Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

One of the Tennessee Valley Authority reactors that produces tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons on Tuesday switched off for the scheduled replacement of all four of its steam generators, the federally owned corporation said this week. Besides replacing the steam generators at Watts Bar Unit 2, workers will “load 88 new nuclear fuel assemblies, perform […]

The alleged conflicts of interest that prompted the National Nuclear Security Administration to cancel the award of a decade-long, $28-billion nuclear-weapon-sites management contract to a Fluor-led team center on current and former officials in the agency’s Information Management office — one of whom landed a job with the winning team months before the government finalized […]

One of the Tennessee Valley Authority reactors that produces tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons on Tuesday switched off for the scheduled replacement of all four of its steam generators, the federally owned corporation said Wednesday. Besides replacing the steam generators at Watts Bar Unit 2, workers will “load 88 new nuclear fuel assemblies, perform inspections […]

Net income from continuing operations at Fluor, Irving, Texas, fell for both the fourth quarter and 2021 as a whole, which the international company and Department of Energy contractor attributed mostly to a massive, pre-tax charge related to a Dutch pension plan, according to earnings published this week. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, […]

The Department of Energy’s Enterprise Assessments office, one of the agency’s internal watchdogs, will check out an incident last summer at the Kansas City National Security Campus that resulted in one employee getting what the site called a mild concussion. Among the things the watchdog will look at — in the wake of the employee […]

Citing a lack of transparency on the agency’s part, a losing bidder for a major nuclear-weapon sites management contract cried foul in January when the National Nuclear Security Administration short-circuited an external review of the controversial award, according to the Government Accountability Office. According to a January decision memorandum from the office, part of the […]

Citing a lack of transparency on the agency’s part, a losing bidder for a major nuclear-weapon sites management contract cried foul in January when the National Nuclear Security Administration short-circuited an external review of the controversial award, according to the Government Accountability Office. According to a January decision memorandum from the office, part of the […]

The Department of Energy’s Enterprise Assessments office, one of the agency’s internal watchdogs, will check out an incident last summer at the Kansas City National Security Campus that resulted in one employee getting what the site called a mild concussion. Among the things the watchdog will look at — in the wake of the employee […]

Below is Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s annual digest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) performance evaluation summaries: the agency’s report cards for its big contracts, which explain how much management and operations entities earned for their performance. The Monitor has provided links to NNSA source documents. For fiscal year 2021, which began Oct. […]

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday approved a three-week stopgap funding plan to keep the federal government open through March 11 after the current continuing resolution expires on Feb. 18. The full House voted Tuesday evening  272-to-162 to approve the short-term extension while appropriators continue to work on a spending plan to carry the government […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With transition to a follow-on contract derailed for now, the National Nuclear Security Administration planned to extend the existing site-management contract for two of its main nuclear-weapons production sites for up to a year, people familiar with the plans said this week. Incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), a team led by Bechtel […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With transition to a follow-on contract derailed for now, the National Nuclear Security Administration planned to extend the existing site-management contract for two of its main nuclear-weapons production sites for up to a year, people familiar with the plans said this week. Incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), a team led by Bechtel […]

ALEXANDRIA VA. — The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday would shed no light on the timeline for transitioning the agency’s two main weapons production sites to new management, though the transition was supposed to be halfway over by now. Meanwhile, Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel-led incumbent managing the Pantex Plant in […]

The Exchange Monitor was on Feb. 7 to host its Nuclear Deterrence Summit, an annual, three-day gathering near Washington of industry professionals and government officials working on civilian nuclear-weapons programs. The summit was scheduled to run from Monday morning through Wednesday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City near the Pentagon. Jill Hruby, the administrator […]

Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s nuclear-weapons acquisition czar in the Donald Trump administration, was appointed to fill one of four slots on a new commission charged with scrutinizing the Defense Department’s budgeting process, according to a congressional press release. The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees each were allowed to nominate one person […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week laid groundwork to start competition on a contract for trucking tritium for nuclear weapons to the Savannah River Site from nuclear power plants in Tennessee.  At the very least, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency may need someone to make two trips over two years to […]

Editor’s note: this story corrects errors about the cost and schedule estimates for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s direct melt bottom-loading furnaces published in the January 29 edition of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor [Vol. 26, No. 4], “New Uranium Reclamation Furnace at Y-12 Starting Up in 2026, Defense Board Says.”    Bottom-loading furnaces at […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Emergency Support team took one of its radiation-sniffing Bell 412 helicopters out for what figures to be one of the last pre-Super Bowl patrols before the fleet trades up to new models, the agency said this week. The pregame, daytime-only flights in the vicinity of Los Angeles’ SoFi stadium, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration took a step toward forging another link in the nuclear-weapon supply chain of the 21st century late last year when it sought industry input about producing new quantities of high explosives for weapons. The agency has long foreseen the need for fresh nuclear-weapon-usable triaminotrinitrobenzene-based (TATB) energetics, and in October issued […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Emergency Support team was scheduled to take one of its radiation-sniffing Bell 412 helicopters out for what figures to be one of the last pre-Super Bowl patrols before the fleet trades up to new models, the agency announced Monday. The pregame, daytime-only flights in the vicinity of Los Angeles’ […]

Steven McAndrews is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new deputy associate administrator for information management and deputy chief information officer, a senior agency official said. McAndrews on Monday become the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) second in command at the office that among other things handles the “operational, technical, and administrative functions in support of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration took a step toward forging another link in the nuclear-weapon supply chain of the 21st century late last year when it sought industry input about producing new quantities of high explosives for weapons. The agency has long foreseen the need for fresh nuclear-weapon-usable triaminotrinitrobenzene-based (TATB) energetics, and in October issued […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s counterterrorism office planned to replace its Bell-made helicopters with a pair of Leonardo-made aircraft, according to a contract award posted online this week. The roughly $35.5-million award covers “two (2) each Rotary Wing Aircraft in support of the [National Nuclear Security Administration] NNSA Office of Nuclear Incident Response” from  AgustaWestland […]

Progressive leading lights in both houses of Congress led a letter-writing campaign urging President Joe Biden this week to use his imminent Nuclear Posture Review to cancel deployed and planned low-yield nukes. Canceling the planned low-yield, sea-launched nuclear-tipped cruise missile and shelving the W76-2 low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead “would further signal that the United […]

Progressive leading lights in both houses of Congress led a letter-writing campaign urging President Joe Biden on Wednesday to use his imminent Nuclear Posture Review to cancel deployed and planned low-yield nukes. Canceling the planned low-yield, sea-launched nuclear-tipped cruise missile and shelving the W76-2 low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead “would further signal that the United […]

Civilian reactors in Tennessee notionally will sharply increase their output of tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons by the fall of 2024 to help the National Nuclear Security Administration produce its desired 2,800 grams of tritium annually during the government fiscal year that begins around that time, officials said this week. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

Troy Wade, a Reagan-era assistant secretary of energy for defense programs and a fixture for decades at what is now called the Nevada National Security Site, died Jan. 16 at his home in Nevada, according to local media and the site. He was 87. Scott Wade, Troy’s son, confirmed his father’s death to the local […]

Troy Wade, a Reagan-era assistant secretary of energy for defense programs and a fixture for decades at what is now called the Nevada National Security Site, died Jan. 16 at his home in Nevada, according to local media and the site. He was 87. Scott Wade, Troy’s son, confirmed his father’s death to the local […]

Less than a week after moving to get ahead of allegations that its award of a multi-billion-dollar sites operations contract was tainted by conflicts of interest and impropriety, the National Nuclear Security Administration had made no sudden moves to restart the year-long competition to find the next manager of its two main nuclear-weapon manufacturing plants. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week announced it approved the start of construction on the decontamination and decommissioning subproject at the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project. The effort, approval of which the Exchange Monitor reported in November, involves removing unneeded equipment from the building that will become the lab’s plutonium pit factory. […]