Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the small agency created to provide independent safety advice to the Department of Energy, no longer has a quorum following retirement of longtime member Jessie Hill Roberson, Congress was officially told last week. Federal standards allow Chair Joyce Connery, with an assist from Vice Chair Thomas Summers, to keep […]

With long-timer Jessie Hill Roberson’s Wednesday retirement from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the federal government’s independent safety watchdog for nuclear-weapon sites is down to two members. Chair Joyce Connery and Vice Chair Thomas Summers are the only two active members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), leaving the nominally five-member panel […]

Jessie Hill Roberson, a nuclear fixture for more than 40 years, called it a career Wednesday when she retired as a member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  Now, she plans to take three months or so to decompress from about 14 years with the board, spread over various terms dating back to 1999. […]

Two businessmen with companies doing work for the Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus allegedly carried out a kickback scheme involving nuclear weapons parts, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Michael Clinesmith, 67, of Kansas, allegedly sought and received kickbacks and bribes over at least a decade from Richard Mueller, 63, of Missouri, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s drive to make new nuclear-weapon cores has delayed disposal of old ones, according to an agency statement emailed to the Exchange Monitor on Tuesday. Amid the expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility and early work on South Carolina’s planned Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, which combined are supposed […]

With long-timer Jessie Hill Roberson’s Wednesday retirement from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the federal government’s independent safety watchdog for nuclear-weapon sites is down to two members. Chair Joyce Connery and Vice Chair Thomas Summers are the only two active members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), leaving the nominally five-member panel […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s drive to make new nuclear-weapon cores has delayed disposal of old ones, according to an agency statement emailed to the Exchange Monitor on Tuesday. Amid the expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility and early work on South Carolina’s planned Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, which combined […]

When Jessie Hill Roberson walks out of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s office for the last time as a federal employee on Wednesday, it will mark the end of a 40-plus year career in the nuclear field. It also means the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), created by Congress in 1988 as a […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. October 16-17: 2023 James Timbie Forum on Arms Control and Nonproliferation. U.S. Department of State Bureaus of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance; International Security and Nonproliferation. Register online to attend. In-person attendance is limited and first […]

A House commission studying U.S. strategic forces fully backs modernization of the U.S. nuclear enterprise, including by building a third nuclear shipyard to successfully deter both Russia and China, according to a report published Thursday.  The Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States recommends funding “NNSA’s recapitalization efforts, including weapons science, design […]

While assembling a nuclear weapon in mid-September, technicians at the Pantex Plant in Texas crossed a pair of color-coded and labeled wires, an error that made it past a quality control inspection, according to a report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  During the week of September 15, Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS, which runs […]

The Department of Energy’s watchdog found no evidence that personnel at the Office of Secure Transport abused their administrative leave in a recent investigation.  The DoE Inspector General received allegations in March that Office of Secure Transport (OST) – the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) internal paramilitary force tasked with transporting nuclear weapons and material […]

The last hydrogen fluoride cylinder was recently removed from the Y‑12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., clearing the way for a new uranium-purification technology for nuclear weapons that could switch on in 2024. Hydrogen fluoride was used in an antiquated wet-chemistry conversion and purification process for making enriched uranium metal at the plant’s […]

Christopher Roscetti, the former technical director for the government’s independent nuclear safety watchdog, is now the Department of Energy’s deputy director for environmental health and safety, according to a DOE website.  Roscetti, a career civil servant, assumed the No. 2 post for DOE’s Office of Environment, Health, Safety, and Security in July after serving more […]

Christopher Roscetti, the former technical director for the government’s independent nuclear safety watchdog, is now the Department of Energy’s deputy director for environmental health and safety, according to a DOE website.  Roscetti, a career civil servant, assumed the No. 2 post for DOE’s Office of Environment, Health, Safety, and Security in July after serving more […]

While assembling a nuclear weapon in mid-September, technicians at the Pantex Plant in Texas crossed a pair of color-coded and labeled wires, an error that made it past a quality control inspection, according to a report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  During the week of September 15, Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS, which runs […]

The last hydrogen fluoride cylinder was recently removed from the Y‑12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., clearing the way for a new uranium-purification technology for nuclear weapons that could switch on in 2024. Hydrogen fluoride was used in an antiquated wet-chemistry conversion and purification process for making enriched uranium metal at the plant’s […]

The Department of Energy’s watchdog found no evidence that personnel at the Office of Secure Transport abused their administrative leave in a recent investigation.  The DOE Inspector General received allegations in March that Office of Secure Transport (OST) – the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) internal paramilitary force tasked with transporting nuclear weapons and material […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 11: Ceremonial opening. Centrus Energy Corp. planned an event to mark the start of operations of its demonstration cascade of high assay low enriched uranium centrifuges at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio. […]

KNOXVILLE – If Honeywell is gunning for the contract to run the Pantex Plant when the National Nuclear Security Administration splits the landlord deals for that site and Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., next year, the company is treating its involvement like a state secret. “I’ll answer the way that I would have answered that […]

KNOXVILLE – More than half of the employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office, which encompasses both the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, have been working for the nuclear enterprise for less than five years, according to agency and contractor officials. There are about 12,000 employees […]

A federal safety watchdog for the Department of Energy continues to look for someone to fill its vacant executive director of operations post and discussed the search in closed session last week. On Sept. 26, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) held a “nonpublic collaborative discussion” on candidates for the position, according to a […]

KNOXVILLE – More than half of the employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office, which encompasses both the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, have been working for the nuclear enterprise for less than five years, according to agency and contractor officials. There are about 12,000 employees […]

A federal safety watchdog for the Department of Energy continues to look for someone to fill its vacant executive director of operations post and discussed the search in closed session last week. On Sept. 26, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) held a “nonpublic collaborative discussion” on candidates for the position, according to a […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 03: Conference: The Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association kicks off its three-day Business Opportunities and Technical Conference at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, Tenn.  03: Meeting: The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

Owing to a renewed emphasis on producing plutonium pits for use in refurbished nuclear weapons, management of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will revert to the National Nuclear Security Administration in October 2024. The now-310-square-mile facility near Aiken, South Carolina, was the locus of plutonium and tritium production for the primary stages of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Enterprise Assessments is investigating an incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex in which a machine used to shape uranium was dismantled without proper criticality controls in place. In a letter dated Aug. 3, Anthony Pierpoint, director of the NNSA’s office of enforcement, notified Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) […]

A federal employee at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s W88 Alteration 370 Federal Program Office, whose computer access was restricted, used a subcontractor’s email for five years to bypass those restrictions, according to a new watchdog report.  The employee’s National Nuclear Security Administration building access also was restricted “due to a formal inquiry by a […]

A federal employee at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s W88 Alteration 370 Federal Program Office, whose computer access was restricted, used a subcontractor’s email for five years to bypass those restrictions, according to a new watchdog report.  The employee’s National Nuclear Security Administration building access also was restricted “due to a formal inquiry by a […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Enterprise Assessments is investigating an incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex in which a machine used to shape uranium was dismantled without proper criticality controls in place. In a letter dated Aug. 3, Anthony Pierpoint, director of the NNSA’s office of enforcement, notified Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) […]