Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear South Carolina’s argument that an appeals court illegally denied the state its right to contest the Department of Energy’s decision to close an over-budget, behind-schedule plutonium-disposal plant at the Savannah River Site. The decision from the high court, for which there is no appeal, spells the […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration has cleared the future transfer of some U.S.-origin uranium and plutonium, currently in irradiated fuel rods, from South Korea’s state-owned Korea Electric Power Co. to Studsvik Nuclear AB, in Nykoping, Sweden, according to a Federal Register notice published Tuesday. In Sweden, the rods “will be used for testing the fuel cladding, guide […]

President Donald Trump this week appeared to break with the longstanding norm of not disclosing the location of U.S. nuclear weapons deployed abroad by telling a reporter he was “confident” weapons stored at Turkey’s Incirlik air base remained safe. Turkish military forces last week crossed into Syria after Trump — in a move widely criticized […]

BWX Technologies said Thursday it has received a contract to procure long-lead components for U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, which including options is worth $806 million over seven years. In a press release, the Lynchburg, Va., company said the contract from the “U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program” has a one-year base period worth […]

The security contractor at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina received a four-month extension Friday, keeping the company on the job through Feb. 7, 2020. Centerra-SRS, a subsidiary of Florida-based Centerra, will receive $35.8 million during the extension, the Energy Department said, just three days before the company’s initial 10-year, […]

After the federal holiday on Monday, South Carolina will find out whether the Supreme Court will hear its case that an appellate court illegally allowed the U.S. Department of Energy to cancel construction down the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) last year. On Friday, the Supreme Court was scheduled to hold a conference, in […]

Two members of Congress from Missouri are calling on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold an open hearing on a license application for export of weapon-grade uranium to Europe. The Department of Energy on July 31 filed an application for export of nearly 4.8 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to the Institute for Radioelements […]

Equipment testing and staff training is ongoing at a mock-up facility that will recover plutonium from metal cylinders used decades ago in nuclear reactors at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The $100 million plutonium recovery mission at the 310-square-mile site near the city of Aiken is slated to begin […]

The United States and Russia both remained in compliance with the New START nuclear arms-control treaty through Sept. 1, with each signatory making only minor changes across their strategic nuclear forces, the U.S. State Department reported in its latest update. Under the bilateral pact, which entered into force in 2011, the State Department publishes a […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Oct. 4 formalized its decision to continue building the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., even as the agency complies with a federal court order to conduct an additional environmental review of the plant. The Department of Energy branch made the move official in an amended […]

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 […]