Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., which should help students there start careers in the Energy Department’s weapons complex. South Carolina State, founded in 1896, is the only historically black college or university in the United States to offer a bachelor’s degree in […]

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said Tuesday the final, conferenced version of the fiscal year defense authorization likely won’t be completed until after the Nov. 3 election. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the outgoing HASC ranking member, noted the conference committee will need to particularly work on settling differences between the […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that could reduce the National Nuclear Security Administration’s autonomy within the Department of Energy. With a pandemic raging in the final four months of an election year, the bill may not become law before the next session of Congress begins in January and kills […]

Confirmed active cases of COVID-19 among National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees rose by six this week, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency said Friday. The NNSA was tracking 104 active cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus on Friday, enough that the rate of confirmed cases outpaced recoveries by half a […]

Issue watchers debated this week whether the secret nuclear weapon discussed in Bob Woodward’s new book about President Donald Trump is the W76-2 low-yield warhead. According to a leaked passage from the Watergate journalist’s soon-to-be-published book, Rage, Trump told Woodward in an interview, sometime between December and July, that “I have built a nuclear — […]

Fluor Corp. said Tuesday it has discovered more errors in past financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the Texas-based Energy Department contractor reported in an SEC filing that a major creditor and trustee, Wells Fargo Bank National Association, last month asserted a “notice of default” against Fluor for failing to […]

Companies interested in managing the two main civilian nuclear-weapon production sites under a potential 10-year, $28-billion contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration will be allowed to visit the facilities on Sept. 22 and Sept. 24. The agency announced in June that it would not pick up further options on incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract […]

As expected, the Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to build the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the next generation of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, under a nine-year contract worth $13.3 billion. The Air Force announced the new contract late Monday. Northrop’s stock got a boost Wednesday after the news, but the per-share price has since slid […]

Addressing the elephant in the desert, an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday warned that ongoing nuclear-weapon maintenance will require a transuranic waste disposal site that is open beyond 2050: the current, best-case availability for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “From an NNSA perspective, with an enduring mission, […]

By Frank Wolfe Defense Daily The U.S. Air Force on Sept. 2 awarded Northrop Grumman a $135 million contract for refurbishment of the inertial navigation system of the Boeing AGM-86B Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM). “Work encompasses the disassembly, cleaning, inspection, maintenance, re-assembly, testing and finishing actions as required to return the end item to a […]

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton is resigning from the panel, effective next week, the agency said Monday. Hamilton submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump, according to a one-paragraph announcement from the agency. The DNFSB said Hamilton will depart on Sept. 12 – just over two months after he was confirmed […]

Recoveries from COVID-19 outpaced new confirmed cases among employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week, the agency said Friday. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapon steward was tracking 98 confirmed, active cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, a spokesperson said. That is down by 13 confirmed, active cases from last week. […]

The Pentagon is keeping a close eye on nuclear weapons life-extension programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic, but to date there have been no signs of any delays, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday. “I don’t believe that there have been any COVID-related implications to the life-extension programs,” Robert […]

The Senate delegation from Massachusetts looks set to retain it tag-team of nuclear disarmament advocates into the next presidential term, now that Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has defeated Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) in a Democratic primary in the blue state. At deadline Friday, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth had not released the official […]

To settle a lawsuit filed in 2016, the federal government will pay $600 million to South Carolina in recognition of the Department of Energy’s inability to remove several metric tons of plutonium from the state by a legal deadline of 2022, the parties said Monday. The money is expected by the end of September from […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California received a VIP visit from the head of U.S. Strategic Command this week, as it continues to work on the warhead-refresh for the airborne leg of the nation's nuclear triad. Navy Adm. Charles Richard visited the Livermore, Calif., weapons laboratory on Monday, as wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic continued […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week officially green-lit the Los Alamos National Laboratory to make 30 war-ready warhead cores in 2026 for next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles. Under the long-expected decision, the northern New Mexico weapon-design laboratory “will produce a minimum of 30 war reserve pits per year for the national pit production mission […]

China has more than 200 nuclear warheads and about enough fissile material on hand to make at least that many more, according to a report published Tuesday by the Department of Defense. Doubling that stockpile is exactly what Beijing is likely to do over the next 10 years, the Pentagon stated in the 2020 version […]

Some 1,500 people showed up online Wednesday to check out job opportunities in the nuclear security enterprise during the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) third virtual job fair of the summer. Roughly 2,000 people registered to attend by providing resumes and other information, and most of those got at least some virtual face time with […]

A report from the University of New Mexico concludes the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in recent years was worth more than $3.1 billion to the state, although the economic benefit is concentrated in a few counties. A summary of the report was presented Aug. 21 to the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) […]

A coalition of local communities surrounding the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is back in the good financial graces of the Energy Department after repaying nearly $16,000 in grant money. Earlier this year, the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) repaid the agency $15,767 for expenditures questioned  in a September 2019 report by […]

In an order as bristly as the late Wilford Brimley’s legendary mustache, a federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing of a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his connection to a Chinese government program. Sentencing had been set for Wednesday in U.S. District Court for New Mexico, and […]

If the New START nuclear arms-limitation treaty expires in February, and the United States decides to boost its deployed nuclear weapons, the Department of Energy could face billions of dollars in one-time and recurring costs, the Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday. While the study, “The Potential Costs of Expanding U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces If the New […]

The downtown Seattle building contaminated with cesium-137 after what the Department of Energy called a “preventable” quality control lapse by a radiological source-removal contractor should reopen in about a year, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) top nonproliferation official said Thursday.  “We are hopeful the University of Washington could reoccupy the building within a matter […]

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Congress will need to pass a continuing resolution to keep the Department of Energy and all other federal agencies open beyond the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, a panel of Washington, D.C., insiders said Thursday. “It’s almost guaranteed we are going to end up in a […]

Democrats do not explicitly endorse a no-first use policy for nuclear weapons, according to the official 2020 platform that crystalizes their pitch to voters ahead of the November presidential election, but they come about as close as they could. The party platform says Democrats “believe that the sole purpose of our nuclear arsenal should be […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor took its annual summer recess in mid-August, but we kept track of the nuke news during the publishing holiday and have compiled it here for you. NNSA Helo Sweeps Charlotte Ahead of GOP Convention  The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) dispatched a radiation-sniffing helicopter to the skies of Charlotte, N.C., […]