Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Age, like the budget, is sometimes just a number, as Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) hopes to prove in a sixth Senate term, candidacy for which the pro-nuclear Armed Services chair announced this week in an ad that appeared to feature him flying upside down in an airplane. Inhofe famously has said he will stop running […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is contemplating ways to cope with further spread of the novel coronavirus that broke out in China last year, potentially including postponing conferences and other events, a spokesperson said Thursday. The agency “has established a Unified Coordination Group from throughout the agency to assess the potential effect of a […]

Future efforts to secure Russian nuclear material left after from the Cold War are likely to bear little resemblance to the gold-standard programs of the past, if any get off the ground in the current era of significantly worsened relations between Washington and Moscow, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a recent report. “[T]he […]

WASHINGTON — At Congress’ direction, the Department of Energy is revising a controversial order that curtailed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) access to nuclear sites and personnel, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Thursday. “We’re in the process of revising the order and I will be meeting with the DNFSB and we’ll have […]

Two of the Senate’s reliable nuclear skeptics last week asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the budget increase the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking for the 2021 fiscal year. Among other things, the GAO should determine why the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency’s Weapons Activities budget needs a much greater increase […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is selling its own version of a funding skirmish within the Department of Energy that ended in January with President  Donald Trump approving a much larger raise for the civilian nuclear-weapons agency than expected — and they’re getting buy-in on Capitol Hill. The NNSA’s $19.8 billion budget request for […]

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has formally nominated Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown to become the Air Force’s next chief of staff. If confirmed, Brown would become the first African-American chief of staff for any of the U.S. military services. The Wall Street Journal first reported Brown’s impending nomination Monday, with a Defense Department release […]

WASHINGTON — In the second week of 2021 budget hearings on Capitol Hill, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) eye-popping $20-billion request bled into a hearing about another agency and tractor-beamed appropriations leaders into subcommittees they sometimes ignore, lending credence to one lawmaker’s prediction that nuclear modernization will be “the most contentious issue” of Congress’ […]

President Donald Trump plans to propose “a bold new trilateral arms control initiative with Russia and China,” according to a letter signed by Trump and shared on Twitter this week through the National Security Council’s account. In the letter, written on White House stationary, the president said China plans to double the size of its […]

WASHINGTON — The commander of U.S. nuclear forces would not be drawn into a discussion on details of the planned W93 sea-based warhead in an open hearing Thursday, stoically deflecting questions from a curious lawmaker and declaring the planned weapon makes him “proud to be an American.” “I think that is one of those things […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would not be able to spend the $20 billion it requested for fiscal 2021, and so will have to make do with a more “realistic” budget, the House of Representatives’ lead appropriator for the Department of Energy said Thursday. “On the nuclear weapons side, you don’t choke a government agency by […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeks a larger-than-expected budget increase for 2021, another branch of the Department of Energy is seeking much less funding for cleanup of excess nuclear-weapon production sites The Office of Environmental Management (EM) is requesting about $200 million for remediation at NNSA-owned facilities in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, […]

Complications with two nuclear-weapon refurbishment programs might delay production of new intercontinental ballistic missile fuses at the Kansas City National Security Campus by more than a year, Pentagon budget documents show. The Air Force will need 10 months longer than expected, 41 months total, to purchase long-lead parts for the the ICBM Fuze Modernization program: […]

Northrop Grumman tapped Bechtel National and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to provide construction services and specialized transportation equipment for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) intercontinental ballistic missile production program the aerospace giant hopes to win this summer. Northrop Grumman is the only bidder for the estimated $25 billion engineering and manufacturing development contract to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday it plans to soon start work on a South Carolina plutonium disposal project — operations that will consume about one-third of the amount Congress appropriated for the project in the current 2020 federal budget year. This site preparation work for the Surplus Plutonium Disposition project at the […]

In a housecleaning move to continue wrapping up legal issues surrounding the terminated plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site, a federal judge in South Carolina last week officially dismissed a 2018 state lawsuit against the Department of Energy. In the two-page decision filed on Feb. 20, District Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote that […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina enacted an emergency response early this week when a vehicle attempting to enter a secure area activated explosive detection systems. Site barricades remained open through the duration of the emergency response Tuesday morning and there was “no indication of a consequence beyond the Savannah River […]

Energy Department contractor BWX Technologies took in $501 million of revenue during the fourth quarter of 2019, a 5% uptick over $478 million a year earlier. In addition, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company reported late Monday that revenue of nearly $1.9 billion for the 12 months ended Dec. 31 set a new record and represented a […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Pentagon plan deploy W87-0 warheads, without new plutonium pit cores, on some Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missiles missiles. The plan, confirmed Thursday through an NNSA spokesperson, could give the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency more time to get a pair of planned pit factories up […]

Federal law may allow a $3.5 million discrimination lawsuit against the security contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to continue even after a federal judge found the statute of limitations had passed for the case, according to newly hired legal counsel for the plaintiff. Marcialena Brown, an African-American woman, did not realize […]

Engineering and procurement giant Fluor said Tuesday it has decided not sell its government contracting business, which does business with the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex and the Department of Defense. The Irving, Texas-based company announced the now-canceled sale in September. Belt-tightening over the past year, along with the anticipated sale later in 2020 […]

The management and operations contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California will retain its AECOM branding, even though a private-equity partnership bought that company’s government contract business and rebranded it as Amentum. “AECOM E&C Holdings remains intact and still part of LLNS, LLC [Lawrence Livermore National Security] so we have retained the logo,” […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to issue the MITRE Corp.-operated JASON group of civilian scientists more nuclear security work by the end of April, according to a procurement note published last week. The agency announced its intention to keep JASON on the job in February. The Feb. 13 procurement note provides further details about […]

Federal law may allow a $3.5 million discrimination lawsuit against the security contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to continue even after a federal judge found the statute of limitations had passed for the case, according to newly hired legal counsel for the plaintiff. Marcialena Brown, an African-American woman, did not realize […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Higher taxes led Leidos to report a slight dip in its fourth quarter earnings, but sales were strong and adjusted earnings easily topped analysts’ estimates. Net income in the quarter fell nearly 4% to $181 million, $1.26 earnings a share, from $188 million, or $1.25 a share, a year ago. Per-share […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., produced more than 500 kilograms of purified uranium in fiscal 2019, beating its internal target by 12 kilograms, according to recent figures posted on the site’s blog. The total for 2019 was 512 kilograms of metal purified by the site’s Enriched Uranium Production unit, beating the […]

The Defense Department’s top policy director submitted a letter of resignation Wednesday, saying he will leave his post at the end of the month and stating plainly that his departure was prompted by President Donald Trump. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood assumed his role in August 2018, and will be succeeded by James […]

The latest wave of opposition to the lower-yield W76-2 nuclear warhead the Navy deployed last year crested Wednesday, when five senators asked Secretary of Defense Mark Esper what the Pentagon might use the weapon for, and which civilian nuclear projects had to be postponed to build it. “It is inconsistent for the United States to […]