Vol. 23, No. 20 
House Appropriations Committee to Take Up DOE Funding Bill Tuesday
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Life Extension Programs
Bad Capacitors Not Used in Deployed Nukes, NNSA Says
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 […]
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Uranium Enrichment & Fuel Cycle
U.K. Uranium Socked Away at Y-12
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 […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
MOX Contractor, NNSA Set for Oral Arguments Next Week Over Fee-Interest Payment
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 […]
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Non-Proliferation
International Isotopes Files Insurance Claim After Contamination Incident at University of Washington
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 […]
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National Laboratories
Fluor Board Appoints New CEO
As expected, major Energy Department contractor Fluor has formally selected longtime executive Carlos Hernandez as its permanent CEO, about two weeks after he took the job on an interim basis. Fluor’s Board of Directors also announced Thursday in a press release that Hernandez, previously the company executive vice president and chief legal officer, would serve […]
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Delivery Systems & Nuclear Triad
Navy to Award Next Columbia-Class Contract by Oct. 1
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, […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Homeland Security Must Track Money Sent to Cities for Nuke Detection, GAO Says
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 […]
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Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile
Correction
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.