Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Earnings rose at Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., in the 2nd quarter, which the shipbuilder and Department of Energy contractor attributed in part to COVID-19’s effects last year on the Virginia-class attack submarine program, according to a Thursday press release. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were $129 million, compared with […]

ALEXANDRIA — Congress should not relax legal deadlines to produce plutonium pits this decade, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged it won’t meet at least one of them,nuclear-weapons managers here said this week. “I would say no,” Michael Thompson, said here Wednesday when asked whether Congress should change the law so that […]

The Department of Energy is taking steps to implement White House policy to stem the tide of increasing COVID-19 infections by again ordering mask wearing indoors, giving more time off to have family members vaccinated and holding off on many in-person meetings. Effective immediately, “any DOE-hosted in-person meeting, conference, or event that will be attended […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Materials for the third and final Nightshade subcritical plutonium test at the Nevada National Security Site have shipped out from the Los Alamos National Laboratory ahead of a shot planned for the fall, the head of the lab’s weapon’s program said here this week. Nightshade C had been scheduled to fire in […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Whatever changes the Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review prescribes to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national defense strategy, the nuclear production complex will have the same needs as it does now, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs office said here Tuesday. “I recognize […]

Frank Rose is officially principal deputy administrator of the the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency announced this week. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm conducted a virtual swearing in for Rose, who lives in Massachusetts, according to a tweet by Jill Hruby, herself sworn in as administrator of the National […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Judgements varied here this week between two senior civilian nuclear-weapons leaders as to whether the National Nuclear Security Administration would meet some legally binding deadlines to produce new nuclear weapon cores this decade. Questioned about the deadlines by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor during the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, the head of National Nuclear […]

The Joe Biden administration said this week it will nominate former National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation hand Corey Hinderstein, currently at the non-government Nuclear Threat Institute, as the agency’s deputy administrator for defense non-proliferation.  “An accomplished leader and well-known expert on #nuclear #security matters, Corey has the knowledge and skills to lead the #NNSA nonproliferation […]

While earnings from continuing operations were down at Fluor, Irving, Texas in the second quarter, the engineering and construction contractor said in a Friday press release it is reducing its debt and increasing its guidance for 2021. In slides released ahead of a Friday earnings call, the company also confirmed that it was among the […]

The Exchange Monitor held its 2021 Nuclear Deterrence Summit this week in Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington. The curtain rose on the show about a year-and-a-half after the 2020 summit, which wrapped up barely a month before COVID-19 changed everything. For some attendees, and maybe more than just some, the summit was the first […]

While earnings from continuing operations were down at Fluor, Irving, Texas in the second quarter, the engineering and construction contractor said in a Friday press release it is reducing its debt and increasing its guidance for 2021. There was a net earnings loss from Fluor’s continuing operations of $14.4 million, or $0.08 per common share, […]

During an earnings call Tuesday with Wall Street analysts, top executives at Jacobs said the company is excited about leading a joint venture becoming the new remediation contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. “During the quarter Jacobs was awarded the Idaho Cleanup Project at Idaho National Laboratory as a majority partner in […]

A federal suit brought by former security guards at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio along with other individuals alleging “racketeering” by contractors at the nuclear complex has been stayed for 120 days to give plaintiffs time to replace their trial lawyers. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Deavers in the U.S. District Court for Southern […]

During an unusually hot summer, some crews at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state are sweating through their protective clothing, according to federal safety reports. Hanford workers at the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility experienced some incidents of contamination during June and July after management modified requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE) as […]

The Department of Energy is taking steps to implement White House policy to stem the tide of increasing COVID-19 infections by again ordering mask wearing indoors, giving more time off to have family members vaccinated and holding off on many in-person meetings. Effective immediately, “any DOE-hosted in-person meeting, conference, or event that will be attended […]

The Department of Energy, the Washington state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are expected to resume later this month what have been dubbed the “holistic” talks about future cleanup deadlines at the Hanford Site. “Vacation schedules have complicated meeting during July, but mediation sessions may potentially resume in August,” according to […]

ALEXANDRIA — Congress should not relax legal deadlines to produce plutonium pits this decade, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged it won’t meet at least one of them, nuclear-weapons managers here said Wednesday. “I would say no,” Michael Thompson, said here Wednesday when asked whether Congress should change the law so that […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would essentially receive its 2022 budget request under a spending bill the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up Wednesday, matching the funding the full House approved last week. Unlike the House, however, Senate Appropriators approved the $72 million the Joe Biden administration sought for the planned W93 submarine launched ballistic missile […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Materials for the third and final Nightshade subcritical plutonium test at the Nevada National Security Site have shipped out from the Los Alamos National Laboratory ahead of a shot planned for the fall, the head of the lab’s weapon’s program said here Wednesday. Nightshade C had been scheduled to fire in Nevada […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Whatever changes the Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review prescribes to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national defense strategy, the nuclear production complex will have the same needs as it does now, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs office said here Tuesday. “I recognize […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. —The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility team has staffed up to about 400 people and, despite near-term competition for specialized skill sets from other nuclear-weapon sites, should easily be able to flex up to its full complement of 1,800 when it comes time to cast pits next decade, the site contractor’s head of […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Judgements varied here Tuesday between two senior civilian nuclear-weapons leaders as to whether the National Nuclear Security Administration would meet some legally binding deadlines to produce new nuclear weapon cores this decade. Questioned about the deadlines by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing during the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, the head of […]

Frank Rose is officially principal deputy administrator of the the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency announced Monday. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm conducted a virtual swearing in for Rose, who lives in Massachusetts, according to a tweet by Jill Hruby, herself sworn in as administrator of the National Nuclear […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recommended granting a 40-year license extension to Westinghouse Government Services’ Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, which among other things manufactures the rods used to restock the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons. The recommendation was part of a draft environmental impact statement published Friday.  The 40-year extension would kick […]

Jill Hruby was sworn in this week as the sixth administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, she wrote in a Twitter post on the official government account for the nuclear-weapons agency’s leader. Today, surrounded by my family, I was sworn in as #NNSA Administrator by @SecGranholm. Leading the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to […]

The roughly 1% annual increase the Joe Biden administration proposed for civilian nuclear weapons programs is “minimally sufficient” to keep warhead and bomb modernization on track in 2022, but maybe not beyond, a joint Pentagon-Department of Energy nuclear acquisitions group told Congress recently. The Biden request of roughly $20 billion for the National Nuclear Security […]

By voice vote on Thursday, the Senate confirmed Frank Rose as principal deputy administration of the National Nuclear Security Administration, providing a backstop for Administrator Jill Hruby, who was confirmed last week. It took a little more than three months to get Rose confirmed. Rose was one of the four witnesses in a May 27 […]

On a party-line vote Thursday, the House approved a spending bill that would give the National Nuclear Security Administration the requested $20 billion or so for fiscal year 2022: a budget the Nuclear Weapons Council called “minimally sufficient.” The budget is part of a seven-bill minibus appropriations package that the White House has said it […]

Bidders for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s potentially 10-year, $30-billion contract to manage two of the country’s main nuclear-weapons production sites have until the second week of August to turn in their final proposals, the agency said this week. The final proposal revisions are due at 4 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 9, the semi-autonomous […]

Some 200 craft workers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California wrapped up a three-day strike on Thursday to protest what they called the lab management contractor’s unwillingness to bargain over a mandatory on-call policy. The Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers (SPSE) Local 11 – University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of […]