Vol. 20, No. 8

International

U.S., Russian Officials Trade INF Treaty Violation Accusations

U.S. and Russian officials on Wednesday renewed claims that their governments had violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and sparred over the consequences of aggressive rhetoric toward one another. Jon Wolfsthal, senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, said at the ExchangeMonitor Nuclear Deterrence Summit that the U.S. seeks a resolution […]
  • Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad

    Air Force On Track For GBSD Milestone A Decision This Year

    Pat Host Defense Daily 2/19/2016 The Air Force is on track for a Milestone A decision this year in its Ground Based Strategic Deterrence (GBSD) program, according to a key officer. Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein said Thursday the Defense Department fiscal year 2017 […]

  • Budget & Policy

    GOP Candidates Back MOX Project

    Three Republican presidential candidates advocated for construction funding for the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) during campaign stops this week in Aiken, S.C. – a town less than 20 miles from the site. President Barack Obama’s 2017 budget request calls for shuttering the MFFF and the entire MOX project, the nation’s […]

  • Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad

    GAO Denies Boeing Protest Of Air Force LRSB Contract Award To Northrop Grumman

    Pat Host Defense Daily 2/19/2016 The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday denied Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB) award to Northrop Grumman. Ralph White, managing associate general counsel for procurement law at GAO, said in a statement that GAO found no basis to sustain or uphold the protest after reviewing Boeing’s […]

  • Life Extension Programs

    NNSA Chief Lauds Life Extension Program, Nonproliferation Progress

    National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Frank Klotz on Wednesday lauded the Obama administration’s progress in modernizing the nation’s nuclear warheads and conducting nonproliferation activities worldwide. Speaking at the ExchangeMonitor Nuclear Deterrence Summit about the NNSA’s $12.9 billion budget request for fiscal 2017, Klotz noted that the proposal includes $222.9 million to complete production of the W76-1 warhead by fiscal 2019; $616.1 million to […]

  • Naval Nuclear Propulsion

    Huntington Ingalls’ Earnings Down Slightly in Quarter, Up For 2015

    Defense contractor Huntington Ingalls on Thursday reported a slight drop in year-over-year net earnings for its latest quarter but a significant spike in full-year income. Fourth-quarter net income dropped from $52 million in fourth-quarter 2014 to $50 million in the three-month period ending 2015. Conversely, net income rose from $338 million for all of 2014 […]

  • Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle

    NNSA Establishes Program for Commercial LEU-Based Medical Isotope Production

    The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in January established a uranium lease and take-back (ULTB) program for the commercial production of medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) using low-enriched uranium (LEU). The goal, the NNSA said this week, is to give commercial producers of the isotope access to Department of Energy (DOE) LEU from its excess uranium inventory for Mo-99 production in the […]

  • Contracts & Procurement

    DOE IG Audit Questions $167K Cost Incurred by B&W Pantex

    The Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General’s Office (IG) is questioning the allowability of over $167,000 in costs incurred by Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Pantex (B&W Pantex), the contractor that managed and operated the Pantex Plant from 2001 to 2014. Of the $966 million in costs the contractor incurred in fiscal 2013 through the […]

  • Contracts & Procurement

    DOE Reimbursing Contractors for Questionable Legal Costs

    The Department of Energy (DOE) has been reimbursing its contractors for settlement and law firm costs without consistently verifying that the payments are allowable, according to an Inspector General’s Office (IG) audit report released earlier this month. The report found that from fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2013, DOE reimbursed contractors over $84 million in legal costs. In […]

  • National Laboratories

    DOE Oak Ridge Office Management in Flux

    At least three executive positions – including the top two – are up for grabs at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office in an unusually unsteady management situation. The situation was created by losses at the top of the organization, including the death a year ago of Manager Larry Kelly and then the departure […]

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