Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

The federal government and the firm it hired to build a now-canceled plutonium recycling plant have one year to settle allegations that the contractor defrauded the Department of Energy, or the case will go before a jury later that year, according to a Wednesday court filing. In 2019, The Justice Department alleged CB&I AREVA MOX Services […]

The Donald Trump administration intends to nominate Lucas Polakowski, a former officer at U.S. Strategic Command, to be the top civilian in the Pentagon’s program to counter weapons of mass destruction. The White House announced its intent to nominate Polakowski on Wednesday for the post of assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological […]

Some government fleet vehicles were vandalized and stolen from a commuter parking lot frequented by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) contractors traveling to and from the Nevada National Security Site, according to the Department of Energy inspector general. The mischief happened prior to October 2018, when somebody told the agency watchdog that people were using […]

The Senate confirmed Kenneth Braithwaite as the next secretary of the Navy via voice vote last week. Braithwaite, previously served as U.S. ambassador to Norway and succeeds acting Secretary Thomas Modly, who resigned in April amid criticism of his removal of the commander of the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier. Army Undersecretary James […]

The Energy Department intends to keep security contractor Centerra Group on the job at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into 2021, according to a Tuesday procurement notice. The update landed on the same day the company seemingly objected to the procurement for the follow-on contract for paramilitary security services at the 310-square-mile complex […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has started mandatory, random COVID-19 tests for employees, as the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tracked three new cases across its network of weapon facilities this week. At deadline, that brought the total number of active cases across the eight primary NNSA-owned sites, including headquarters, to 23, […]

There is about one month left on the temporary indemnity determination the Department of Energy allowed nuclear-weapon sites to add to their management and operations contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic forced mass telework in mid-March. The determination, which Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued on March 26, will lapse on June 30. The decision specified […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be ready to perform an underground nuclear-explosive test in a matter of months, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.  “I’ve heard NNSA administrators and lab directors in the past talk about a very quick test with limited diagnostics, though certainly diagnostics, within months,” said Drew Walter, who is performing […]

Weeks after the Department of Energy authorized operators of nuclear-weapon sites to bill the government for expenses associated with COVID-19 prevention, most of those prime contractors are still working on trickling down relief to subcontractors. One of the primes’ main mechanisms for recouping such expenses is to bill the government in accordance with Section 3610 […]

The Air Force recently completed the preliminary design review (PDR) for the Northrop Grumman-developed Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) in late April. The PDR took place April 28-30 and is the latest major programmatic milestone for the service to undertake virtually, including over classified computer networks, as many program personnel work limited hours or from home […]

Nuclear Fuel Services has not tracked any new cases of COVID-19 among its workforce since an outbreak in mid-April sickened multiple employees at its Erwin, Tenn., uranium-processing plant, a spokesperson said Thursday morning. The BWX Technologies subsidiary “has had no new cases of COVID-19 among our employees,” the spokesperson said by email. “Those affected are […]

The Air Force contract to build more than 600 new commercial engines to power the aging, nuclear-capable B-52 bomber through the 2050s will run 17 years, with six years of firm money, according to a solicitation released Tuesday. The service’s Commercial Engine Replacement Program calls for 608 new commercial engines, plus additional spare engines and […]

The Department of Energy, the manager of its Los Alamos National Laboratory, and an on-site contractor all shoulder some blame for a May 2019 incident that contaminated a University of Washington building in Seattle with cesium-137, according to a recent report. The “preventable” event during a radiological source recovery operation resulted from “weak and partially […]

The first employees who return to Department of Energy headquarters buildings in Washington, D.C., and nearby Maryland, whenever that might be, will get a taste of the new normal their colleagues at nuclear sites have experienced for weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, new agency guidance shows. Temperature checks, pre-arrival symptom questionnaires, and continued social distancing […]

Marshall Billingslea, President Donald Trump’s new point man on arms control, warned Thursday that Congress would undercut arms control negotiations with Russia and China by slowing progress on the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. “Congress has strongly supported the modernization of our deterrent,” Billingslea, the State Department’s special presidential envoy for arms control, said […]

It’s a good-news, bad-news week regarding the 225,000 Chinese-made personal respirators the National Nuclear Security Administration ordered to protect employees and contractors from COVID-19. The good news is they’re still coming. The bad news is that they will arrive at a 70% price premium, compared to what the agency thought it would pay. The semiautonomous Department of […]

Senate leaders continued this week to work on liability protections for businesses that reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the House’s Democratic majority pushed through a $3-trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill the White House has threatened to veto. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, H.R. 6800, passed the House in a 208-199 […]

The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) suspended most of its nuclear operations in late March because of COVID-19, but expansion of the site’s underground subcritical testing laboratory came back online in the first week of April. Expanding the existing U1a Complex, an effort known formally as the U1a Complex Enhancements Project (UCEP), will allow installation […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tracked three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 this week throughout its complex, as a surging outbreak in Texas forced the Pantex Plant to delay the start of its planned ramp-up to normal operations. There were 23 active cases in the nuclear weapons complex this week, a spokesperson for the […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Tuesday reported a 112.3% increase in revenue for the first quarter of 2020, even as the COVID-19 pandemic began to bite into its business. Sales rose from $11.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 to $24.9 million in the three-month period ending March 31 of this year, according to a […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it is tracking one new confirmed case of COVID-19 across its national network of sites, bringing the cumulative total for the agency up to 71 even as the number of active cases dropped to 20.  There are no signs that any employee at an NNSA facility has died […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee thinks its version of the annual policy-shaping National Defense Authorization Act (NSAA) could pass the upper chamber before the Fourth of July holiday, a committee aide confirmed Monday afternoon. Politico reported this week that the GOP-controlled panel plans to mark up its version of the bill the week of June […]

Jan Carlin has stepped down as managing director of the Waste Management Symposia (WMS), the nonprofit organizer of the annual conference in Phoenix for the nuclear cleanup and waste management industries. Carlin, a nuclear business consultant, started on the job in September 2017 and had only intended to remain for two years, but stayed on […]

Centrus Energy Corp. this week reported $9.3 million of net income attributable to shareholders in the 2020 first quarter, up from a $22.9 million loss a year ago, as revenue improved to $45 million from just under $40 million a year ago, That comes out to earnings of $0.95, on a diluted, per-share basis, up […]

The Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General said this week it is starting an evaluation of the Navy’s response to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic on ships and submarines. A May 11 memo from the inspector general said the objective is “to determine whether the Navy has implemented policies and procedures to […]

It would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to brief a group representing nuclear-site host communities about the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) latest safety recommendation to the Department of Energy, according to the board chairman. “[U]sing staff resources, even though marginal in this instance, to educate a public interest group on complex technical […]

A COVID-19 scare that shut down construction of the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for about two weeks, with work resuming in mid-April, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday. “On April 6, an SPD [Surplus Plutonium Disposition] construction worker called in sick. In an abundance of […]