Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

On Friday, a U.S. attorney representing the National Nuclear Security Administration in a contractor lawsuit appealed a court decision to let some 20 MOX Services employees retain access to vital project information about cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The federal government had not filed its appeal with the U.S. Court of […]

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee recommends funding the Navy’s analysis of alternatives (AoA) for a new nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N), but has concerns and directs the Secretary of the Navy to submit a report estimating costs. The subcommittee marked up a draft FY 2020 defense appropriations bill on May 16, making recommendations to the […]

By Richard Abott Defense Daily The next contract for the U.S. Navy’s program to build its fleet of Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines will be the Block I construction contract, according to program manager Capt. John Rucker. That is expected to cover the first two boats. “[W]e will award that no later than Oct. 1, 2019, […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., has taken custody of some 700 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the United Kingdom, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said. The material, shipped to the U.S. from the U.K.’s Dounreay fast-reactor decommissioning site beginning in 2016, was at Oak Ridge awaiting downblending in “commercial […]

Oral arguments are set for Thursday between the contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) and its customer, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), over some $800,000 in interest the contractor says it is owed. CB&I AREVA MOX Services sued the NNSA in 2016, and repeatedly afterward in cases that have been […]

An article in the May 3 issue of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor should have said that the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority arranged to ship 700 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to an undisclosed U.S. site.

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee is set to vote early next week on a 2020 budget bill that would increase the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2020 budget overall, but provide fewer dollars than requested for active nuclear weapons programs. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee approved the unamended, $46.4 billion Energy and […]

Deployed nuclear weapons do not contain the underperforming commercial capacitors blamed for delaying delivery of the first B61-12 and W88 Alt 370 nuclear weapons, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency “has verified that these components are not in use in other deployed weapons, nor will they […]

International Isotopes on Wednesday confirmed its role in an accident two weeks ago that contaminated more than a dozen people with cesium-137 during the Department of Energy-funded removal of a blood-irradiation machine from a research facility at the University of Washington in Seattle. “[O]ur radiological services team was involved in a contamination event at an […]

The Department of Homeland Security should pay closer attention to how cities are spending federal dollars earmarked for an anti-nuclear-terrorism program, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. The DHS Securing the Cities program began in 2006 and helps municipalities develop plans to prevent and respond to acts of radiological terror, including deployment of the radiological […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management could issue a half-dozen major contract nuclear cleanup awards, collectively worth up to $35 billion, by the end of 2019. The office’s ’s latest procurement schedule, dated May 10, outlines an ambitious schedule of contract deals this year. Environmental Management updates its timelines every few months and the […]

A trace of a radiological contaminant was discovered on a plutonium shipping container as it was returned last month to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. There were no leaks, spills, or exposures to workers or the environment, according to an April 25 DOE occurrence report. The 5-gallon shipping container held less than 40 milliliters of a […]

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee on Wednesday sent the first draft of the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2020 budget bill to the full Appropriations Committee for consideration next week. The subcommittee will reveal its preferred spending levels for key programs in a detailed bill report to be published Monday, a […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management could issue a half-dozen major contract awards, collectively worth up to $35 billion, by the end of 2019. The office’s ’s latest procurement schedule, dated May 10, outlines an ambitious schedule of contract deals this year. Environmental Management updates its timelines every few months and the target dates […]

The company that manages the Savannah River Site in South Carolina approved $8.5 million worth of improper invoices from one of its subcontractors from October 2014 to June 2016, according to a new Department of Energy audit. That amount, which includes filings for information technology goods and services, represented 95 percent of the $9 million in […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee sliced $600 million from the Donald Trump administration’s 2020 budget request for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in a spending bill unveiled Tuesday. If signed into law, the energy and water appropriations legislation would give the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch around $15.9 billion for the fiscal year […]

The Department of Homeland Security should pay closer attention to how cities are spending federal dollars earmarked for an anti-nuclear-terrorism program, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. The DHS Securing the Cities program began in 2006 and helps municipalities develop plans to prevent and respond to acts of radiological terror, including deployment of the radiological […]

Oral arguments are set for May 23 between the contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) and its customer, the National Nuclear Security Administration, over some $800,000 in interest the contractor says it is owed. CB&I Areva MOX Services sued the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in 2016, and repeatedly afterward in […]

The next contract for the U.S. Navy’s program to build its fleet of Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines will be the Block I construction contract, according to program manager Capt. John Rucker. That is expected to cover the first two boats. “[W]e will award that no later than Oct. 1, 2019, to build the ships on […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) indicated Monday it will not start disposal of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium in South Carolina until 2028 — a date by which the agency could accrue more than $1 billion in financial penalties for failing to remove the material from the South Carolina facility. The semiautonomous […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2020 Energy and Water appropriations bill that contains the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget will include about 4% more funding than the enacted 2019 bill did, according to spending limits published this week by the House Appropriations Committee. The total allocation for the 2020 Energy and Water Development appropriations bill, […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will be late in making initial deliveries to the Pentagon of two refurbished nuclear weapons, the head of the Energy Department’s semiautonomous nuclear-weapon agency said this week. The Air Force was supposed to get its refurbished B61, to be called B61-12, in 2020. The Navy was supposed […]

There are no problems with the data from a recent subcritical plutonium experiment in Nevada, despite the unprecedented breach of the protective steel container in which the explosive test took place, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said. The breach also has not set back the schedule for other planned subcritical tests, despite personnel at […]

A hole in a calibration valve caused the hydrogen fluoride leak that prompted the operations contractor of the Y-12 National Security Complex to evacuate the main U.S. uranium processing building in early April, according to a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). “Based on a visual inspection, a hole was identified […]

A big, mostly Democratic group of lawmakers from both sides of Capitol Hill wants the Pentagon to explain why it ditched its decades-old consultancy contract with the MITRE Corp.’s JASON group of scientists, a move that prompted the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to step in and fund the contract That is according to a […]

The Department of Energy’s contractor for the now-terminated plutonium recycling facility at the Savannah River Site is suing to recoup what it says is nearly $53 million the federal government failed to pay for its work. CB&I AREVA MOX Services added in its May 2 lawsuit that the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration were set to meet Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) in Nevada on Friday, about a week after after the Silver State’s senior senator stopped blocking nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs because of a contentious plutonium shipment last […]

Thirteen people at a University of Washington research facility were exposed to cesium-137 last week when a contractor attempted to remove a blood irradiator as part of a Department of Energy-funded program. Personnel were removing a cesium irradiator manufactured by J. L. Shepherd and Associates from the premises on May 3 when the workers “nicked […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will be late with initial deliveries to the Pentagon of two refurbished nuclear weapons, the head of the semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency said here Wednesday. The Air Force was supposed to get its refurbished B61, to be called B61-12, in 2020. The Navy was supposed to get its […]

A big, mostly Democratic group of lawmakers from both sides of Capitol Hill wants the Pentagon to explain why it ditched its decades-old consultancy contract with the MITRE Corp.’s JASON group of scientists, a move that prompted the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to step in and fund the contract That is according to a […]