Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Nevada is pressing a federal judge for permission to resume a search for evidence that the U.S. Department of Energy skirted federal environmental law last year in shipping half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). On Oct. 3, U.S. District Judge Miranda Du reinstated, but did not rule […]

The head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) got some face time this week with a key House appropriator, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who would play a major part in closed-door 2020 budget negotiations later this year. NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty visited with Kaptur in the latter’s 9th Congressional District of Ohio. Kaptur […]

At least some of the advisory committees chartered to provide independent perspective on nuclear matters to the Department of Energy — including one that represents the neighbors of Cold War nuclear-weapon sites — continued to operate beyond a Sept. 30 presidential deadline to cull such groups. President Donald Trump on June 14 ordered federal department heads to […]

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the House’s top appropriator for the Department of Energy, is interested in taking over the full Appropriations Committee in 2021 after her colleague, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), retires early that year at the end of the 116th Congress. In a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday, Kaptur, chair of the House […]

Centrus Energy on Wednesday said it had finished the $15 million decontamination and decommissioning of the K-1600 plant at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The Bethesda, Md.-based nuclear fuel supplier met its budget and schedule commitments for the job, according to a press release. “I’m pleased our team was able […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants a report from the U.S. Energy Department on what it will take to decommission excess facilities at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California over the next 10 years. The panel made the request on Sept. 12 in a report accompanying its version of the $49-billion energy and water development […]

A regional group that promotes communities around the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico could be forced to reimburse the U.S. government up to $300,000 in federal grant money absent documents showing the funds were not spent on lobbying or other improper expenses. That’s the bottom line of a just-released […]

By John Stang Nonproliferation advocates and medical isotopes companies hope to persuade the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that a Belgian company should not receive additional highly enriched uranium from the United States to make its own isotopes. The regulator has received at least four petitions for intervention in its review of an export application from […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry plans to resign in a matter of weeks, after nearly three years as the Trump administration’s top manager for civilian nuclear weapons and cleanup operations, media reported Thursday. Politico broke the story, citing three informed sources. The Washington Post confirmed the story, citing four sources familiar with Perry’s plans. Politico […]

With final briefs filed, a federal judge will soon decide whether to dismiss Nevada’s lawsuit seeking to force the Department of Energy to remove half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). Nevada in August sought permission to modify its 2018 lawsuit in U.S. District Court to now ask […]

The U.S. Navy has exercised a $1 billion option for fiscal 2020 for Fluor Marine Propulsion, a subsidiary of the troubled engineering giant that is selling off its government contracting business, to continue work on nuclear propulsion systems for U.S. warships and submarines. Fluor Marine Propulsion has managed the joint Department of Energy-Navy Naval Nuclear […]

The U.S. Supreme Court will next week mull whether to hear arguments that an appeals court illegally blocked South Carolina from trying to stop the Department of Energy from canceling the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site. The Supreme Court has scheduled the case for conference on Oct. 11, a […]

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said this week he will retire from Congress after 26 years. Thornberry announced Monday he would not stand for re-election in 2020, but will serve out the remainder of his term, slated to end Jan. 3, 2021. He will leave Congress after reaching […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) aims to complete a new strategic plan in November, capping a yearlong drive to address the findings of a government-chartered fix-it group that in 2018 offered tips for improving morale at the independent federal nuclear-health-and-safety agency. That is according to a notice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) inspector […]

Centrus Energy Corp. appointed Phillip Strawbridge as its new chief financial officer, the company announced this week. Strawbridge, 64 this year, was most recently an adviser for the mid-market investment firm Court Square Capital, in New York. He was previously chief financial officer for nuclear services firm EnergySolutions,from 2006 to 2010, according to Centrus’ announcement on Monday. […]

The deadline came and went Monday for the Department of Energy and other federal agencies to terminate at least one-third of their federal advisory committees, but it was not clear this week whether the agency had complied with the directive. A DOE spokesperson did not reply to multiple requests for a list of committees cut […]

The Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) could be eligible for around $250 million in fees over three years, if the Department of Energy picks up the team’s options to manage the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., according to the text of a contract modification awarded over the summer. The modification, signed on July […]

The No. 2 official at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week briefed members of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board on the “staggering goal” of swelling the nuclear-weapon steward’s workforce by about 20,000 heads over the next six years. Those hirings, mostly of contractors, would be spread across the NNSA complex, including its […]

The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday unveiled details of how it will levy civil penalties against anyone who violates a federal authorization to export nuclear technology to foreign countries. The proposed rule, posted in the Federal Register, does not establish the civil penalties for violating an authorization under Section 810 of the Atomic Energy Act. Congress did that […]

The Senate confirmed Air Force Gen. John Hyten to become the next Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sept. 26, by a vote of 75-22. The vote to promote the current U.S. Strategic Command commander comes after several months of drawn-out debate over allegations that Hyten had sexually assaulted one of his […]

Nevada should not be allowed to seek removal of one-half a metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium from its borders by amending a lawsuit it filed against the Department of Energy last year, according to the federal government. “With no success in convincing this Court that DOE’s transportation of plutonium into the state is so dangerous that […]

General Dynamics Electric Boat broke ground on a new 200,000-square-foot facility that will be dedicated to building the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. Called the South Yard Assembly Building (SYAB), it will be on 7 acres of the company’s property at its Groton, Conn., facility and is the largest company construction project in 45 years, GD […]

A local community advisory board wants the U.S. Department of Energy to complete a plutonium downblending mission at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina a decade earlier than the current projection for fiscal 2046. In a 19-0-1 vote Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) agreed to ask the Energy Department to apply more […]

A former Tinder executive, the chairman emeritus of a national whiskey distiller, and the president of the California Institute of Technology are among the eight new members of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced Monday. The board is a sort of think-tank and sounding board for the energy secretary. Membership […]

Former Los Alamos National Laboratory business manager Craig Leasure will become the full-time vice president for national laboratories at the University of California on Oct. 1, after about eight months on the job in an interim capacity. The university is a senior partner in the management contractors for two U.S. Energy Department nuclear-weapon labs. “I […]

Andrea Thompson, the State Department’s point person for nuclear arms control, has left her post after 15 months on the job, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced late last week. “Andrea Thompson is a dedicated public servant who brought over 25 years of military experience to her role at the [State Department],” Pompeo wrote in […]

The U.S. Department of Energy rejected a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommendation intended to better protect workers at the Savannah River Site’s tritium facilities from fires, explosions, and other accidents that could expose the public to radiation. In doing so, DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) also rejected the independent […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will keep its 2019 budget for a little less than two months of fiscal 2020, under a stopgap spending bill awaiting President Trump’s signature at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill Thursday afternoon by a vote of 82-15. The House last week […]