Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

In a lengthy, multi-media piece headlined "The Prophets of Oak Ridge," the Washington Post today examines last summer’s Y-12 security breach. "Last summer, in the dead of night, three peace activists penetrated the exterior of Y-12 in Tennessee, supposedly one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the United States. A drifter, an 82-year-old nun […]

Arguments for lowering the U.S. nuclear arsenal beyond limits agreed to in the New START treaty are flawed, Matthew Kroening of Georgetown University said yesterday, calling for no further reductions. The Obama Administration is hoping to seek reductions beyond the 1,550-weapon cap on strategic deployed warheads agreed to in 2010 as part of the New […]

The possibility that the National Nuclear Security Administration could ignore the Government Accountability’s recommendation to reopen the Y-12/Pantex procurement is starting to raise some eyebrows among industry officials and those in Congress. In the wake of the GAO’s decision to uphold protests of the $22.8 billion Y-12/Pantex contract by teams led by incumbent Babcock & […]

As the NNSA figures out how to deal with the Government Accountability Office’s decision to sustain protests of its Y-12/Pantex contract, B&W Y-12 President and General Manager Chuck Spencer emphasized yesterday that employees at Y-12 should stay focused on the mission at the site. “It’s also important to understand that both corporate parent companies [B&W […]

it’s going to be a busy week on Capitol Hill for the National Nuclear Security Administration next week. In addition to Thursday’s House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing, NNSA or national laboratory officials will appear before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Tuesday and Wednesday. Los Alamos Director Charlie McMillan, Sandia Director Paul […]

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee continued to push back against attempts at decreasing oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration in the wake of last summer’s Y-12 National Security Complex security breach, suggesting at a hearing yesterday that more, and not less, oversight is necessary for the weapons complex. […]

In a little more than two weeks, Kansas City voters will cast ballots for an ordinance that would prohibit the city from using financial incentives to benefit businesses that perform work for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and advocates on both side of the issue have begun ramping up their messages. Groups on both sides […]

Republicans on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee sparred with the co-founder of the Global Zero nuclear abolition movement during a hearing yesterday on nuclear deterrence requirements that evolved into a debate over potential nuclear reductions. Bruce Blair, the co-founder of Global Zero and the president of the World Security Institute, was one of […]

The Obama Administration could save $50 billion over the next 10 years by more efficiently fielding nuclear warheads under the New START Treaty and slowing down plans to build new delivery vehicles and warheads, including a planned refurbishment of the B61 nuclear bomb, according to a new analysis from the Arms Control Association. The B61 […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex won’t need to resort to furloughs to deal with the impact of sequestration, a site spokesman said in a statement. Site officials had braced employees for the possibility of furloughs to deal with the across-the-board funding cuts, but B&W Y-12 spokesman Ellen Boatner said Y-12 will weather the sequestration storm […]

Former South Carolina lawmaker John Spratt (D) and former Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier were appointed yesterday to the Congressionally mandated National Nuclear Security Administration governance panel by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. Spratt represented South Carolina from 1983 to 2011, serving as the chairman of the […]

Former Ohio lawmaker David Hobson (R) and retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine have been selected to serve on the Congressionally mandated National Nuclear Security Administration governance panel by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, NW&M Monitor has learned. The pair are certainly familiar with the weapons complex, with […]

President Obama’s push for a world free of nuclear weapons is harming the confidence that its allies have in the United States’ extended nuclear deterrent, four conservative nuclear weapons experts said in a March 29 Washington Post op-ed. Douglas Feith, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Bush Administration, Center for Security Policy […]

In an effort to shift debate on nuclear policy away from stockpile sizes and reductions with Russia, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is suggesting that the United States instead focus on a different sort of reduction: to the circumstances that could lead the U.S. to use nuclear weapons. A new report authored by Carnegie […]

B&W Y-12, LLC, has released an expression of interest for liquid waste management services at the Y-12 National Security Complex. “The seller will perform all necessary functions to manage, treat, and disposition the existing inventory of wastewater and sludge within the first two years of the subcontract as well as all wastewater received and sludge […]

With the contractor transition at Y-12 still on hold because of protests, the Atomic Trades and Labor Council has negotiated a year’s extension to the bargaining agreement covering 1,200 hourly workers at the Oak Ridge plant. The new agreement includes a 2 ½ percent wage increase for Y-12 workers, who are expected to ratify the […]

A Kansas City ballot initiative that aimed to prohibit the city from using financial incentives to benefit businesses that perform work for the National Nuclear Security Administration has failed. The Kansas City Star said that with all precincts reporting, the ballot initiative that was generated by local peace groups was defeated, with 77 percent of […]

The United States is continuing to move toward getting under the 1,550-warhead cap established by the New START Treaty, reporting that it had 1,654 strategic deployed warheads under the treaty’s counting rules as of March 1, the State Department said yesterday. The stockpile total represents a 68-warhead decrease from the last time the U.S. and […]

Removing U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons from prompt launch status and cutting the number of tactical nuclear weapons in the arsenals of each country could address the dual challenges of tightening budgets and international security, according to a report released yesterday by a group of prominent international nuclear weapons and arms control experts. The report, […]

Union workers at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Friday ratified a one-year contract extension, which includes 2 ½ percent pay increases and averts a rush to get a new contract negotiated once the new combined Y-12/Pantex contractor takes over the management role at the facility. Steve Jones, president of the Atomic Trades and Labor […]

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance got its day in court Friday, but the activists came away empty-handed. The peace group and 18 individuals filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, hoping to get a temporary restraining order to force the National Nuclear Security Administration to take down a newly assembled fence blocking […]

Three years to the day since President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed the New START Treaty, Secretary of State John Kerry said the arms control pact is working “exactly as advertised,” and he used the treaty’s success to tout another round of arms control with Russia. “We and the Russians both have ‘boots […]

The next step in arms control between the United States and Russia should include a floor of approximately 1,000 strategic deployed weapons and a cap of 2,500 total warheads for each side, according to arms control expert Ellen Tauscher. But the former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security acknowledged at yesterday’s […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is overhauling contractor assurance systems across the weapons complex in the wake of the Y-12 National Security Complex security breach last summer, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report released Friday that is highly critical of the agency’s oversight practices. The IG report outlined a host of deficiencies […]

A Congressionally panel that will be formed to take a look at governance options for the National Nuclear Security Administration is facing an uncertain start due to complications with the Continuing Resolution that is currently funding the government, Congressional staffers said Friday at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Because the panel would be funded by $3 […]

As the Obama Administration moves to further reduce the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, it should do so cautiously, according to Maj. Gen. Stephen Wilson, the commander of the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base and the Joint Functional Component-Global Strike for U.S. Strategic Command. “We need to be cognizant of a […]

It’s shaping up to be a busy week on Capitol Hill for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Led by acting NNSA Administrator Neile Miller and nonproliferation chief Anne Harrington, senior agency officials will testify before the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee at 1 p.m. Tuesday on the agency’s nonproliferation and nuclear reactors program. Miller […]

Performance for Nevada National Security Site protective force contractor WSI dipped during the last eight months of Fiscal Year 2012, with the security contractor receiving a “very good” rating and 86.3 percent of its award fee in the first performance period of its new contract at the site. WSI-Nevada, a subsidiary of G4S Government Services, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has extended the contracts of B&W-led teams that currently run the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Pantex Plant through April 29, stretching the arrangements through the initial date that the Government Accountability Office could rule on protests of the agency’s consolidated contract award. The NNSA selected Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear […]

How many total weapons are currently in the United States’ nuclear arsenal? If you do the math on statements made by National Nuclear Security Administration weapons program chief Don Cook at last week’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit—and nuclear weapons expert Hans Kristensen did—about 4,688 warheads. At the conference, Cook said that the U.S. stockpile had decreased […]