Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Plutonium downblending at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has increased significantly following the addition of shifts in November 2018. Assuming things go well, another increase in shifts could come late in fiscal 2020, about a year sooner than the initial target date. Workers have downblended just over 17 kilograms […]

A federal court on Tuesday declined to make the Department of Energy pay $200 million in fines for failing to remove weapon-usable plutonium from South Carolina, depriving the state of some leverage in its ongoing court press to rid itself of the surplus nuclear material. “Under the circumstances of this case, plaintiff’s proper course to […]

In the latest turn in a nearly year-old legal battle, Nevada plans to ask a federal judge to force the Department of Energy to remove half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium shipped to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in 2018, according to court papers. The state revealed its plan in a procedural motion […]

Neile Miller, former principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), has joined Nevada National Security Site operating contractor Mission Support and Test Services as head of government affairs, the company announced Monday. Miller was No. 2 at the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency from August 2010 through June 2013, according […]

A federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to overturn a lower court’s refusal to stop the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from carrying out an already-completed shipment of plutonium to Nevada. After deciding the appeal on briefs, without an oral argument from either Nevada or attorneys representing the NNSA, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in […]

A worker at the Savannah River National Laboratory was restricted from radiological work for the rest of 2019 after receiving a dose of radiation somewhere off site that put him well above a key exposure threshold at the Aiken, S.C. site, a spokesperson for site contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions said Wednesday. The employee took […]

The ExchangeMonitor is heading into its annual August recess, and Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published during the second and third full weeks of the month. We’ll still be in the office, so keep the news tips coming, and look for the next weekly newsletter in your inbox on Friday, Aug. 30.

A half-decade after Congress gave the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) special authority to bar certain suppliers from providing components for nuclear weapons, the agency still has exercised that power, the Government Accountability Office said this week. The new report is the third time the congressional watchdog has checked in on the agency’s use, or […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it has shipped 1 metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium out of South Carolina as ordered by a federal court in 2017. The Department of Energy and its semiautonomous nuclear-weapon branch “have removed not less than one metric ton of defense plutonium or defense plutonium materials from the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to start building the replacement for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) some time after Sept. 30, 2021, according to the agency’s latest annual report on its nonproliferation programs. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon branch formally terminated construction of the Savannah River Site facility in October, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said late Wednesday it has shipped a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium out of South Carolina, as ordered by a federal court in 2017. The Department of Energy and its semiautonomous nuclear-weapon branch “have removed not less than one metric ton of defense plutonium or defense plutonium materials from the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to start building the replacement for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) some time after Sept. 30, 2021, according to the agency’s latest annual report on its nonproliferation programs. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon branch formally terminated construction of the Savannah River Site facility in October, […]

As the calendar flipped to August, the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility delivered nearly 30 more layoff notices that will reduce the facility to a skeleton crew of around 350 employees, according to a recent post on a South Carolina government-affiliated website.  CB&I Project Services delivered 29 more pink slips on Aug. 2, according to […]

BWX Technologies said Monday it posted $471 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2019, 7.4% better than the $439 million recorded for the same period in 2018. Net income for the quarter dropped slightly to $58.9 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, from $60.7 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, a year earlier. […]

South Carolina wants the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to raid its defense nuclear nonproliferation budget to pay $200 million in fines for failing to remove weapon-usable plutonium from the state, according to the latest filing in a long-running federal lawsuit. The state claimed in last week’s filing in U.S. District Court that the NNSA’s own […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry and National Nuclear Security Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty met Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) this week at the Nevada National Security Site, weeks after the agency halted prohibited shipments of nuclear waste to the facility and months after it received clandestine delivery of weapon-usable plutonium. That is according to a Thursday report […]

Debating nine of her rivals for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made her case again for a U.S. policy against first use of nuclear weapons. “The United States is not going to use nuclear weapons preemptively, and we need to say so to the entire world. It reduces […]

The prime contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex is tightening its criticality safety program and increasing oversight and monitoring of that regime to prevent an accidental nuclear chain reaction, following a recent federal report that deemed the existing program at the main U.S. uranium processing site “inadequate.” The Oak Ridge, Tenn., site houses National […]

A power outage at the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility (DAF) interrupted some of the site’s nuclear stockpile stewardship operations for about two weeks this month, a spokesperson said. The outage happened July 1, after a series of mishaps in replacing the DAF’s uninterruptible power source — a backup power supply system that […]

The prime contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex is tightening its criticality safety program and increasing oversight and monitoring of that regime to prevent an accidental nuclear chain reaction, following a recent federal report that deemed the existing program at the main U.S. uranium processing site “inadequate.” After a month-long inspection last year of […]

Debating nine of her rivals for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made her case again for a U.S. policy against first use of nuclear weapons. “The United States is not going to use nuclear weapons preemptively, and we need to say so to the entire world. It reduces […]

Holtec International beat two competitors to take a roughly $4.8 million, firm-fixed-priced contract to design and build transportation equipment for tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, a spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said Friday. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which Battelle Memorial Institute manages for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, awarded the contract […]

An air tunnel at a degrading Savannah River Site nuclear materials processing facility should be able to withstand an earthquake, according to a detailed analysis for the Department of Energy, despite concerns raised two years ago by a federal safety board. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), management and operations contractor for the 310-square-mile DOE facility […]

An air tunnel at a degrading Savannah River Site nuclear materials processing facility should be able to withstand an earthquake, according to a detailed analysis for the Department of Energy, despite concerns raised two years ago by a federal safety board. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), management and operations contractor for the 310-square-mile DOE facility […]

Holtec International beat two competitors to take a roughly $4.8 million, firm-fixed-priced contract to design and build transportation equipment for tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, a spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said Friday. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which Battelle Memorial Institute manages for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, awarded the contract […]

A federal appeals court decided last week it does not need to hear oral arguments about whether the U.S. government violated environmental law when it sent half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada in 2018. In what could be a sign that judges will rule swiftly on Nevada’s appeal of a lower […]

Preparations began this week for repairing the roof on the H Canyon facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, with the physical repairs due to start later this summer. In January, the Energy Department announced plans to spend an estimated $1 million from the SRS fiscal 2019 maintenance and […]

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Preparations began this week for repairing the roof on the H Canyon facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, with the physical repairs due to start later this summer. In January, the Energy Department announced plans to spend an estimated $1 million from the SRS fiscal 2019 maintenance and […]

A federal appeals court decided last week it does not need to hear oral arguments about whether the U.S. government violated environmental law when it sent half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada in 2018. In what could be a sign that judges will rule swiftly on Nevada’s appeal of a lower […]