Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program in late 2019 awarded BWX Technologies a roughly $1 billion contract to provide reactor components for Ford-class aircraft carriers, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company announced Monday. The $1 billion figure includes options, BWX Technologies said in a press release. The value of the base award, at over $665 […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has promoted Huban Gowadia to principal associate director of global security, where she will lead the California nuclear weapons facility’s nonproliferation and nuclear counterterrorism programs. Livermore’s Global Security Security Principal Directorate also includes the Department of Energy’s programs to counter chemical, biological, and explosive threats. The directorate employs about 800 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking $53 million in fiscal 2021 for the planned W93 sea-based ballistic-missile warhead: two years sooner than the agency previously thought it would need funding for the weapon. A spokesperson for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency confirmed the figure Thursday morning. In the 2020 budget […]

By Cal Biesecker Defense Daily Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday posted lower fourth-quarter earnings despite a strong increase in sales due in part to an impairment charge stemming from the company’s decision to put its oil and gas business up for sale. Net income sank 30% to $149 million, $3.61 earnings per share (EPS), from […]

The Department of Defense plans to ramp up spending on modernization of all three legs of the nuclear triad in fiscal 2021. Here, you’ll find a snapshot of the Pentagon’s effort, featuring year-over-year comparisons between enacted appropriations for 2020 and requests issued Monday for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. For the Columbia-class ballistic […]

A project to ship highly enriched uranium from a facility in Ontario, Canada, to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina wrapped up sometime last year, according to a Wednesday press release. It is unclear when the shipments were completed, but DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said the job […]

The roughly $20 billion 2021 budget the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) requested on Monday — a figure that would come at the expense of the Pentagon’s naval shipbuilding budget and, to a lesser extent, cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex — is “the right number” to reverse a decade of “neglect,” Secretary of […]

The Savannah River Site Integrated Mission Completion Contract procurement unveiled this week by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will not fund any National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) work. The draft statement of work released Thursday does not include any NNSA nuclear weapons or nonproliferation work missions, and a spokesperson confirmed the semiautonomous […]

BWX Technologies said Monday it had received a $3.6 million contract for engineering to decommission and refurbish parts of its Lynchburg, Va., facility to eventually produce high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for a National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation program. The uranium-molybdenum alloy fuel the company will produce will be used in U.S. research reactors that currently […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After delays attributed to unsuitable electrical components, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) now plans to manufacture the first refurbished B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb and W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead in 2022 and 2021, respectively, a senior agency official said here Tuesday. The B61-12 first production unit was once forecast to finish […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has delayed its choice about whether to use government or commercially developed uranium enrichment technology for defense needs by nearly a year, in part, because the federal option is not yet mature enough to compete, an agency official said here Wednesday. “That’s one of the reasons, […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) made post-Cold War history in its 2021 budget request this week, requesting funds to develop a new sea-based nuclear warhead designated Mk7 W93 — a weapon designed to be rapidly upgradeable and serviced outside of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. This will be the first […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) management contractor for the Savannah River Site plans by June to finalize the design for a new plant capable of making 50 plutonium nuclear-warhead cores a year, the company’s president said here Wednesday. The conceptual design report for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF), to […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette made his first splash on the international stage this week, weaving some tough talk about Iran and North Korea into a speech at a United Nations nuclear security conference in Vienna, Austria. “We call on Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] in monitoring and inspecting […]

By Richard Abott Defense Daily Lawmakers are strongly opposing the Navy’s plans to fund eight new ships in fiscal 2021, including only one Virginia-class submarine, a decrease from 12 in the current fiscal 2020. When the fiscal 2021 budget request was first released on Monday, asking for eight ships at $20 billion, House Armed Services seapower and […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he plans to nominate Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to take over as deputy secretary for the Department of Energy. Menezes would succeed Dan Brouillette, who in December was confirmed and sworn in as secretary of energy. The nomination for the No. 2 spot at DOE had not been […]