Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

With congressional negotiations set to begin next week on the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the White House asked the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee not to cut development of new proliferation-detection technologies at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed in […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will flex up the Kansas City National Security Complex’s manufacturing capacity by leasing some 275,000 square feet of industrial space about a mile from the nuclear security enterprise’s main components shop, according to an environmental notice published Monday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency plans to […]

The U.S. Air Force is not encouraging or discouraging a possible proposal where Boeing and Northrop Grumman team up to build the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Will Roper told reporters on the sidelines of a recent industry conferece. “We are looking for the proposal that is best value to the […]

Two senior Democrats on Tuesday requested that the U.S. Congressional Budget Office evaluate the potential costs to the United States from expiration of the New START nuclear arms control treaty. The 2011 accord prohibits the United States and Russia from deploying more than 1,550 strategic warheads on a maximum of 700 fielded long-range delivery systems. […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would get every penny it seeks in fiscal 2020, and then some, under legislation advanced Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The energy and water bill sent to the full Senate would give the agency just under $17 billion for the budget year starting Oct. 1: about $425 million above […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced legislation that would provide $65 million more than the White House requested for fiscal 2020 for the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile. The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program would receive $635 million for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, under the 2020 Defense Appropriations Act. The […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) hopes to receive a briefing in early October from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) regarding criticality safety at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. Board member Joyce Connery, writing on behalf of DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton, indicated in an Aug. 23 letter to NNSA Administrator Lisa […]

After three days of bracing for impact from Hurricane Dorian, officials at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site determined Friday that the storm was no longer a local threat as it moved up the North Carolina coast. According to the emergency status page for the 310-square-mile site near Aiken, S.C., “there are currently no Operational Emergencies or scheduled delays for […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — It could take 18 months longer than thought to finish a pair of crucial nuclear weapon refurbishments, a senior National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official said here Wednesday. The first production units of the B61-12 gravity bomb and the W88 Alt-370 submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead are “going to be delayed by approximately 16 […]

It will take at least “the next several months” to clean up a cesium-137 spill from May at a University of Washington medical research building in Seattle, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Thursday. The public has been barred from the seven-floor Research and Training Building near the Harborview Medical […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has until late September to either accept or reject the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s (DNFSB) recommendation that the agency fix perceived safety defects at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, the board said in a recent letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. According to the Aug. 22 letter, newly […]

Andrew McIlroy has become associate laboratories director for the Sandia National Laboratories California campus in Livermore, Calif., the New Mexico-based laboratory system said Wednesday. McIlroy now will lead the smaller, satellite campus of the main U.S. nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory, which employs about 1,000 people. Among other things, the campus includes the combustion research facility that studies […]

Calling the Department of Energy’s 2018 shipment of plutonium to Nevada a “nuclear incident” and a nuisance, the state is asking a federal judge to boot half a metric ton of the fissile material out of the Nevada National Security Site (NSS) and prohibit further shipments. The draft amended complaint filed late last week is the latest […]

Senate Democrats — led by a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Democratic presidential candidate — are calling on committee leaders to adopt several House-passed measures that would ban low-yield missiles deployment and extend the New START Treaty during future conference sessions over the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Sen. Elizabeth Warren […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Wednesday it had completed the last of four new funding agreements for private manufacturing of the medical isotope molybdenum-99. This means Northwest Medical Isotopes, of Corvallis, Ore., will now receive $15 million from the NNSA that it must fully match. The announcement comes almost five weeks after […]

Plutonium downblending at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has increased significantly after more shifts were added in November 2018. Assuming work continues to proceed well, shifts could be further increased in fiscal 2020, about a year sooner than the initial target date. Workers have downblended just over 17 kilograms […]

The security provider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is expected to receive a four-month contract extension ahead of the end of its current deal on Oct. 7.  Florida-based Centerra could also secure another eight months on the job. That would come via two more four-month extensions, keeping the […]

Nuclear Security & Defense Monitor took a break over the past two weeks for Congress’ annual summer recess. Our affiliate publication, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, kept up on the latest news around the nuclear security enterprise and its industry partners. Here’s a recap of what happened while we were out. After Appeals Defeat, Nevada Wants […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will award its John S. Foster Medal to Linton Brooks, who led the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration during the George W. Bush administration. Brooks, a former submarine commander and arms-control ambassador, is only the fifth person to receive the award, which is named for the pioneering nuclear-weapon designer and fourth […]

As expected, South Carolina appealed a federal judge’s refusal to force the Department of Energy to pay $200 million in fines for failing to remove weapon-usable plutonium from the state. The state docketed its appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court on Thursday, but had not at deadline Friday filed […]

The U.S. Department of Energy expects to release this year some $35 million in funding for Centrus Energy Corp. to begin building a new uranium enrichment cascade required to produce 600 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel by June 1, 2020, according to a letter contract filed Aug. 12 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange […]

Merrick & Co. has opened a new office in Aiken, S.C., to support subcontract work on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) expanding plutonium mission, the Greenwood, Colo., nuclear, defense, and infrastructure contractor said. Bill Taylor will manage the new Aiken office, the company said in a press release. Taylor spent the last 15 years […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed Wednesday that Stephen Younger will retire as director of the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico effective Dec. 31, after two years managing the nation’s nuclear-weapon engineering laboratory. The local Albuquerque Journal reported the news first. In a short note to employees, provided by Sandia’s public affairs office, Younger said […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is looking for a new manager for its Los Alamos National Laboratory field office in New Mexico, according to a want ad on an official federal jobs board. There are seven NNSA field offices, where local officials who report directly to the NNSA administrator oversee the agency’s multibillion-dollar site-management contracts. […]

International Isotopes on Aug. 14 reported a net loss of nearly $1.2 million for the second quarter of 2019, primarily due to expenses for ongoing remediation of a May radioactive contamination incident in Seattle. The $1.16 million net loss was close to four times the $332,279 loss reported in the same period of 2018, the […]

It’s clear that Boeing, which designed, built, and serviced every Minuteman missile since the venerable launcher became the backbone of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, does not like any of the options available to it under the Air Force’s current procurement for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD). That’s why the company quit the competition to build the […]

Longenecker & Associates promoted Mike Briggs to the newly created post of group vice president for High-Hazard Operations support, the small-business subcontractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory said. Briggs joined the Las Vegas-based company last year and helped launch the business line that supports incident response and recovery at DOE sites, the company said […]