Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

There were eight new cases of COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons complex this week, as agency headquarters remobilized additional personnel sent home during the pandemic and the Pantex Plant in Texas prepared to do the same. That makes for a total of 107 cases at the NNSA since January, when officials […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday voted almost unanimously in favor of promoting Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to the No. 2 position at the Department of Energy. In the panel’s voice vote, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) raised the sole objection to advancing Menezes toward confirmation as deputy secretary of energy […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has re-elected Huntington Ingalls Industries nuclear and environmental group President Michael Lempke as chairman of its Board of Directors for another year. Sandra Fairchild, project services and support director of Energy Department Savannah River Site cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation, was elected vice chair of the organization that represents […]

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Air Force Gen. Charles Brown to become the next chief of staff by a vote of 98-0, ensuring Brown becomes the first African-American to lead the service. Brown currently serves as the commander of Pacific Air Forces, the air component command commander for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and the executive director […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) agreed to share a strategic management plan it is preparing for sustaining microelectronics infrastructure at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico with the Government Accountability Office, which wants the nuclear-weapon agency to appoint a more powerful manager for the program. The plan will be ready around December 2020, […]

Tuesday was a good night for congressional incumbents in Nevada, who easily overcame primary challenges. The state’s four members of the House of Representatives all advanced to the Nov. 3 general election, according to unofficial results from the Nevada Secretary of State. Five-term Rep. Dina Titus (D) took home over 86% of the vote against […]

Nikki Grover was on June 12 to become chief financial officer for the Bechtel-led team managing the Department of Energy’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The chief financial officer for Consolidated Nuclear Security “oversees the financial activities at both sites,” according to the contractor’s website. Grover […]

The B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is building will work with the Boeing-built F-15E Strike Eagle, the Sandia National Laboratories said last week. “Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force conducted the full-weapon system demonstration under a full end-to-end test scenario, demonstrating operational crews, representative carriage, release conditions and weapon […]

Five Democratic lawmakers, led by the chairs of House committees that control nuclear weapons budgets and policy, on Monday demanded that the Department of Energy and the Pentagon explain recently reported discussions about resuming nuclear explosive tests. The powerful House committee leaders want written answers to six questions by June 22 and a briefing from […]

As it holds out hope for some role in building the next generation of U.S. nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, Boeing continues modernizing parts of the existing fleet, including adding the ability to remotely update launch codes at all 450 missile silos. The maker of the current Minuteman III fleet, which in 2019 exited the Air Force […]

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on Thursday made good on his promise to sharply increase the budget for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs at the expense of the Navy’s attack submarines. The committee’s roughly $740-billion 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would authorize the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) request for […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina had to set aside some N95-style masks last month after testing revealed the face wear could not filter enough particulates to be considered a personal respirator capable of protecting users from COVID-19. The independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) disclosed the issue in its […]

Defense contractors would not get much reimbursement for the costs of responding to COVID-19 in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act briefed this week by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which wants appropriators to handle that work. The $740-billion legislation, approved by the committee Wednesday, authorizes some $45 million in COVID-19 “for vaccine and […]

Due “in part to a discrepancy in one site’s data,” the number of active COVID-19 cases among the National Nuclear Security Administration’s network of facilities rose to 33 this week from 23 a week ago, an agency spokesperson said Friday. That brings the total number of cases at the nuclear weapons agency to 99, since […]

A new federal strategy for advancing the United States’ nuclear energy industry will pay dividends in promoting global nonproliferation, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said on May 29. “Our nation’s credibility as a supporter of nonproliferation depends upon a robust civilian industry and our technological leadership in the global marketplace,” he said during a webinar […]

The latest issue of the annual Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of major defense acquisition programs outlined remaining risks to the design and on-time production of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN). In its Defense Acquisition Annual Assessment, published June 3, the GAO noted while the Navy reports the nuclear reactor technology as mature since […]

Good news for those who might want a job with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): Although an in-person job fair scheduled for July is officially canceled, the agency will host a virtual event online. “Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be hosting an in-person job fair in July [but] will be hosting […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week gave the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee the all-clear to start building a key piece of equipment needed to move uranium secondary-stage work out of the aging Building 9212 and into the under-construction Uranium Processing Facility. The new calciner, to be built in 9212, reached its […]

North Wind Services unseated Akima Infrastructure Services as the manager of a specialized workforce subcontracted to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the prime contractor for the Department of Energy facility said Monday. In a press release, Lawrence Livermore National Security said the new contract with North Wind, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, has five-years of firm […]

Nuclear waste will pile up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to make nuclear-weapon cores there, according to the New Mexico Environment Department. In six pages of comments filed last month about the plan, the state agency also challenged the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) March finding that the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) might lose credibility in the eyes of Department of Energy site host communities if it does not explain its opposition to proposed changes to federal nuclear safety standards in plain words, a community interest group said. “It would be in the best interest for sites and communities to […]

State and federal lawyers are dotting “i’s” and crossing “t’s” on a settlement that would end the lawsuit over the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) 2018 shipment of weapon-usable plutonium to Nevada. In an order posted on May 29, Judge Miranda Du of U.S. District Court for Nevada gave the parties until June 29 to […]

A radiation-sensing helicopter owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) flew over mass protests in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, but was not part of the federal government’s response to the activity on the ground, an agency spokesperson said Wednesday morning. “NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) rotary-wing aircraft conducted a routine proficiency flight on Tuesday […]

While some other federal agencies are bringing personnel back into the workplace, there is no timetable for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff to return to their offices in downtown Washington, D.C. “No date has been set for a return” to board headquarters on Indiana Avenue, DNFSB spokeswoman Tara Tadlock said in a Thursday […]

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week announced legislation that would require President Donald Trump to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. The measure, which would need a veto-proof majority to become law, would require Trump to extend New START into February 2026 unless […]

The House Armed Services Committee plans to mark up the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act from June 22 to July 1, giving the chamber’s Democratic majority an opportunity to weigh about the dramatic increase proposed for active nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy and potential cuts to its nuclear cleanup budget. The annual […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday it plans from June 8 to 10 to hold individual subcommittee markups and a full panel markup of the fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill. The Strategic Forces part of the legislation, which includes nuclear weapons programs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is to be one […]