Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Prospective bidders for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s consolidated Y-12/Pantex management and operating contract will get up close and personal looks at the sites they might eventually run this week. The agency is hosting a trio of site visits, starting with a visit to the Pantex Plant today. Bidders will visit the Y-12 National Security […]

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a bill in the House yesterday that would cut more than $100 billion in spending over the next decade on the nation’s nuclear arsenal, weapons complex and delivery vehicles. Dubbed the SANE Act, short for the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act of 2012, the legislation takes specific aim at […]

While the National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Defense are currently able to manage known limitations to the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, Pentagon officials have raised concerns that the effect of the limitations could be intensified by reductions to the nation’s nuclear arsenal, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office. […]

The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility project planned for Los Alamos National Laboratory will be “indefinitely deferred,” according to President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request that will be released today. Nuclear weapons complex observers and Los Alamos officials have long expected a massive cut to the multi-billion-dollar construction project, but the exact approach […]

The Fourth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit will get started tomorrow in Arlington, bringing together key Obama Administration officials, military leaders, internationally recognized experts and industry executives to discuss the future of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. Keynote speakers include:  Jon Kyl, U.S. Senator, Arizona Michael Turner, U.S. Congressman, Ohio Daniel Poneman, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program received a funding bump in Fiscal Year 2013 that many agencies might envy, but the $7.58 billion requested by President Obama isn’t likely to appease some Congressional lawmakers that had expected the Administration to request even more as part of a plan to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has posted answers to a new round of questions—the eighth set of Q&As if you’re scoring at home—on the Y-12/Pantex Request for Proposals. The one-page of questions and answers, posted yesterday, seeks to further clarify how fee and cost savings will be calculated. The Q&As are available here.

 The Obama Administration is considering a range of options to further reduce the size of the nation’s strategic deployed stockpile, potentially moving to a stockpile at or below 1,000 weapons, according to the Associated Press. Citing an anonymous former government official and a congressional staffer, the AP said that the Administration is examining cuts that […]

With bids for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s combined Y-12/Pantex M&O contract due in less than a month, the agency has begun to look toward other consolidation efforts, but Principal Deputy Administrator Neile Miller told NW&M Monitor yesterday that the effort was only in its infancy. “Truly for me everything is open for discussion and […]

Commenting on that ongoing review of the nation’s strategic deployed stockpile, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Jim Miller said yesterday that while current levels would be the default option, he may support reducing the number of deployed weapons. “I do believe that there are steps we could take to further strengthen our […]

Could a nuclear vacation be in store for Reps. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.)? Perhaps if Markey accepts Turner’s invitation to tour uranium and plutonium facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Markey last week introduced legislation to slash nearly $100 billion in funding anticipated for modernizing the nation’s […]

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), one of the leading voices in the Senate on nuclear weapons issues, lashed out yesterday at the Obama Administration’s decision to scale back its plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal, accusing the Administration of breaking promises made during debate on the New START Treaty. Kyl was at […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy last week authorized 180-day extensions for Y-12 and Oak Ridge protective force contractor WSI, providing time for the agency to compete a combined Oak Ridge and Pantex security contract this year. WSI’s separate contracts to provide security for Y-12 and other DOE activities in Oak […]

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) dismissed claims that Congress was to blame for the Obama Administration’s less-than-anticipated funding request for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program in FY2013, suggesting that the Administration should have fought harder to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal. Congressional appropriators cut nearly $400 million from the Administration’s request […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has issued a second amendment to the final Request for Proposals for its combined Y-12/Pantex management and operating contract, clarifying how prospective contractors will assume control of benefits plans and clearing up guidance on how bidders should prepare cost savings plans. The agency also released a ninth set of Questions […]

Still smarting from a six-week strike in the fall that failed to win many concessions from Kansas City Plant contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has kicked off a push to get salaried workers at the plant to join the union. The union earlier this month began […]

Senate Republicans continued to press the Administration on its commitment to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal yesterday, this time taking their complaints to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday, Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) accused the Administration of reneging on modernization-related promises […]

Bucking some of his Republican colleagues, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, suggested yesterday that the panel would not provide additional funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program. Citing budgetary pressure, the Obama Administration requested $7.58 billion for the program in Fiscal Year 2013, approximately […]

Babcock and Wilcox reported a strong fourth quarter in financial results released yesterday, with revenues of $800.8 million, up 13.6 percent from the same quarter in 2010, and an operating income of $93.3 million, or 25 percent more than in that quarter in 2010. Revenues for the full year of 2011 totaled $2,952 million, an […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration expects significant cost savings from its decision to consolidate protective force contracts at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Pantex Plant and Oak Ridge Reservation, but NNSA officials say it’s too early to project how much money is expected to be saved. The agency announced that it was pursuing the consolidated […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is removing the cap on fee that could be earned through cost savings from its merged Y-12/Pantex management and operating contract, potentially making the opportunity more lucrative and more enticing to industry. The agency detailed the change yesterday as it published the long-awaited final Request for Proposals for the contract, […]

The budgetary pressure facing the nation shouldn’t alter the Obama Administration’s $88 billion plan to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal and weapons complex, one of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s biggest backers told NW&M Monitor late last week. In a wide-ranging interview that will be publishhed in its entirety Friday, Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the […]

B&W Y-12 earned $51.2 million in fee after receiving an “excellent” performance rating for its work managing and operating the Y-12 National Security Complex, according to information provided to the Knoxville News Sentinel last week. B&W Y-12’s fee was out of a maximum possible fee of $55.2 million, but no details were provided as to […]

Investments at the Y-12 National Security Complex to improve conduct of operations at the plant could be jeopardized by another lingering safety issue at the plant, according to a recent letter from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to the National Nuclear Security Administration. In a Dec. 29 letter made public this week, DNFSB Chairman […]

Sen. Jon Kyl and Rep. Michael Turner will join Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman and Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher in headlining the Fourth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, set for Feb. 14-17, 2012 in Arlington, Va. This is an event anyone involved in the NNSA marketplace won’t want to miss. Other keynote speakers […]

With the optimism sparked by President Obama’s vision for a nuclear weapons-free world having faded, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ symbolic ‘Doomsday Clock’ was moved one minute closer to midnight yesterday. The group of scientists shifted the minute hand on the clock from six minutes to five minutes to midnight, moving it back to […]

In an effort to mirror the relationship between National Nuclear Security Administration weapons laboratories and their United Kingdom counterparts, the agency’s weapons program has created a liaison between the agency’s production plants and the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment, filling the position with former Y-12 National Security Complex and headquarters official Brenda Hunter. According to the […]

With the National Nuclear Security Administration’s combined Y-12/Pantex M&O procurement in full swing, Patty Wagner, the chair of the Source Evaluation Board for the procurement and the manager of the agency’s Sandia Site Office, said she will retire early next month, according to a message yesterday to SSO employees. Wagner, who shepherded the procurement over […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this morning posted a second set of questions and answers on the Y-12/Pantex contract competition. The single page of questions and answers seeks primarily to provide further clarification of cost savings and fee language in the final Request for Proposals. The questions and answers can be found by clicking here.

Kansas City Plant contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies has awarded a contract worth more than $80 million to real estate company CB Richard Ellis in advance of its move to a new facility on the outskirts of Kansas City. With construction of the new $815 million facility on schedule, the plant said it would […]