Vol. 21, No. 44 
Moving Pit Production From New Mexico Would be Harder Under NDAA
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
NDAA Heads to Trump’s Desk With MOX, Cruise Missile, Albuquerque Funds
Congress this week sent a defense authorization bill to President Donald Trump’s desk that would authorize research into a new nuclear-capable cruise missile, allow construction of a controversial plutonium processing facility the administration wants to cancel, and let the Department of Energy build a new office building for nuclear-weapons support personnel in Albuquerque. The House […]
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National Laboratories
UC Regent Says LANL Prime Members Will Split Up, Compete for Next Lab Contract
The company that has run the Los Alamos National Laboratory for a decade will split up, with members of the incumbent manager set to pursue separate bids to run the nuclear weapons lab for the next 10 years, a University of California official said Wednesday. The University of California (UC) managed the Los Alamos National […]
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Budget & Policy
Lawmakers Mull Changes in Presidential Nuke Launch Authority
A day after an influential Senate committee mulled whether to change the president’s unilateral authority to launch a nuclear strike, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee introduced a bill to ban the U.S. from launching a nuclear first strike. U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Wednesday introduced exceptionally short legislation that would […]
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Budget & Policy
Trump Plans to Nominate NEI Lobbyist to DOE Congressional Affairs Post
President Donald Trump plans to nominate nuclear industry lobbyist and former Capitol Hill staffer Melissa Burnison as assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, the White House announced Wednesday. If nominated and then confirmed by the Senate, Burnison would lead the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs as the principal Department of Energy […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Changing MOX Contract Would Not Resolve Rising Costs, GAO Says
Changing the structure of the contract for the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would not necessarily help restrain the rising costs for building the plant that will eliminate stocks of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Wednesday. The report does not include any recommended action, but rather reveals […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Energy Communities Alliance Wants DNFSB Preserved
An interest group representing communities that host Department of Energy nuclear weapons and cleanup sites wants a meeting with the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), who earlier this summer urged the White House to dissolve the decades-old safety watchdog. The Energy Communities Alliance “believes DNFSB must not be eliminated in order […]
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National Laboratories
Sandia Contracting Official Swindled $2M In Contracting Scheme: Indictment
A former contracting official at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico swindled the government out of more than $2 million by steering a lab contract to a moving company she founded, according to an indictment filed this week with the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. In 2010, while employed at the Department of Energy […]
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Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle
Centrus Energy on Pace to Finish Piketon D&D This Year
Centrus Energy said this week it anticipates completing cleanup of its retired advanced centrifuge technology demonstration site in Piketon, Ohio, by the end of the year. Decontamination and decommissioning of the American Centrifuge facility began in the second quarter of 2016 after the Department of Energy cut off funding for the project the year before […]
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National Laboratories
At Los Alamos
UT Still in Hunt for Next LANL Management Contract The University of Texas has not suspended work on its bid to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a spokesperson for the Austin-based institution said. “Bid preparation is in progress and will be reviewed by the Board of Regents later this month,” a University of […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Publication Notice
Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Friday, Nov. 24, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 1.