Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

After being criticized for foot-dragging, the Department of Energy and Washington state announced an agreement Aug. 25 to address two leaking underground radioactive tanks at the Hanford Site, as well as future tank leaks. Under a binding order, the federal agency and the Washington Department of Ecology agreed by 2028 to cover the site’s T […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit this week gave litigators for contractor Swift & Staley as well as the Department of Justice seven days to specify dates in December they won’t be available for oral arguments. “Briefing is completed in this case,” the appeals court said in a Monday order, instructing litigators […]

Current and former Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio deny responsibility in court papers filed this week for the cancer death of a 13-year-old boy who lived near the nuclear cleanup property. The eight contractors filed a response Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio to a wrongful death […]

Life extensions for existing Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines should take some of the pressure off the Navy’s beleaguered Columbia-class replacements for those boats, the service’s head of acquisition for nuclear-armed submarines said recently. Building more Columbia boats in the 2030s than now planned could also help, Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, the Navy’s program executive officer for strategic submarines, said […]

Brandon Weathers is headed back to Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board headquarters in Washington after wrapping up a four-year stint as a resident inspector at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the board said recently. Weathers now will join the independent federal nuclear inspector’s Nuclear Programs and Analysis group, the board wrote in a recent […]

Vector Resources, a women owned small business, recently protested the award of a potentially $53 million technical and administrative services contract at the Y-12 National Security Site to Sigma Science. Vector lodged two protests about the award with the Government Accountability Officer on Monday, the congressional investigator said on its website. Work under Sigma Science’s Y-12 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration sole-sourced a real-estate development contract to Tucson, Ariz.-based Tierra Right of Way to procure a parcel of land for the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri, which is “in dire need of new facilities.” The Kansas City National Security Campus, operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, is the […]

An air-launched cruise missile warhead was not the only major civilian nuclear-weapons program slowed by COVID-19 supply chain snafus, but it was the only one drastically affected by the pandemic response, a senior government official said Tuesday. “I wouldn’t say it was the only one that was impacted,” said Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser, principal […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration sole-sourced a real-estate development contract to Tucson, Ariz.-based Tierra Right of Way to procure a parcel of land for the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri, which is “in dire need of new facilities.” The Kansas City National Security Campus, operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, is the […]

Vector Resources, a women owned small business, recently protested the award of a potentially $53 million technical and administrative services contract at the Y-12 National Security Site to Sigma Science.  Vector lodged two protests about the award with the Government Accountability Officer on Monday, the congressional investigator said on its website. Work under Sigma Science’s […]

Citing someone who might be interested in a public hearing about the decision, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing more time for complaints about a license amendment that Nuclear Fuel Services needs to purify uranium for nuclear-weapons programs, the commission wrote Tuesday in the Federal Register. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has extended the window […]

Longtime Los Alamos National Laboratory manager Carolyn Zerkle will become deputy director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory effective Sept. 12, the California nuclear-weapon design lab announced Monday. Zerkle spent more than 30 years at Los Alamos, most recently as senior director for project execution. In that job, she was responsible for the entire portfolio […]

Lisa Daley Mangi will step in as the acting chief of staff for the National Nuclear Security Administration on Aug. 31, agency administration Jill Hruby said Monday. Daley Mangi, the current deputy general counsel for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency, will stand in for Doug Fremont, who planned to retire.  Fremont, a […]

In the latest mega-extension for a nuclear-weapons site-management contractor, the National Nuclear Security Administration locked in a Honeywell-led team for five more years at the Nevada National Security Site. Mission Support and Test Services, which also includes Jacobs Engineering and Huntington Ingalls Industries, will be on site from 2023 through 2028 under five one-year options […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration completed the smaller of two subprojects that aim to expand an underground, zero-yield nuclear-weapon testing laboratory in Nevada, the agency said Tuesday. The Access and Life Safety Infrastructure portion of the greater U1a Complex Enhancements Project hit the CD-4 milestone on June 30, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons […]

A University of Georgia research associate at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina was “treated and hospitalized for a few days for observation,” after being bitten by a poisonous copperhead snake July 22, a spokesperson said Wednesday. “The individual is fully recovered and returned to work,” Vicky Sutton-Jackson, a spokesperson for […]

Japan and the United States have removed all highly enriched uranium from a research reactor at Kyoto University and shipped the material to the U.S, according to a press release from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Transfer of the material began three years ago and ended with all 45 kilograms of the fissile isotope to […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Aug. 19, 2022 or Aug. 26, 2022, as part of the Exchange Monitor’s annual August recess. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022.

Workers claiming Consolidated Nuclear Security shorted a slew of employees out of a paycheck’s worth of work are taking the management and operations contractor for two major nuclear-weapons production sites to trial next summer, according to a recent scheduling notice. The trial will begin on June 13, 2023, according to a scheduling order signed last week by […]

Russia said this week that it would not accede to U.S. requests to restore access to nuclear-weapon and related sites subject to inspection under the bilateral New START nuclear arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry blamed logistical difficulties stemming from U.S. sanctions against Russia, which Washington levied […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to add protective services to its prime contract with the Nevada National Security Site’s Honeywell-led prime contract, according to a procurement note posted online recently. SOC is the incumbent security services provider at the former Nevada Test Site under a five-year deal, worth about $200-million, that began on March 1, […]

In keeping with a directive by Congress, a National Academies panel holds a fact-finding session next week on nuclear threats and weapons of mass destruction terrorism. The Nuclear Studies and Radiation Board (NRSB) of the National Academies plans a hybrid meeting for information-sharing between 12:45pm – 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday Aug. 15. The […]

Workers claiming Consolidated Nuclear Security shorted a slew of employees out of a paycheck’s worth of work are taking the management and operations contractor for two major nuclear-weapons production sites to trial next summer, according to a recent scheduling notice. The trial will begin on June 13, 2023, according to a scheduling order signed last […]

Japan and the United States have removed all highly enriched uranium from a research reactor at Kyoto University and shipped the material to the U.S, according to a press release from the National Nuclear Security Administration.  Transfer of the material began three years ago and ended with all 45 kilograms of the fissile isotope to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to add protective services to its prime contract with the Nevada National Security Site’s Honeywell-led prime contract, according to a procurement note posted online recently.  SOC is the incumbent security services provider at the former Nevada Test Site under a five-year deal, worth about $200-million, that began on March […]

In remarks at the 10th review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine and Iran’s race to uranium enrichment, touted a 90% reduction in U.S. nuclear arms since the height of the Cold War and defended the U.S. decision to cancel scheduled […]

The South Carolina plant that puts together the rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons cleared an environmental hurdle last week that sets the facility up to operate for another 40 years. The extension, recommended July 29 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, would more than […]

The final tab for getting the Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear generator back in shape to produce power for homes and businesses and irradiate tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons will be about $600 million, the Tennessee Valley Authority said Monday in a regulatory filing. On July 1, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) finished installing four […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week split its two headquarters-based procurement offices into three, the head of the agency said. Effective Monday, the agency’s Washington-based procurement bureaucracy comprises: the Office of Partnership Services; the Office of Infrastructure; and the Office of Environment, Safety, and Health. Peter Rodrik is the acting associate administrator for partnership […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration now expects to produce the proof-of-concept article for the refurbished W80 nuclear cruise-missile warhead by the end of fiscal year 2027, roughly two years later than planned. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency will turn out the W80-4 first production unit by Sept. 30, 2027 instead of some […]