Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

A lawsuit claiming the Savannah River Site’s security contractor discriminated against a former employee should be dismissed because it was filed past the time allowed under the statute of limitations, a federal magistrate judge recommended. Judge Paige Gossett also noted on Jan. 30 that Marcialena Brown’s $3.5 million complaint covers both Centerra-SRS and two company […]

The Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $474 million contract for Trident II (D5) ballistic missile life-extension work. The contract, announced last week, specifically covers the Life Extension 2 Strategic Systems Programs Alteration Advanced Development Program. Work will largely occur in Denver, Colo., and is expected to be finished by September 2026. The Navy obligated […]

The continuing operations of Honeywell flashed 10% per-share earnings growth in 2019, the parent company of multiple Department of Energy site management contractors reported Friday. Excluding the effects of spinning off its transportation systems and commercial building technology units in 2018, Honeywell’s 2019 earnings rose on a per-share basis to $8.16, according to a press […]

Relying on competition, rather than a sole-source award, to choose the latest management contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory could save about $75 million over the life of the potentially $20-billion, 10-year deal, according to the Government Accountability Office. Some of the potential savings come from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) […]

The Department of Energy and South Carolina are discussing options for removing excess plutonium that was intended to be processed at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, and looking at options to settle the state’s claim that the agency owes hundreds of millions of dollars for missing deadlines to remove that plutonium from the Savannah […]

While Amentum is a new company, it is far from a new face doing business for government nuclear and environmental agencies, a senior executive said Tuesday. The former AECOM Management Services division officially became Amentum on Jan. 31 with the closure of the $2.4 billion sale to affiliates of New York-based investment firms Lindsay Goldberg […]

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that it has deployed the W76-2 low-yield warhead for submarine-launched ballistic-missiles. “The U.S. Navy has fielded the W76-2 low-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) warhead.,” according to a statement from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood. The nongovernmental Federation of American Scientists reported last week that the Navy deployed “one or two” W76-2 warheads […]

A federal judge is scheduled on April 22 to sentence a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who has pleaded guilty to lying about his relationship with a Chinese talent recruitment program, according to a hearing notice filed Sunday. Turab Lookman, formerly of the New Mexico lab’s Theoretical Division, pleaded guilty in January to one count of […]

Northrop Grumman on Wednesday said its board has elected David Keffer as its new chief financial officer effective Feb. 17. He succeeds Kenneth Bedingfield, who will remain with the company until Feb. 21 to help with the transition. Keffer comes to Northrop Grumman from the private equity firm Blue Delta Capital Partners, which he joined in 2018 […]

The Donald Trump administration plans to pay for a larger civilian nuclear weapons budget in fiscal 2021 partly by requesting funding for only a single Virginia-class attack submarine next year, rather than a pair, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. The outlet is the first to confirm rumors that circulated in Washington in January that President Donald […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Surplus Plutonium Disposition project has reached Critical Decision 1 (CD-1), paving the way for the agency to begin procurement on the long-awaited replacement for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The project hit the milestone on Dec. 19, a spokesperson […]

The Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in the early morning hours on Wednesday, testing a new fuse that would set off the nuclear warhead tipping that weapon, as well as its planned successor. The Air Force development test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California happened one year from the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration last spring quietly backed off a drive to produce 30 plutonium nuclear-warhead cores per year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory earlier than the long-established target of 2026, a recently published contract modification shows. The April 30, 2019, modification to Triad National Security’s lab management and operations contract scrubs out […]

The new Los Alamos National Laboratory manager missed out on nearly 45% of its potential award fees for fiscal 2019, owing to a lackluster safety posture, while the contract prime at the Kansas City National Security Complex might have trouble delivering nuclear-weapon parts on time, according to new federal performance evaluations. The Department of Energy’s […]

The Donald Trump administration plans to pay for a larger civilian nuclear weapons budget in fiscal 2021 by requesting funding for only a single Virginia-class attack submarine next year, rather than a pair, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. The outlet is the first to confirm rumors that circulated in Washington in January that President Donald Trump’s […]

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) held a groundbreaking on Jan. 23 to renovate Dry Dock 4. The U.S. Navy said the renovation effort will cost $200 million and take almost three years. This makes it the largest NNSY initiative under the larger $21 billion 20-year Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP). The Navy said this renovation will […]

The Department of Energy is not publicly discussing the progress of conversion of highly enriched uranium shipped from Canada at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, including whether the project remains on track to be completed in April. Multiple questions sent via email last week to the department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

A former physicist at the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory on Friday pleaded guilty to one count of lying to federal authorities about his alleged connection to a Chinese government-sponsored talent recruiting program. Turab Lookman, formerly of the New Mexico facility’s Theoretical Division, pleaded guilty to the second of three counts of fraud and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s said Thursday its next-generation Lithium Processing Facility, needed to produce tritium for future nuclear weapons programs, will cost $955 million to $1.65 billion to build by 2031. The official baseline is higher than the rough cost estimate of $720 million that the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency penciled into […]

International engineering and construction provider AECOM appears poised to complete the $2.4 billion sale of its government contracting division to a joint venture of two New York investment firms, a company official said Tuesday. Eric Knox, AECOM vice president for strategic development for nuclear and environment, cited the impending change during a panel discussion at […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette is establishing a new office to manage “all policy within the Department,” and appointing a new personal adviser for nuclear security, according to an all-hands memo dated Tuesday. To do this, Brouillette will rebrand the current Office of Policy (OP) as the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy (OSSP), which […]

Northrop Grumman swung to a loss in its fourth quarter due to a change it adopted a year ago in accounting for pension and other post-retirement benefits, but its adjusted earnings were well above consensus estimates, the company reported this week. Also this week, the Falls Church, Va.-based defense contractor, now the presumed favorite to […]

A new inspector general’s report bashed the human resources department at the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as ineffective, inefficient, and incapable of supporting the agency’s oversight of defense-nuclear sites. The board’s “human resources program is currently not designed and implemented to effectively support the execution of its mission,” reads a report issued this […]

The USS Tennessee ballistic-missile submarine went on an Atlantic Ocean patrol in December, armed with “one or two” of the brand new W76-2 low-yield warheads, the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists reported Wednesday. “We estimate that one or two of the 20 missiles on the USS Tennessee and subsequent subs will be armed with the W76-2, either singly […]

Lockheed Martin on Tuesday reported a strong close to 2019 with double-digit sales and profit growth, and the company expects further gains in 2020. The company’s net income in the fourth quarter jumped 15% to $1.5 billion, or $5.29 per share, from $1.3 billion, or $4.39 a share, a year ago. That was comfortably above […]

New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation this month called on the Department of Energy to suspend a controversial order that the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) says has curtailed its access to nuclear-weapon sites. The Energy Department should lift the almost 2-year-old Order 140.1 to comply with recent changes to federal law that require […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has decided to use a cleanup facility in Ohio to help produce high-purity depleted uranium metal for nuclear weapons programs. The semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency will do that by installing a fourth process line at the depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facility at the Portsmouth Site near Piketon, Ohio, […]

Led by its aerospace business, General Dynamics on Wednesday reported strong fourth-quarter earnings on solid sales. Management said it expects continued growth in 2020. The Reston, Va.-based company, whose subsidiary, General Dynamics Electric Boat, is the prime contractor on the Navy’s next-generation Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines, also signaled an improved outlook in cash collections that will […]