Vol. 26, No. 06

Contracts & Procurement

NNSA Planned to Extend Management Contract at Nuke Production Sites Amid Controversy About Follow-On Award

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With transition to a follow-on contract derailed for now, the National Nuclear Security Administration planned to extend the existing site-management contract for two of its main nuclear-weapons production sites for up to a year, people familiar with the plans said this week. Incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), a team led by Bechtel […]
  • Contracts & Procurement

    NNSA Performance Evaluations for Fiscal ‘21: COVID, Cost and Schedule

    Below is Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s annual digest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) performance evaluation summaries: the agency’s report cards for its big contracts, which explain how much management and operations entities earned for their performance. The Monitor has provided links to NNSA source documents. For fiscal year 2021, which began Oct. […]

  • Life Extension Programs

    NNSA Assessing COVID-Related Delays to Warhead Refurbs; Results in Spring

    ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Maybe by March, the National Nuclear Security Administration will understand the extent to which COVID-19 has delayed modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons, the agency’s top Washington-based weapons official said here Tuesday. Programs under review include the W80-4 air-launched cruise missile warhead, which the agency said last year looked to be affected by […]

  • Budget & Policy

    Threefold COVID Increase in a Month as NNSA Rides Omicron Wave

    Confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration enterprise have tripled since January and are also three times higher than this time last year, according to data from agency headquarters. The civilian nuclear weapons steward also reported five confirmed COVID-19-related deaths since the first week of January, spokespersons from headquarters in Washington […]

  • Plutonium Pit Production

    Admiral Asks, What is NNSA’s ‘Real Capacity’ for Pits and When Can Agency ‘Really’ Make Them

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Depending on when the National Nuclear Security Administration can “really” manufacture new plutonium pits, and depending on what “the real capacity” to make pits is, the Navy might be locked out of certain design choices for a planned new warhead, an admiral said here Wednesday. “[I]f we can’t get the requisite number […]

  • Non-Proliferation

    NNSA Rethinking Mission of Nonproliferation Office; Review Imminent

    ALEXANDRIA, VA — The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to reassess the priorities of its Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, senior administration officials said here this week. The review, which had yet to start as of Wednesday, will “reexamine the priorities and missions” of the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) “in light of the […]

  • Budget & Policy

    House Passes Mini-Continuing Resolution to Keep Agencies Open Until March 11

    The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday approved a three-week stopgap funding plan to keep the federal government open through March 11 after the current continuing resolution expires on Feb. 18. The full House voted Tuesday evening  272-to-162 to approve the short-term extension while appropriators continue to work on a spending plan to carry the government […]

  • Stockpile Stewardship

    Nevada Site Mining Project, Crucial for Subcritical’s Future, to be Baselined in June

    ALEXANDRIA, VA. — A mining and construction project at the Nevada National Security Site critical to the next generation of non-explosive, nuclear-stockpile testing should have its cost and schedule set in June, the head of the site’s management contractor said here Tuesday. An independent cost estimate of the U1a Complex Enhancements Project’s (UCEP) Infrastructure and […]

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