Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

An employee at the Nevada National Security Site died of COVID-19, an agency spokesperson reported this week, marking the second confirmed fatality attributable to the viral disease among civilian nuclear-weapons workers. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spokesperson declined to identify the individual, or say what job this person did at Nevada.  However, the spokesperson […]

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee used a Thursday nomination hearing to spotlight his opposition to House legislation that would made it harder for the Department of Energy to collaborate with the Pentagon on future nuclear weapons budget requests. That result is something “some people … in the Department of Energy” would like, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it plans to conduct a new, broad environmental review of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Livermore’s last such review, officially known as a site-wide environmental impact statement, was in 2005. The new review will cover operations for the next 15 years. In that time, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will continue to bundle management of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas in the post Consolidated Nuclear Security era, according to a pre-procurement note posted on July 31. The single contract would be worth up to $28 billion over 10 years, including […]

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office repeated what some nuke-doubters in and out of Congress have been saying for a while: the bigger budget the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it needs to keep current and planned programs on track could eat other defense programs’ lunch. “Such an increase may require cuts […]

South Carolina and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be about to cut a deal in the state’s $200 million lawsuit over the federal government’s failure to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site, court papers show. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a joint motion to stay the […]

Uranium fuel broker and enrichment-technology developer Centrus Energy posted a profit in the second quarter, rounding out a profitable first half of 2020 in which a major enrichment demonstration contract with the Department of Energy helped stabilize revenue. Second-quarter net income was more than $33.5 million,  or $3.19 per share, up from a loss of […]

Insulated from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic by its large government contracts and a bread-and-butter nuclear Navy business, BWX Technologies this week posted a modest uptick in both profit and revenue for the second quarter of 2020. Quarterly net income rose $5 million to about $64 million, or $0.67 per share, from about $59 […]

International Isotopes has agreed to a pre-decisional enforcement conference with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over apparent breaches of federal regulations and its license in connection with the May 2019 spill of cesium-137 at a hospital research building in Seattle. The teleconference is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Central time on Tuesday, Aug. 4. The […]

The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in October 2019. Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending 6 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported contained Wednesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon site. The site is investigating the cause of the fire, which was […]

Marshall Billingslea may yet officially become the State Department’s top arms-control official, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday recommended his nomination for a floor vote. The 11-10 vote was split along party lines, with Democrats uniformly opposing Billingslea’s nomination as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security and Republicans almost unanimously […]

Raytheon Technologies on Tuesday said it swung to a loss in the second quarter largely due to a slump in commercial aerospace triggered by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s defense businesses performed well. The commercial outlook remains weak and the company has achieved its cost savings synergies for the year. Sales in the quarter […]

General Dynamics on Wednesday posted lower earnings and sales in its second quarter on continued weakness in its Aerospace segment and an overall decline in its government and defense businesses due to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Net income fell 23% to $625 million, $2.18 earnings per share (EPS), from $806 million ($2.77 EPS), three […]

Boeing on Wednesday reported a loss in its second quarter, but not quite as bad as a year ago, as sales fell sharply on fewer commercial aircraft deliveries due to continued weakness in the 737 MAX passenger jet program, temporary shutdowns of some facilities in the spring, and the ongoing impacts to airlines from the […]

There is just one National Nuclear Security Administration, but it has numerous locations with their own ways of doing business, the administrator of the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency told an advisory group this week. The 16-member Secretary of Energy Advisory Board was chartered in 2018 to provide independent advice to the secretary of energy […]

Fluor Corp. said it has not reported formal earnings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020, as reported in an article in the July 24 edition of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, and will not do so until it answers the regulator’s questions about 2019 earnings. In February, Flour disclosed some preliminary select financial […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)  still plans to produce the first copy of a refurbished Navy submarine warhead in 2021, and the first copy of a refurbished nuclear gravity bomb for the Air Force in 2022, a senior official with the civilian nuclear-weapon agency said Wednesday. Those were the new dates, announced in February, […]

Bolstered by generally solid results across its operating segments, Northrop Grumman on Thursday reported higher sales and earnings in its second quarter and the company raised its outlook for the top and bottom lines for 2020. in a quarterly call with investors, Kathy Warden, the company’s chairman, president, and chief executive officer, said the company […]

There were 15 fewer active cases of COVID-19 this week than last among National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees, marking the first week in July that recoveries outpaced new infections in the complex, according to an agency spokesperson. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency was tracking 114 active cases at deadline Friday, down […]

The House of Representatives on Friday passed a $1.3 trillion “minibus” appropriations package that would give the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) $2 billion less than it requested for fiscal 2021, even as the Senate has yet to release any spending bills and remains tangled up in controversy over a new COVID-19 relief bill. Congress […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is preparing to release another tranche of funding for companies working to produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 without use of weapon-grade uranium. The semiautonomous branch of the Department of Energy said it received $35 million from Congress for this work in the current 2020 federal budget year. The agency […]

Lockheed Martin on Tuesday posted double-digit percentage gains to its top and bottom lines in the second quarter, driven by strong operating results across its business segments. The company raised guidance for sales, earnings and cash for 2020. Lockheed Martin was able to shrug off negative impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which it said […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said Tuesday its operations for the Department of Energy would not be affected by the newly announced merging of two business groups. The corporate parent of Newport News Shipbuilding is combining two business lines within its Technical Solutions division: The previous Fleet Support and Mission Driven Innovative Solutions (MDIS) groups are becoming […]

Air Force Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser has joined the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) as principal assistant deputy administrator for military application in the Office of Defense Programs, where she will oversee weapons modernization and testing, and serve as the military’s point of contact for these civilian-run programs. Huser will run “stockpile management activities, […]

Michael Steuert has ended his second term as chief financial officer for Fluor, and was succeeded Wednesday by longtime company executive Joe Brennan. The financially troubled Irving, Texas-based engineering and construction multinational announced the change on Friday. Steuert joined Fluor as CFO and senior vice president in 2001 and retired in 2012. He returned as […]

The House and Senate approved their respective versions of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act with bipartisan votes this week, supporting the Trump administration’s requested funding for nuclear-weapon operations at the Department of Energy. However, President Donald Trump threatened to veto the measure over provisions including production of plutonium warhead cores and removing Confederate iconography […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated a former staff member at the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) to become a member of the panel. Matthew Moury has since June 2017 served as Energy Department associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security. His nomination to the DNFSB will be considered first by the Senate […]