Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Bruce Stanski, who stepped down as Fluor chief finance officer in June as the company prepared to shed its government services business, is still consulting with the foundering construction giant as it seeks to right the ship, according to a regulatory filing. Stanski late last week signed an agreement to provide “non-executive services” and assistance […]

A backup defense authorization act unveiled this week would authorize $16.5 billion in Department of Energy nuclear-weapon spending for 2020, and explicitly authorize new program starts to bolster nuclear warhead and naval fuel efforts. Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) lifted the lid on the so-called “skinny” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) late Tuesday. […]

The top foreign affairs Democrats in Congress on Tuesday asked the State Department for a briefing about efforts to extend — or not extend — the New START arms control treaty that limits U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear weapons. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week effectively selected an Argentine diplomat as its new director general. The Board of Governors for the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Wednesday officially appointed Rafael Mariano Grossi to be director general, after he received a majority vote in closed balloting Tuesday — 24 of 35 board members, according […]

A federal judge did not recognize the Department of Energy’s legal obligation to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in plutonium-related fines to South Carolina, or properly vet the state’s claim that the agency has the money to pay up, according to court papers filed this week. In appealing the ruling in the 2016 lawsuit […]

Former Consolidated Nuclear Security manager Linda Bauer will as of Friday be the new deputy director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Top among her responsibilities, Bauer will backstop lab Director William Goldstein, acting as the director of the $2-billion-a-year nuclear weapons laboratory in his absence, if necessary. Bauer […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy might still be pursuing a potentially illegal policy of curtailing Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) oversight of certain nuclear-weapon sites, a board member said this week. The DNFSB held the meeting to quiz DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials about their reasoning for rejecting a […]

Prospects for timely passage of a permanent 2020 for the Department of Energy and other agencies dimmed a little this week, when most Senate Democrats refused to curtail debate on spending legislation that includes funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall. The Senate failed Thursday to invoke cloture on a basket of budget bills, […]

Lockheed Martin on Tuesday posted strong third-quarter financial results driven by gains in three of its reporting segments and the company raised its earnings guidance for the year due to a tax benefit. Net income increased 9 percent to $1.6 billion, $5.66 earnings per share (EPS), from $1.5 billion ($5.14 EPS) a year ago, torching consensus […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plans to produce intercontinental ballistic missile warhead cores starting in the next decade could delay plans to dilute and dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium, the Government Accountability Office reported Wednesday. There are two reasons why, according to the 39-page report, “Surplus Plutonium Disposition: NNSA’s Long-Term […]

Nevada will be allowed to seek removal of half a metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium sent to the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site by amending a nearly year-old lawsuit, a federal judge ruled Monday. The state sued DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in U.S. District Court for Nevada […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is mulling whether to establish an umbrella human-resources contract to help the entire nuclear security enterprise recruit and retain new personnel. In a request for information last week, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency said it was considering a seven-year contract worth a maximum of $8 million […]

An independent opinion that could help determine the outcome of a federal lawsuit claiming a Savannah River Site contractor overcharged the federal government by $5 million is still being decided after nearly three years, according to a status report recently filed in the case. The joint status report was submitted by the U.S. Department of Energy and […]

By Calvin Biesecker A review initiated this month by antitrust regulators into Northrop Grumman’s compliance with terms of the government’s approval last year of the acquisition of Orbital ATK isn’t expected to impact the Air Force’s acquisition plans for a new strategic nuclear missile system, the company’s top executive said Thursday. Northrop Grumman, in its third-quarter […]

Environmental groups whose lawsuit forced the U.S. Department of Energy to partially redo an environmental review of its Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) on Monday asked the federal judge who ordered the do-over to halt construction of the next-generation weapons-uranium hub. While she ordered the agency on Sept. 24 to incorporate federal earthquake hazard data into […]

The Air Force’s next-generation nuclear bomber is winding its way through production, but don’t expect to see it flying until December 2021 at the earliest, the service’s rapid capabilities office (RCO) director said Oct. 24. The service has its first B-21 Raider test jet moving through production at prime contractor Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Palmdale, […]

The leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee plans to introduce a stripped-down version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act next week as a last-ditch effort to push colleagues to reach consensus on a number of partisan issues that have gummed up final negotiations on the full bill. “This is sincere, but this […]

Navy Vice Adm. Charles Richard, the Donald Trump administration’s nominee to lead U.S. Strategic Command, on Thursday told the Senate Armed Services Committee that there are “issues” with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plan to produce 80 new nuclear weapon cores a year by 2030. “That requirement is sound,” Richard said, but “there are […]

The U.S. Air Force has pulled the plug nearly a year early on Boeing’s contract to mature technology for the next generation of silo-based, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, the company said this week. This is another setback for the incumbent on the current Minuteman III missile fleet, which hoped the remaining year of work on […]

Both AECOM and the investment group planning to buy its government contracting business could call off the deal if it takes too long to complete, according to a recent financial filing. AECOM plans to sell its Management Services business to Maverick Purchaser Sub LLC, a joint venture formed by investment firms American Securities and Lindsay […]

Boeing on Wednesday reported big drops in sales and earnings in its third quarter as it continues to struggle with the grounding of its 737 MAX passenger plane, which it expects to return to service later this year. The safe return to service of the 737 MAX, which suffered two tragic crashes in the past […]

President Donald Trump said he plans to nominate Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to replace Rick Perry as head of the agency responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons and Cold War nuclear-waste cleanup. Brouillette has been Perry's deputy secretary for just over two years. When Trump first nominated him, a source said the longtime insurance […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress might not block the Navy from deploying a low-yield nuclear warhead this year after all, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.), an influential opponent of the weapon, said here Thursday. “That’s going to be very, very difficult, very difficult, because of the strong opposition from both the White House […]

In an escalation of an ongoing turf war, the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said last week it would send personnel to the Department of Energy’s secretive nuclear explosive safety study meetings, despite that agency’s position that it should not. “We have directed our staff to attend all phases of the NES [nuclear […]

All of the U.S. military services officially have a permanent leader for the first time since May as the Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Barbara Barrett as Air Force secretary. The Senate confirmed Barrett by a vote of 85-7. Senators who voted no include Senate Armed Services Committee members Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth […]

Rick Perry on Thursday announced his resignation as the Donald Trump administration’s first secretary of energy after more than two-and-a-half years on the job. In a published letter to President Donald Trump, Perry said he would resign “later this year” from the Cabinet. Dan Brouillette, the deputy secretary of energy, will then take over as […]

It could be 2020 before the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) incorporates the latest federal earthquake data into the agency’s environmental review of a planned next-generation uranium hub, a spokesperson this week. As part of a lawsuit brought by environmental and nuclear watchdogs, a federal judge in late September ordered the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch […]

Rose Gottemoeller, the Obama administration’s lead negotiator of the New START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.nited States and Russia, began saying public goodbyes this week as part of her long-planned departure as deputy secretary general of NATO. “I will be heading back to the United States and I’m looking forward to writing a […]