Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

It will take a couple more weeks than earlier thought to certify it is time to begin constructing a new calciner in Building 9212 of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee: the U.S. defense-uranium hub that manufactures the secondary stages for nuclear weapons. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “anticipates approval of the Y-12 […]

Federal contractors would get leniency for missing deliverables because of their COVID-19 response plans, and prime contractors would be in line for quicker payments, under a Democratic-authored relief bill slated for a vote Friday in the House of Representatives – and which President Donald Trump has said he would veto. The Senate’s Republican leadership also […]

Congress should keep its eye on cost overruns for the software upgrade that will make the Air Force’s version of the F-35 fighter aircraft nuclear-capable this decade by allowing the Government Accountability Office to keep investigating the program for a few more years, the congressional investigator said this week. The Block 4 package will eventually […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) order of 225,000 Chinese-made personal respirator masks will arrive, at the soonest, weeks later than hoped. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency ordered the masks from suburban-Atlanta-area small business American Dream Builders on April 27 and had hoped for delivery by this past Monday, May 11. But on […]

By Cal Biesecker Defense Daily A pension benefit combined with strong operating results at its shipbuilding businesses drove a strong first quarter at Huntington Ingalls Industries, although workforce impacts at the company’s shipyards led it to forecast sales this year at the low end of prior guidance and company officials signaled uncertainty going forward. Net income […]

Honeywell, which owns or has a stake in multiple defense-nuclear site-management contractors, did better than it expected in the first quarter of 2020, but sees economic headwinds due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Quarterly net income for the period ended March 30 rose to more than $1.5 million, or $2.21 a share, from around $1.4 […]

The two senators who ordered a report about the Donald Trump administration’s attempts to sell nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia said this week they would consider changing the law to mandate more transparency from the White House about such efforts. In a joint statement Monday, Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said […]

Centrus Energy CEO Daniel Poneman will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from the Japanese government for his work as deputy energy secretary during the Barack Obama administration. Japan will recognize Poneman for “his contributions towards enhancing the relationship between Japan and the United States of America in the energy sector,” […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tracked five new cases of COVID-19 across its national workforce this week, raising the cumulative total since the outbreak started to 70. However, after accounting for recoveries, the count of active confirmed cases across the enterprise was down to 25, agency headquarters in Washington said Friday. The respiratory disease had […]

While some program delays are “inevitable” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has done an adequate job of sustaining its nuclear-weapon work while minimizing the spread of disease among its workforce, the House’s top GOP military policy maker said Thursday. “There has been some criticism at NNSA, just like in […]

The White House this week shoveled more than 30 nominations to the newly returned Senate, including two for positions on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  Former Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chair Joyce Connery was nominated to serve a term ending Oct. 18, 2024, while Thomas Summers, former vice commander of the 91st […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has decided it will not further extend the public comment period for an environmental review of the planned pit production plant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Last month, at the request of constituents organized by the Santa Fe advocacy organization Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Sens. Tom […]

The Donald Trump administration this week nominated Marshall Billingslea, the former Treasury Department antiterrorism official nominally in charge of nuclear arms control negotiations, as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. Billingslea, as special presidential envoy for arms control, is already the point person for the White House’s more-or-nothing attempt to secure a […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is giving the Department of Energy a little more time to respond to a recommendation against proceeding with proposed changes to federal nuclear safety management rules. “The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has received your April 27, 2020, letter requesting a 45-day extension to provide a response regarding […]

BWX Technologies brought in $542 million in first-quarter 2020 revenue, 30% more than the $416 million generated during the first three months of 2019. Net income for the period ended March 31 amounted to $75.5 million, $0.79 per diluted share, a significant year-over-year jump from $49 million, $0.51 per diluted share, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company […]

A panel of federal appeals judges this week appeared split about whether the law allows the Department of Energy to pay South Carolina $200 million for warehousing tons of plutonium at the Savannah River Site since 2016. The Energy Department does not deny that it would be on the hook for those fines  — written […]