Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Plant Recognized for Safety Performance NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 Kansas City Plant contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies has gone 5 million hours without a lost workday injury  and was recently recognized by the National Safety Council for going 12 months without an occupational injury or illness that resulted in a day away from work. The […]

DOE Warns Plant on Nuclear Safety Issues NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 A series of recent nuclear safety issues at the Pantex Plant are drawing concern from the Department of Energy’s Office of Health, Safety and Security. The HSS Office of Enforcement and Oversight recently issued an enforcement letter to contractor B&W Pantex, and while HSS declined […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/18/2014 Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz was sworn in as the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration late this week, formally taking over as the agency’s fourth full-time leader. Klotz’s nomination was stalled in the Senate for more than eight months, but he was confirmed by the Senate […]

From staff reports NS&D Monitor 4/18/2014 As Consolidated Nuclear Security moves a third of the way into its transition as the management and operating contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants, the Bechtel-led team is revealing more of its employment plans to employees, introducing additional members of its leadership team and giving some […]

From staff reports NS&D Monitor 4/18/2014 Bruce Held, the former acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, received the report from a Red Team assembled to look at alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility this week, but it’s not clear when—or if—the partially classified report will be released or how the NNSA plans to […]

Still No Direction to Contractor on ‘Cold Standby’  Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/18/2014 As the state of South Carolina this week filed for summary judgement in its challenge to the Department of Energy’s planned suspension of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, the Department still has not provided any direction to the project’s contractor on […]

From staff reports NS&D Monitor 4/18/2014 A North Carolina State-led consortium has been awarded a $25 million grant by the National Nuclear Security Administration for research and development on nonproliferation capabilities. According to the NNSA, the team will perform research and development in methods for detecting foreign nuclear weapon proliferation activities, focusing on projects to […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/11/2015 The Congressionally appointed advisory panel on National Nuclear Security Administration governance won’t wrap up its final report until later this summer, but the chairmen of the panel told the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee this week they will have the "essence of the report" completed by Memorial Day. The […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/11/2014 More than seven months after Frank Klotz was nominated to head up the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Senate finally confirmed the retired lieutenant general, clearing him by a voice vote late in the afternoon on April 8. Klotz’s confirmation ends the NNSA’s 15-month gap without a permanent administrator; Neile […]

NS&D Monitor 4/11/2015 Incoming Y-12/Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security is continuing the earlier stages of its transition at the two nuclear weapons sites, gradually introducing the company’s philosophies, implementation plans and management team leaders. Earlier this week, CNS emphasized safety and posted its first "safety message" on its transition web site. It was called, "Respect […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/11/2015 Department of Energy officials are still in the hot seat with lawmakers over the decision to suspend the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project, and this week they did not provide any specifics on alternatives for plutonium disposition. DOE last month announced that due to rising costs it would immediately […]

Their actions on July 28, 2012, prompted an almost complete security makeover in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and this week, the perpetrators—Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed—received years of prison sentences as a result.

With the National Nuclear Security Administration considering alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility, project officials are scaling back and restructuring current work on the facility, according to a recent memo from UPF Project Director Carl Strock.

Signaling a potential major change in the Obama Administration’s surplus plutonium disposition strategy, the National Nuclear Security Administration dispatched a consultant to the Savannah River Site this week to examine options for terminating Shaw AREVA MOX Services’ contract for construction of the MOX plant at the site, either as part of a shutdown of the project or as part of a new contracting strategy, NS&D Monitor has learned  

President Obama should order the nation’s nuclear arsenal off “hair-trigger,” Washington Post columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel said in a Jan. 21 column outlining “a few dramatic and long-overdue actions” Obama could announce in the State of the Union address next week. The actions could help Obama “lead more forcefully in areas vital to the country […]

A Government Accountability Office hearing on Babcock & Wilcox’s protest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12/Pantex procurement remains a possibility, NW&M Monitor has learned. Babcock & Wilcox-led Nuclear Production Partners has pushed for a hearing in its third protest of the NNSA’s award to Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security, but the GAO has not made […]

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, lauded Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s decision to launch a pair of reviews of the Air Force’s nuclear mission. “I am pleased to see the Department of Defense’s announcement of several proactive measures to begin addressing personnel failures within […]

One of the most watched protest cases in the history of the nuclear weapons complex took another unusual turn Tuesday when the sentencing hearing for three Plowshares protesters had to be postponed—even as it neared its conclusion—because of an unexpected snowfall that forced the shutdown of the federal courthouse in Knoxville. After consulting with federal […]

Eleven Pantex security guards have been fired in connection with a “sick-out” earlier this month and contractor B&W Pantex is charging the Pantex Guards Union with unfair labor practices, according to a complaint filed last week with the National Labor Relations Board. B&W Pantex filed the complaint with the NLRB Jan. 23, suggesting that the […]

Kansas City Plant contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies is planning to trim its workforce by 84 employees, a spokesperson said yesterday. Honeywell spokeswoman Shaunda Parks said the plant’s move out of the Bannister Federal Complex and into a new home “necessitated” the reduction of the employees in late March. She also said changes in […]

Acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held will meet with Y-12 National Security Complex officials today and hold an all-hands meeting at the plant to address a material accountability incident involving uranium oxide (U-308). NNSA spokeswoman Keri Fulton confirmed that an incident involving a small amount of U-308, triuranium octoxide, a common form of […]

The annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit will begin this week, kicking off in earnest Wednesday at 8 a.m. with speeches from acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held, Air Force Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak, and Navy Strategic Systems Programs Director Vice Adm. Terry Benedict. Rep. […]

Bruce Held, the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, would be the Department of Energy’s new associate deputy secretary and coordinator of security under a new DOE reorganization of its safety and security functions, Weapons Complex Monitor has learned. DOE unveiled new details of its reorganization plans yesterday at an all-hands meeting. The reorganization […]

Acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held confirmed during questioning at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit yesterday that a mid-January incident at Y-12 involved the mishandling of two vials of highly enriched uranium in an oxide form totaling 20 grams. Held said he’s still unable to discuss some details because of an ongoing inquiry into […]

The trio of peace activists that broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in 2012 are in jail and will stay there for years to come, based on the sentences meted out yesterday by Federal Judge Amul Thapar. But Thapar—known as a straight-by-the-book judge—actually showed some leniency. Each of the three activists received prison terms […]

With the National Nuclear Security Administration considering alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility, project officials are scaling back and restructuring current work on the facility, according to a recent memo from UPF Project Director Carl Strock. The Feb. 12 memo, obtained by NS&D Monitor, suggests that project officials will focus on “high-equity activities that would […]

With the Obama Administration set to release 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 (SANE) Act” when he was […]

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 hearing yesterday, Sen. Jeff Sessions […]