Vol. 1, No. 27

Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

CNS Scrambles to Manage Funding ‘Imbalance’ at Y-12, Pantex

Consolidated Nuclear Security, the managing contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plant, is scrambling to get its funding accounts back in order after a series of events created what has been described as an “imbalance.” Even though CNS is reportedly within its budget and meeting production goals for the National Nuclear Security Administration, […]
  • Decommissioning

    DOE Picks Up $750M Option on Fluor’s Portsmouth D&D Contract

    The Energy Department announced Tuesday that Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth will stay on the job decontaminating and decommissioning the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant for another two-and-a-half years, under a $750 million contract option. Together with the roughly $1.6 billion, five-year base contract awarded in 2011, the Portsmouth demolition work is now worth up to $$2.35 billion to […]

  • Commercial Decommissioning

    Entergy Outsources Security at Vermont Yankee

    Entergy announced Tuesday that it will hire Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services to provide protective services for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant starting June 28.  Vermont Yankee security manager Patrick Ryan said in a statement that outsourcing plant security will “greatly reduce administrative burden over the next four years,” noting that the top priority “continues to be […]

  • Reactor Licensing & Regulation

    NRC Gets Update on Project Aim

    Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Kristine Svinicki said Tuesday the agency needs to be honest with itself as it works through Project Aim 2020 and avoid using euphemisms and pulling punches. Initiated in 2014, Project Aim is NRC’s attempt to re-evaluate and reduce its staffing and workload to become a more efficient organization. The project includes reducing […]

  • Non-Proliferation

    State Dept. Official Foresees Future Strategic Stability Talks with Russia

    A senior State Department official said Tuesday that despite the challenges that have prevented the current administration from developing a strategic partnership with Russia, a return to negotiations for strategic stability is inevitable. Frank Rose, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance, said at the Wilson Center that the U.S. relationship with Russia has […]

  • Non-Proliferation

    Dem Lawmakers, Nobel Laureates Outline Actions to Sustain Nuclear Security Summit Progress

    Two letters sent this week to President Obama and national leaders attending the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit underscore the importance of concerted efforts to secure nuclear materials and offer technical areas of opportunity for continued progress following the end of the summit process. In a March 28 letter, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    NDAA Must Support Nuke Modernization: Heritage Foundation

    In the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress should support modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and reject funding for implementing treaties that provide no strategic benefit for the United States, the conservative Heritage Foundation said in a policy paper this week. “U.S. nuclear weapons and delivery systems are aging and in need of […]

  • Plutonium Pit Production

    Correction

    A Weapons Complex Morning Briefing article Tuesday should have said that highly enriched uranium shipped from Canada will be processed and downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to create low-enriched uranium. That material will then be sent to the Tennessee Valley Authority for conversion into reactor fuel.

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