Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will get its full-year appropriation on time for the 2019 fiscal year, after President Donald Trump on Friday signed a multi-agency appropriations act that includes more than $15 billion for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency. Overall, the NNNSA will get a roughly 4-percent year-over-year raise for […]

A sentencing date has been scheduled for the second man who pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government while serving as a subcontractor for the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Aaron Vennefron is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1 in Columbia, S.C., according to an order last week from U.S. […]

A judge recently spiked the Department of Energy’s motion to dismiss a complaint lodged by CB&I AREVA MOX Services in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, potentially allowing the government contractor to collect what it alleges are almost $6.5 million in improperly denied fees. The complaint is one of eight now consolidated under a $200-million-plus […]

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Charles Verdon to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons portfolio as deputy administrator for defense programs. Verdon, most recently principal associate director at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate, got the thumbs-up nearly seven months after President Donald Trump nominated him for the top NNSA weapons post. […]

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Charles Verdon to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons portfolio as deputy administrator for defense programs. Verdon, most recently principal associate director at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate, got the thumbs-up nearly seven months after President Donald Trump nominated him for the top NNSA weapons post. […]

Democrats in the House and Senate on Tuesday unveiled legislative language that would ban research, development, manufacturing, and fielding of the planned low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead for which Congress approved $65 million in funding during the fiscal year that begins in 13 days. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) sponsored the House bill, with co-sponsors Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it will keep only essential safety and security staff on duty if Hurricane Florence threatens the nearby region inland. The essential staff number fluctuates depending on what is needed at the time, but in recent memory it has been roughly 340 members of the […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing is retracting the story “Pentagon Needs New Nuke Cores for Cruise Missile, Official Says” (Sept. 6), which contained two fundamental inaccuracies. We have removed the story from our website. To correct the inaccuracies in the story: 1 – The W80-4 nuclear warhead planned to be carried by the Pentagon’s next-generation air-launched […]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) this week demanded the Department of Energy conduct additional environmental reviews before sending any defense plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site from the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. In December 2017, a federal judge ordered DOE to move not less than 1 metric ton of defense plutonium out of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) reaffirmed Tuesday that, despite public comments and even a federal lawsuit that say otherwise, it does not need to perform another environmental review of the Uranium Processing Facility being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency “has determined, at […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) reaffirmed Tuesday that, despite public comments and even a federal lawsuit that say otherwise, it does not need to perform another environmental review of the Uranium Processing Facility being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency “has determined, at […]

The August doldrums in Washington weren’t quite as quiet as in past years, and there was plenty of news during the ExchangeMonitor’s annual publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories we’ve been following. NNSA Sticks With Plan to Increase Plutonium Limit in Los Alamos Rad Lab To support […]

The Department of Energy this week released a draft solicitation for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract that could be worth nearly $15 billion over 10 years, including construction of new tritium facilities to power up U.S. nuclear weapons. Interested parties can meet DOE officials on site for two days of one-on-one meetings and […]

It would be “logical” for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to take over as landlord of the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., “at some point,” the site’s top federal manager told attendees of a local group’s breakfast meeting Wednesday. Savannah River Site Manager Michael Budney’s remarks before the Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday released a draft solicitation for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract that could be worth nearly $15 billion over 10 years, including construction of new tritium facilities to power up U.S. nuclear weapons. Interested parties can meet DOE officials on site for three days of one-on-one meetings beginning […]

The White House on Friday announced the anticipated nominee to fill the No. 2 slot at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, which has been vacant throughout the Trump administration. Longtime Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory senior physicist William Bookless would take over as NNSA principal deputy administrator upon Senate confirmation, according to the […]

The ExchangeMonitor is taking its August recess, and Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published during the second and third 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. 24.

With one day left to spare, the U.S. Energy Department announced Monday that it would extend by one year the contract for the Savannah River Site’s management and operations provider. The initial contract for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), a 10-year deal worth $9.5 billion, was set to expire on July 31. In its press […]

The Senate plans to approve the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains major policy provisions for active nuclear weapons programs and Cold-War waste cleanup at the Department of Energy, before it leaves Washington for a brief summer recess next week, according to a spokesperson for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). At deadline […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is scheduled to meet Aug. 28 to discuss a Department of Energy order that could limit the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog’s ability to police the U.S. nuclear-weapons complex. The board has suggested that senior DOE officials, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is sending two of its technical staffers on new assignments to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Matthew Duncan will become Oak Ridge resident inspector on Aug. 20, while Brandon Weathers will become an Oak Ridge resident inspector in December, the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) decision to study transferring some $300 million in annual defense nuclear materials operations to Tennessee from South Carolina is “routine,” according to the head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup mission at the Savannah River Site. “This is just a routine kind of process we always go through, especially […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is scheduled to meet Aug. 28 to discuss a Department of Energy order that could limit the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog’s ability to police the U.S. nuclear-weapons complex. The board has suggested that senior DOE officials, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is scheduled to meet Aug. 28 to discuss a Department of Energy order that could limit the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog’s ability to police the U.S. nuclear-weapons complex. The board has suggested that senior DOE officials, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is sending two of its technical staffers on new assignments to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Matthew Duncan will become Oak Ridge resident inspector on Aug. 20, while Brandon Weathers will become an Oak Ridge resident inspector in December, the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) decision to study transferring some $300 million in annual defense nuclear materials operations to Tennessee from South Carolina is “routine,” according to the head of the Department of Energy’s cleanup mission at the Savannah River Site. “This is just a routine kind of process we always go through, especially […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) offered no comment Monday on the Department of Energy’s latest attempt to temper the independent watchdog’s insight into weapons-related nuclear facilities across the country. A DNFSB spokesperson would not comment Monday about a Sunday article  from ProPublica and the local Santa Fe New Mexican that DOE approved a new order […]

WASHINGTON — The Congressman who represents the Y-12 National Security Complex is confident the weapons facility could handle the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium mission, should the agency eventually move the mission to Oak Ridge, Tenn. “I want NNSA [the National Nuclear Security Administration] to make the final decision, but the Oak Ridge Reservation can […]

WASHINGTON — The Congressman who represents the Y-12 National Security Complex is confident the weapons facility could handle the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium mission, should the agency eventually move the mission to Oak Ridge, Tenn. “I want NNSA [the National Nuclear Security Administration] to make the final decision, but the Oak Ridge Reservation can […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is considering a radical restructuring of its nuclear weapons mission at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, including moving some work to another location. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency, said she must at least consider winding down certain operations at the Aiken, S.C., […]