Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is still determining if problems with non-nuclear components will prevent the B61-12 gravity bomb and W88 Alt 370 submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead from entering service with the Air Force and Navy on time, according to an annual agency report released Wednesday. The details are included in the agency’s 2020 Stockpile […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry and National Nuclear Security Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty met Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) this week at the Nevada National Security Site, weeks after the agency halted prohibited shipments of nuclear waste to the facility and months after it received clandestine delivery of weapon-usable plutonium. That is according to a Thursday report […]

Debating nine of her rivals for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made her case again for a U.S. policy against first use of nuclear weapons. “The United States is not going to use nuclear weapons preemptively, and we need to say so to the entire world. It reduces […]

“All options are on the table” at Fluor after the company’s $555 million loss in the second quarter of 2019, CEO Carlos Hernandez said Thursday. The government contractor — one of the main industry subcontractors at the Los Alamos National Lab, the manager of the Naval Nuclear Laboratory and leader of the team running the Savannah […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a budget caps deal that officially set defense funding toplines for the next two years, essentially doing away with future budget cuts via sequestration. H.R. 3877 sets the defense spending topline at $738 billion in fiscal 2020 and at $741.5 billion in fiscal 2021. The 2020 level is significantly […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday it plans to appoint a new director general in October, following the death in July of Yukiya Amano. Whoever succeeds Amano would take office in January, the United Nations body in charge of international monitoring of nuclear materials said in a Twitter message. U.N. member states may submit […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday approved Gen. John Hyten to become vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, following a hearing in which the Air Force four-star and current commander of U.S. nuclear forces fielded questions about his alleged sexual assault of a subordinate officer. The committee voted 20-7 to report the […]

The prime contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex is tightening its criticality safety program and increasing oversight and monitoring of that regime to prevent an accidental nuclear chain reaction, following a recent federal report that deemed the existing program at the main U.S. uranium processing site “inadequate.” The Oak Ridge, Tenn., site houses National […]

A power outage at the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility (DAF) interrupted some of the site’s nuclear stockpile stewardship operations for about two weeks this month, a spokesperson said. The outage happened July 1, after a series of mishaps in replacing the DAF’s uninterruptible power source — a backup power supply system that […]

Fluor Marine Propulsion plans to move some 200 Naval Reactors Facility employees in Idaho off-site in 2020, when the prime contractor for the federal Naval Nuclear Laboratory expects to enter a five- to 10-year lease for office space. The Naval Reactors Facility, which stores spent fuel from nuclear warships and submarines, employs a total of […]

Second-quarter earnings fell at Huntington Ingalls Industries, the shipbuilder that also helps manage several National Nuclear Security Administration’s properties, even as sales rose. The Newport News, Va., company booked some losses in its shipbuilding business for the U.S. Navy, mostly on a contract for fleet support services. Lower performance on the Virginia-class attack submarine program, […]

The private company pushing the Donald Trump administration to fast-track sales of nuclear-power technology to Saudia Arabia is the latest incarnation of a long-running entity that periodically pitches “impossible” nuclear projects, one executive wrote in an email published this week by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The details are part of a second interim staff […]

As long expected, the United States officially withdrew Friday from the 32-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, triggering a reciprocal withdrawal from Moscow and leaving both parties free to deploy ground-based missiles with a range of 310 miles to 3,100 miles anywhere in the world. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo made the announcement […]

Holtec International beat two competitors to take a roughly $4.8 million, firm-fixed-priced contract to design and build transportation equipment for tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, a spokesperson for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said Friday. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which Battelle Memorial Institute manages for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, awarded the contract […]

A good 2019 keeps rolling for Lockheed Martin as the company reported strong increases in earnings and sales in its second quarter, building on handsome gains in the first quarter. The strong results led the company to increase its guidance for sales, earnings, and cash this year. Net income in the quarter increased 22% to […]

Mark Esper was sworn in this week as the secretary of defense after the Senate confirmed him Tuesday by a landslide vote, ending months of uncertainty about the Pentagon’s leadership. Esper, who previously served as Army secretary since 2017, was confirmed by a vote of 90-8 Tuesday. President Donald Trump swore him in that night. […]

An air tunnel at a degrading Savannah River Site nuclear materials processing facility should be able to withstand an earthquake, according to a detailed analysis for the Department of Energy, despite concerns raised two years ago by a federal safety board. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), management and operations contractor for the 310-square-mile DOE facility […]

The Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) have made “significant progress” settling a $200-million-plus lawsuit, according to a Wednesday court filing. CB&I AREVA MOX Services, now majority owned by McDermott International, sued DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in 2016, alleging the agencies […]

The Air Force is currently expecting to see first flight of the B-21 next-generation bomber around December 2021, the service’s number-two military official revealed Wednesday. Speaking at an Air Force Association Mitchell Institute event on Capitol Hill, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson said according to a software app he tracks on the new […]

Three industry sources said recently Fluor’s government services group, if not the entire company, could be an acquisition target for another player in the nuclear cleanup industry, Jacobs Engineering. Such a deal could further consolidate Jacobs’ hold on the business of environmental remediation for the U.S. Department of Energy, following its December 2017 purchase of […]

Honeywell, the parent company of several Department of Energy site-management contractors, posted an annual increase in sales and profits in the second quarter, after accounting for businesses the company spun off in the last year. Net income rose to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2018, while sales fell 15% to […]

Senior leaders at the Department of Energy offered condolences Monday for the family of Yukiya Amano, who died late last week after announcing he would resign as director general of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The agency, which guards against the spread of fissile material and promotes the peaceful use of nuclear […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it had issued three cooperative agreements, each worth $15 million in matching funds, to companies aiming to produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). The recipients are: Niowave, of Lansing, Mich.; NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, of Beloit, Wis.; and SHINE Medical Technologies, of Janesville, Wis. Talks are continuing […]

Northrop Grumman on Wednesday reported a strong second quarter on higher earnings and sales and strong order flow also drove a substantial increase in the company’s backlog. The company also ended the week in a position to be the sole bidder on a massive contract to build the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent: the next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic […]

The new federal budget caps deal provides $2.5 billion more in base defense spending than the 2020 budget the House of Representatives has already approved, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would need a 25% share of the extra funding to reach its preferred nuclear-weapon budget. To get the money, the semiautonomous Department of […]

The Donald Trump administration has not “committed wrongdoing” by authorizing U.S. companies to share nuclear-energy technology with Saudi Arabia, Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform said this week. The committee minority on Monday published the conclusion in a nine-page report posted online almost six months after the House Democratic majority announced it was investigating […]

Former Employee Sues SRS Security Contractor For Discrimination In a federal discrimination lawsuit seeking $3.5 million, an African-American woman formerly employed by the Savannah River Site’s security contractor says she was terminated for accidentally leaving her gun in a bathroom, while a white employee kept her job after making the same error. In the complaint, […]

Citing “unfair” competition from a rival bidder, Boeing this week walked away from a potentially $25 billion Air Force contract to build the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD): the next generation of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. In a July 23 letter to an Air Force acquisition official, Boeing President and CEO Leanne Caret said the company […]

A surprise to no one, Boeing on Wednesday swung to a loss in its second quarter on massive charges related to its 737 commercial aircraft program, which also led to a precipitous decline in sales, but the negatives were partially offset by gains in the company’s defense and services businesses. “The safe return to service of […]