Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security dodged more than $1 million in fines from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for criticality safety violations in 2017 and 2018 at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. At issue were accumulations of fissile material in processing equipment housed in Building 9212, the Cold War-era uranium processing facility at […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily The global economic hardship creates by the COVID-19 pandemic gouged Boeing’s first-quarter financial results, mainly in its commercial businesses, but even the defense segment reported top- and bottom-line declines. The KC-46A aerial refueling tanker being developed and built for the Air Force took an $827 million pre-tax charge, with $551 […]

The Air Force probably will not award a contract to build next-generation, silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles more than a month or two earlier than planned, the chief executive of presumptive prime Northrop Grumman said Wednesday morning during a conference call with investors. That would put the award around July or August. Northrop looks like a […]

A story in the April 24 issue of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor should have said the National Nuclear Security Administration was tracking 65 cumulative cases of COVID-19. The agency reported the incorrect number of cases that day, due to what a spokesperson called an “administrative error.”

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic delayed General Dynamics deliveries of business jets in the first quarter, sending sales and net income lower. The company’s defense businesses overall reported slightly higher sales and profit. Net income fell 5 percent to $706 million, $2.43 earnings a share, from $745 million, or $2.56 a share, lagging consensus estimates by […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Pantex Plant in Texas said Monday it has assembled the “first production capability unit” of the W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched nuclear warhead, a precursor to the first production unit intended to prove the entire warhead design is ready for mass manufacturing. The phrase “first production capability unit” officially debuted in […]

New Mexico’s delegation to the U.S. Senate last week asked the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to further delay into mid-June the public comment period on an environmental review of pit production at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich (both D-N.M.). wrote to NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty on April 22. […]

The primary obstacle to the Department of Energy’s plan for diluting and disposing of surplus plutonium deep underground in New Mexico is scaling up the technology and workforce to do the job, a National Academies panel said Thursday in a long-awaited final report. At the same time, the congressionally chartered group warned, DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

The Department of State has framed deployment of a low-yield warhead aboard U.S. submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles as a means of preventing a nuclear arms race. The agency’s 10-page, election-year publication is part of a series of Arms Control and International Security Papers and takes aim at most critiques against the low-yield warhead leveled by Democrats […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might lose political support in Congress for a key mission if the U.S.-Russia New START nuclear arms control treaty lapses, the immediate past head of the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said this week. About 80% of lawmakers on Capitol Hill support both nuclear arms modernization and international nuclear […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it had issued a roughly $240,000 fixed-price contract to a small business in Georgia to provide almost a quarter-million, Chinese-made, KN95-style respirator masks for its contractor and federal employees. “This order is to procure masks for NNSA to meet expected demand when employees return to work,” an agency […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is willing to let Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) personnel attend meetings of the secretive Nuclear Explosives Safety Study Group at the Pantex Plant in Texas on a “trial” basis, according to a letter published this week. The two federal agencies have fought since 2018 over whether DNFSB […]

The Air Force might deploy its Long-Range Standoff Weapon cruise missile earlier than anticipated, while the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile should be ready on time, the head of the service’s Global Strike Command said Wednesday. Raytheon will build the Long-Range Standoff missile (LRSO), while Northrop Grumman looks all but certain to win the contract […]

States that host National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) production sites are among the first attempting an economic thaw, moving to reopen some businesses this week, as the number of confirmed active cases of COVID-19 across the agency dipped to 32. That is down from 40 active cases last week, and from 51 the week before, […]

While it has made progress, the Department of Energy still needs to more fully address priority recommendations to improve performance in its nuclear security and cleanup missions, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. In an annual update, the congressional auditor said it has 20 priority recommendations across the Energy Department, including eight recommendations new […]

Air Force Selects Raytheon to Build Next-Gen Nuclear Weapon The Air Force plans to continue building its next nuclear cruise missile, the Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO), with Raytheon as the sole-source contractor, according to an April 17 release. The announcement arrives years ahead of an expected down-select. Both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have been developing […]

By Calvin Bisecker Defense Daily Lockheed Martin this week reported solid first-quarter financial results with strong sales and cash flow, but flat earnings, results it said were not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the outlook for the rest of the year is “uncertain” and is dependent in part on the “duration and spread” of […]

John Gordon, the retired Air Force general who was deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency before becoming the first-ever administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), died Sunday. He was 73. Current NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty — no relation — was among those remembering the agency’s first leader Monday on Twitter. Sources with knowledge of […]

Citing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic response raised by anti-nuclear activists, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has extended by 15 days a public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement for making plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency notified the the citizen watchdog group Savannah River Site […]

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about connections to a paid Chinese talent-recruiting program wants his sentencing date postponed because of COVID-19-related health concerns, court papers show. Turab Lookman, who pleaded guilty in January to one count of lying to federal authorities, is now nearly “70 years old and […]

It might be possible to produce low-enriched uranium domestically by 2023, including material suitable for nuclear-weapon programs, the Department of Energy said this week in a long-awaited report about restarting end-to-end nuclear fuel production in the United States. Broadly, the plan provides what Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette framed as a “road map” for rebooting […]

BWX Technologies said Monday it has appointed Robb LeMasters as senior vice president and chief strategy officer. He is scheduled to start work on July 13. LeMasters, 42, was most since 2011 the managing director at hedge fund Blue Harbour Group, whose owner announced its closure in February. LeMasters since 2015 has served on BWXT’s […]

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defense wants to buy American for the future of the country’s nuclear security-sharing mission with the United States, urging lawmakers to approve the purchase of 30 Boeing F/A-18 aircraft to carry future B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs. The German publication Der Spiegel on April 29 reported that Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer informed Secretary […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has lost its game of chicken with the Pantex Plant in Texas, where personnel recently blocked a board inspector from attending a meeting of the secretive Nuclear Explosive Safety Study Group, according to a letter posted online. An employee for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) blocked the […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex mistakenly sent improperly packaged radioactive waste to Nevada for six years because no one at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., site wrote strict rules for disposing of weapon-related materials, according to a new Department of Energy report. From 2013 through December 2018, the National Nuclear Security Administration facility sent nine shipments containing […]

There were about as many active COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nationwide complex this week as last week, with most sites still admitting only personnel working on top-priority weapons missions. At deadline Friday, agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., said a total of 65 people had tested positive for infection by novel coronavirus […]

Federal agencies will gradually return to normal operations in parallel with the White House’s three-phase plan to reactivate the national economy as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, the Trump administration said Monday. The new guidance does not provide any set schedule for the process, but rather says managers must make decisions on reducing telework and staffing […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week cleared its prime contractors to bill the government for paid time off for workers who cannot do their jobs because of COVID-19, and told the primes to start figuring out how to let subcontractors do the same. The relief is based on Section 3610 of the CARES Act, […]