Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Engineering and procurement giant Fluor said Tuesday it has decided not sell its government contracting business, which does business with the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex and the Department of Defense. The Irving, Texas-based company announced the now-canceled sale in September. Belt-tightening over the past year, along with the anticipated sale later in 2020 […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Higher taxes led Leidos to report a slight dip in its fourth quarter earnings, but sales were strong and adjusted earnings easily topped analysts’ estimates. Net income in the quarter fell nearly 4% to $181 million, $1.26 earnings a share, from $188 million, or $1.25 a share, a year ago. Per-share […]

The Defense Department’s top policy director submitted a letter of resignation Wednesday, saying he will leave his post at the end of the month and stating plainly that his departure was prompted by President Donald Trump. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood assumed his role in August 2018, and will be succeeded by James […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette made his first splash on the international stage this week, weaving some tough talk about Iran and North Korea into a speech at a United Nations nuclear security conference in Vienna, Austria. “We call on Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] in monitoring and inspecting […]

Northrop Grumman on Wednesday said its board has elected David Keffer as its new chief financial officer effective Feb. 17. He succeeds Kenneth Bedingfield, who will remain with the company until Feb. 21 to help with the transition. Keffer comes to Northrop Grumman from the private equity firm Blue Delta Capital Partners, which he joined in 2018 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s said Thursday its next-generation Lithium Processing Facility, needed to produce tritium for future nuclear weapons programs, will cost $955 million to $1.65 billion to build by 2031. The official baseline is higher than the rough cost estimate of $720 million that the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency penciled into […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette is establishing a new office to manage “all policy within the Department,” and appointing a new personal adviser for nuclear security, according to an all-hands memo dated Tuesday. To do this, Brouillette will rebrand the current Office of Policy (OP) as the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy (OSSP), which […]

Northrop Grumman swung to a loss in its fourth quarter due to a change it adopted a year ago in accounting for pension and other post-retirement benefits, but its adjusted earnings were well above consensus estimates, the company reported this week. Also this week, the Falls Church, Va.-based defense contractor, now the presumed favorite to […]

A new inspector general’s report bashed the human resources department at the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as ineffective, inefficient, and incapable of supporting the agency’s oversight of defense-nuclear sites. The board’s “human resources program is currently not designed and implemented to effectively support the execution of its mission,” reads a report issued this […]

Lockheed Martin on Tuesday reported a strong close to 2019 with double-digit sales and profit growth, and the company expects further gains in 2020. The company’s net income in the fourth quarter jumped 15% to $1.5 billion, or $5.29 per share, from $1.3 billion, or $4.39 a share, a year ago. That was comfortably above […]

New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation this month called on the Department of Energy to suspend a controversial order that the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) says has curtailed its access to nuclear-weapon sites. The Energy Department should lift the almost 2-year-old Order 140.1 to comply with recent changes to federal law that require […]

Lynchburg, Va. -based BWX Technologies has promoted Richard Loving to the newly created post of senior vice president and chief administrative officer (CAO). Loving has been senior vice president for human resources at BWXT since mid-2016. He has about 40 years of management experience in manufacturing, energy, and government operations, according to a press release. That […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) pledged to this year implement several incremental steps toward a common financial reporting system that Congress has ordered put in place by December, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO’s report includes a letter from NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty describing three steps the agency would […]

Citing the dwindling power of arms control agreements and escalating tensions with adversarial nations, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists this week moved the hands of its symbolic Doomsday Clock 20 seconds closer to a metaphorical midnight that symbolizes the extinction of humanity via general thermonuclear war, civilization-altering climate change, or both. In a press […]

The story “Centerra Parent Downgraded by Credit Raters, Signs Forbearance Agreement” (Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, Vol. 24, No. 03, Jan. 17, 2020) should have reported that Centerra’s paramilitary security contract extension at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was scheduled to expire in February. The U.S. Energy Department can exercise two more four-month options […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) hopes to meet soon with new U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to discuss public health and safety issues at nuclear sites overseen by his agency. In a Jan. 16 letter, DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton congratulated Brouillette on his December confirmation as energy secretary and said the board would […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has doubled down in the new year on its refusal to accept a safety recommendation from the Defense Nuclear Faciliites Safety Board (DNFSB) regarding tritium facilities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “[T]he Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE) provides adequate protection of the public and worker safety,” Lisa […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has doubled down in the new year on its refusal to accept a safety recommendation from the Defense Nuclear Faciliites Safety Board (DNFSB) regarding tritium facilities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “[T]he Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE) provides adequate protection of the public and worker safety,” Lisa […]

The power substation that will route electricity to the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is finished, the National Nuclear Security Administration said. The Tennessee Valley Authority designed and built the $60 million substation, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency wrote in a press release on Monday. Aspects of the substation have irked […]

The prime contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex will host an industry day on Jan. 15 for companies interested in building a new lithium production complex at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., site, according to a sources sought note posted online before the winter holidays. The Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) is requesting information from those […]

The power substation that will route electricity to the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is finished, the National Nuclear Security Administration said. The Tennessee Valley Authority designed and built the $60 million substation, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency wrote in a press release on Monday.  Aspects of the substation have […]

The prime contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex will host an industry day on Jan. 15 for companies interested in building a new lithium production complex at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., site, according to a sources sought note posted online before the winter holidays. The Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) is requesting information from […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear production complex awakens in earnest from a post-Cold War slumber in the 2020s, and the agency has a year of stable funding to launch a decade in which a major foreign policy decision could change the tack of the ongoing U.S. nuclear modernization program. It is, of course, a […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is revising its plan to implement recommendations the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board made this year about the Pantex nuclear-weapon servicing plant in Texas. “The Department of Energy has accepted the need to revise and update our implementation plan,” James McConnell, NNSA associate administrator for safety, infrastructure, and […]

The Kansas City, Mo., National Security Campus plans this coming spring to open a small satellite factory about 1 mile east from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) main workshop for non-nuclear components of nuclear-weapon. “Occupancy is expected to begin next spring after tenant improvements such as utilities and furnishings are completed,” a spokesperson […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is revising its plan to implement recommendations the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board made this year about the Pantex nuclear-weapon servicing plant. “The Department of Energy has accepted the need to revise and update our implementation plan,” James McConnell, NNSA associate administrator for safety, infrastructure, and operations, said […]

The Kansas City, Mo., National Security Campus plans this coming spring to open a small satellite factory about 1 mile east from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) main workshop for non-nuclear components of nuclear-weapon. “Occupancy is expected to begin next spring after tenant improvements such as utilities and furnishings are completed,” a spokesperson […]

Department of Energy contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security returned some piping to a subcontractor after determining it was unsuitable for installation in the main uranium processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. Subcontractor Hicks & Ingle, of Knoxville, Tenn., fabricated the pipes under a two-year contract awarded in 2018. A spokesperson for Consolidated […]

House Democrats opted not to fall on their swords this week to slow the ongoing nuclear arsenal modernization program, when they overwhelmingly supported passage of a National Defense Authorization Act that approves just about all the Department of Energy weapons spending requests for fiscal 2020. That means that through the Sept. 30 end of the […]

Department of Energy contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security returned some piping to a subcontractor after determining it was unsuitable for installation in the main uranium processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. Mechanical contractor Hicks & Ingle, of Knoxville, Tenn., fabricated the pipes under a two-year contract awarded in 2018. A spokesperson for […]