Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Still sensitized from last July’s attention-grabbing break-in by peace activists, the Y-12 National Security Complex got another unwelcome visitor over the weekend. Security guards detained a 39-year-old Oak Ridge man who was allegedly riding his bicycle on a patrol road inside the nuclear installation on Saturday afternoon. The location wasn’t far from the site where […]

Nuclear deterrence will be the subject of two hearings on Capitol Hill this week. U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler will testify before the House Armed Services Committee at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Room 2118 of the Rayburn House Office Building as part of a budget hearing with Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Locklear. […]

The new Continuing Resolution unveiled by House appropriators yesterday would allow a study on NNSA governance to get started. The Congressionally mandated study, which is funded by $3 million in Pentagon funds authorized as part of the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act, had stalled due to limits on beginning a program under the existing […]

The Pantex Plant’s fire protection system is drawing concerns from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In a recent letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur said a recent review conducted by the Board had revealed several issues, highlighted by a “lack of urgency” in fixing problems with the plant’s High […]

U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler advocated yesterday for a permanent solution to the nation’s plutonium needs during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, but he suggested that an interim plutonium capability being pursued by the Obama Administration could be sufficient to allow additional reductions to the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. “I […]

The Congressionally mandated National Nuclear Security Administration governance panel is beginning to take shape. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has named former California Democratic lawmaker and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher to the 12-person panel, following on the heels of House Speaker John Boehner’s selection of former […]

Congressional Republicans continue to finalize their choices for the National Nuclear Security Administration governance panel, with GOP members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees announcing their selections yesterday. House Armed Services Committee spokesman Claude Chafin confirmed yesterday that chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) had picked retired Adm. Kirkland Donald, the former head of the […]

In one of its final evaluations for work in Oak Ridge, Department of Energy protective force contractor WSI earned nearly $1 million, and 93 percent of the at-risk fee for work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other DOE facilities during the second part of Fiscal Year 2012. WSI-Oak Ridge earned $568,379 in award fee […]

Acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Neile Miller, Department of Energy Health, Safety and Security chief Glenn Podonsky, NNSA Production Office Manager Steve Erhart, and B&W Pantex General Manager John Woolery lead a long list of officials that are scheduled to testify at a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board hearing in Amarillo Thursday. The hearing […]

New Department of Energy Oak Ridge security contractor National Strategic Protective Services has hired former WSI-Oak Ridge official John Garrity as its director of planning and operations. Garrity was a key member of the protective force team at the Y-12 National Security Complex during last summer’s security breach, and he was at the heart of […]

The Department of Defense has enjoyed significantly more influence over the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget formulation, U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. Congress last year began requiring the Nuclear Weapons Council to certify the NNSA’s budget, urging it to take an active role […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s administrative services blanket purchase agreement procurement appears to be on track despite an amendment that makes minor changes to the Request for Quotes. Bids on the contract are still due by 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time March 22, and the March 11 amendment makes no significant changes to the contract, making […]

The National Council of Security Police formally outlined its opposition to a House bill that would have the military protect the nation’s weapons complex in a letter to lawmakers yesterday, suggesting strengthened federal oversight and more funding as a better way of beefing up security. In its letter to Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the author […]

B&W Y-12’s termination of Y-12 protective force contractor WSI-Oak Ridge doesn’t go far enough to fix security problems uncovered in the wake of a July 28 security breach at Y-12, the Project on Government Oversight said earlier this week, suggesting that the site management and operating contractor and federal officials should face harsher penalties. In […]

The United States is continuing its slow descent toward the 1,550-warhead cap on its strategic deployed stockpile set by the New START Treaty and had 1,722 warheads under the treaty’s counting rules as of Sept. 1, the State Department said yesterday. The stockpile number, released twice a year under the New START Treaty with Russia, […]

With the National Nuclear Security Administration last week revealing the need for a costly redesign of the Uranium Processing Facility and potential cost and schedule delays on the W76 warhead life extension program, an arms control group asserted that such issues are the “new norm” around the weapons complex. “NNSA’s bad week caps off an […]

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, left a visit to the Y-12 National Security Complex Monday with the feeling that security at the site was as “good as it’s ever been” since a July 28 security breach but unconvinced that enough is being done to protect Y-12 […]

Nevada National Security Site manager National Security Technologies has reorganized its senior management structure, installing a pair of senior executives as top vice presidents. In a statement yesterday, NSTec named Mike Butchko as the company’s Vice President of Operations and Jim Holt as its Vice President of Program Integration in a move that NSTec President […]

A top national security advisor for Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said yesterday that the Obama Administration has focused too much on Russia when considering reductions to the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. Dov Zakheim, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Reagan and Bush Administration Defense […]

With the due date for proposals looming, the Department of Energy has hired accounting firm KPMG to audit financial information and cost proposals included in bids for its Oak Ridge protective force contract, DOE informed bidders yesterday. The Department said that KPMG would conduct fieldwork audits starting the week of Oct. 22, three days after […]

Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, the head of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command, has suggested a note of caution to proponents of reducing the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, but he said yesterday in a breakfast meeting with reporters that he would be comfortable with small cuts to the arsenal. “Can you go below 1,550?” as […]

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) offered up a pointed critique of potential reductions to the nation’s nuclear stockpile, suggesting yesterday that the nation’s current nuclear deterrent provides a “bargain” and that it should be maintained even as the government faces significant pressure to reduce spending. “Securing the nation is the most basic function of government and […]

House appropriators are preparing to write Fiscal Year 2014 spending bills, with or without a budget request from President Obama. The committee will begin that process this week when the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee holds a budget hearing on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program. Acting Administrator Neile Miller, Defense Programs chief Don […]

President Obama is expected to use tonight’s State of the Union address to unveil a new push to reduce the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, according to published reports, but a White House spokesman said that Obama’s speech will not include a “new announcement.” The New York Times yesterday said that Obama would not […]

B&W Y-12, the management and operating contractor at the Y-12 National Security Complex, was marked down during its Fiscal Year 2012 Performance Evaluation Review for more than just security problems, a review of the company’s annual report card revealed. B&W Y-12 endured the worst year of its 12-year tenure at the site, receiving 58.9 percent […]

President Obama pledged to pursue another round of nuclear weapons cuts with Russia in his State of the Union address last night, but stopped short of offering up a specific plan for new nuclear reductions as some published reports had anticipated. While the Administration is expected to seek to reduce the size of its deployed […]

Leading up to the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this Thursday, one lawmaker on the pointed posed some pointed questions on how cuts from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility may be used to fund weapons programs. In a Feb. 8 letter to NNSA Acting Administrator Neile Miller, who is set to testify […]

The nation’s nuclear deterrent won’t be immune to cuts under government-wide spending cuts known as sequestration that are slated to go into effect in March, but Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a Senate panel yesterday that the Administration would do its best to ease the impact of the cuts. “Nuclear deterrence is pretty important,” […]

With the threat of a protest now gone, new Oak Ridge security contractor National Strategic Protective Services released more details about its management team yesterday, revealing that former B&W Y-12 security official Steven Ross would serve as protective force director and Triple Canopy executive Kyle Lang would head up the new company’s business operations. NSPS […]

Sites across the National Nuclear Security Administration would be hit hard by mandatory budget cuts that are slated to go into effect March 1, with contractors planning furloughs and layoffs to deal with the impact of sequestration. According to a report released by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee yesterday, sequestration would require Y-12 National […]