF PROJECT TEAM SCALING BACK WORKFORCE NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 As the Uranium Processing Facility project team scales down work in some design areas pending results of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s review of UPF alternatives, a spokeswoman confirmed that more than 100 members of the project team have been released over the past month. Ellen […]

NRC GIVES MOX CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH IN 2013 NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not identify any areas needing improvement in Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility construction in 2013, contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services announced last week. The annual review conducted by NRC’s resident inspectors aims to identify potential construction and procedure […]

NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 IN THE NNSA A University of Michigan-led consortium has been awarded a $25 million grant by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development for research and development in nuclear arms control verification technologies. The grant is expected to provide the consortium $5 million per year over […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Plans to send a significant amount of plutonium and highly enriched uranium from Japan to the United States are raising questions for officials near the material’s likely home at the Savannah River Site. Citing concerns over plutonium already in the state, South Carolina this month filed suit against the Obama […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Not surprisingly, the most frequently asked questions being asked these days at Y-12 and Pantex have to do with jobs and benefits, as the two plants in Tennessee and Texas are transitioning to a new contractor. However, the new contractor, Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, isn’t ready to make job offers—there […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 A set of self-assessments of safety conscious work environment (SCWE) performed by Department of Energy sites and contractors suffered from several weaknesses that may reduce their overall usefulness, according to a report released last week. The DOE Office of Health, Safety and Security performed an evaluation of the self-assessments and […]

REGALBUTO ADDED TO Y-12 UPF RED TEAM NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Monica Regalbuto may have a long wait to be confirmed by the Senate as the Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, but she’s filling part of the time on the Red Team examining alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility planned for the Y-12 […]

STILL NO WORD ON MOX COLD STANDBY NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 More than three weeks after the Obama Administration announced plans to immediately place the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in a ‘cold standby’ mode, the project’s contractor is still continuing work as normal without any direction on how to proceed. Construction contractor Shaw AREVA MOX […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 After three protests and more than 14 months, Babcock & Wilcox-led Nuclear Production Partners (NP2) is giving up its fight for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12/Pantex contract, the company said this week. NP2 three times protested the NNSA’s selection of Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security for the $22.8 billion contract, […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 Funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program is projected to continue to grow over the next five years, reaching nearly $10 billion by Fiscal Year 2019, according to the Obama Administration’s detailed budget justification for the agency that was released over the weekend. The Administration requested $8.3 billion […]

No Direction to Project Yet on Shutdown Work Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 In an effort to halt the planned suspension of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, the state of South Carolina this week filed suit against the Department of Energy over its decision to put the project into a “cold standby” mode. In […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 A significant slowdown in warhead dismantlement activities is planned for Fiscal Year 2015, according to budget documents released this week. The documents show a steep reduction in spending for dismantlement, with the money apparently being shifted to other programs in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Directed Stockpile Work. As proposed, […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 Los Alamos National Laboratory is expected to wrap up work in the coming weeks on a troubled project to upgrade security at its Technical Area-55, and though the project has been delayed several months by technical problems, the lab is expecting to remain just under the project’s $244.2 million cost […]

Bechtel executive Jim Allen, who was bid to be the chief operating officer for Y-12/Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security, is retiring and will not assume his role as the No. 2 official for the new contractor, CNS spokesman Jason Bohne has confirmed. Bohne said a “family medical situation” is preventing Allen from taking the position, […]

Y-12 EMERGENCY OPS CENTER PROPOSED IN BUDGET NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 According to detailed budget documents released this week, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to begin design of a new Emergency Operations Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex, as well as new facilities at Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Labs. There appears to be […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 In a twist befitting the National Nuclear Security Administration’s topsy-turvy Y-12/Pantex procurement, the latest protest by B&W-led Nuclear Production Partners (NP2) had the company stressing its weaknesses and the NNSA citing the “significant benefit” of NP2’s proposed cost savings, had the agency picked NP2 instead of Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 As South Carolina considers potential legal action to fight the planned suspension of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, officials are pushing the Obama Administration on how it plans to fulfill its surplus plutonium disposition commitment. Due to cost increases, last week the National Nuclear Security Administration announced that it […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 The NNSA’s Red Team investigating alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility spent a whirlwind three and a half days this week at Y-12, getting briefings and an up-close look at the Oak Ridge plant’s uranium operations, and then adjourned to Oak Ridge National Laboratory a few miles away for discussions […]

Todd Jacobson and Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 With transition underway to new Y-12/Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security, CNS President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Haynes said the company has already completed five key deliverables for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Bechtel-led CNS, which also includes Lockheed Martin, ATK, SOC and subcontractor Booz Allen Hamilton, […]

WARHEAD PART DROPPED AT Y-12 FACILITY NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration called its “unique” event, but the dropping of a nuclear warhead part during an evaluation procedure in January appeared to be a recurrence of problems that surfaced a few years ago at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. According […]

NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 IN THE NNSA The National Nuclear Security Administration late last week opened a procurement for facilities maintenance services at the Office of Secure Transportation and the agency’s Albuquerque Complex, issuing a draft Request for Proposals. The agency is seeking a small business to perform the work, which will take place in three […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 Nearly 14 months since the National Nuclear Security Administration first selected Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security for its Y-12/Pantex consolidated management and operating contract, transition to the new contractor has resumed. However, Babcock & Wilcox-led Nuclear Production Partners—which three times protested the NNSA’s selection—declined comment this week on its plans, leaving […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 Senate lawmakers have begun fighting back against the Obama Administration’s decision to place the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication facility project on cold standby. In a March 6 letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, seven Senators—including both members of South Carolina’s Senate delegation and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the new head […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 The Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget request includes $8.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, and plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear deterrent are beginning to win over one of the staunchest critics of nuclear funding lapses. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 On top of the $11.9 billion in Fiscal Year 2015 President Obama is requesting for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Administration wants another $600 million for weapons and nonproliferation spending, though the additional request received a chilly response on Capitol Hill this week. The additional funds are part of […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 Timed just before the Obama Administration released its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request this week, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) reintroduced legislation late last week that would cut $100 billion in nuclear weapons spending over the next decade. Markey first introduced the “Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 A National Nuclear Security Administration pilot project to strengthen physical security at radiological facilities in Mexico City and Peru is being criticized by the Government Accountability Office for not involving several key agencies that could have helped the project. In a report released this week, the GAO said the “radiological […]

RAD MATERIALS FOUND DURING UPF HAUL ROAD CONSTRUCTION NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 Work on a haul road for the Uranium Processing Facility was temporarily stalled last week after radioactive materials were discovered during some of the earth-moving work at the site on the west end of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. According to a spokesman for […]

NRC PANEL RULES IN FAVOR OF MOX CONSTRUCTION LICENSE NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 A Nuclear Regulatory Commission legal panel late last week ruled in favor of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility contractor in a longstanding challenge to the facility’s license application over security concerns. The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board released an initial decision […]

Increase Comes At Expense of Nuclear Nonproliferation Programs Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/04/2014   Forced to prioritize between National Nuclear Security Administration programs in its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, the Obama Administration sent a clear signal that it would support the agency’s weapons program today, drawing criticism from nonproliferation advocates. The Administration requested $8.31 […]