Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

A former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lied about contacts with the Chinese government-sponsored group Thousand Talents, which the Donald Trump administration says seeks to steal U.S. intellectual property. Some time between  2007 and 2018, Turab Lookman “had been recruited by, applied for, and been accepted to […]

MOX Services will not receive any interest payments on $20 million in clawed-back fees the shrinking company won from the Department of Energy in a lawsuit over the agency’s cancellation of a controversial plutonium disposal plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler handed down the […]

South Carolina and the Department of Energy need at least another month to decide whether it is “feasible” to settle the state’s $200-million 2018 lawsuit over several metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium stranded at the Savannah River Site. “The parties continue to engage in discussions to determine whether it is feasible to resolve this matter […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) program to keep nuclear and radiological materials out of the hands of bad actors would be funded at or above the requested level for the fifth year in a row, if a fiscal 2020 spending bill the House Appropriations Committee passed last week becomes law. The spike in funding, […]

A pair of contractors have started cleaning up a University of Washington building contaminated weeks ago by cesium-137, but there is no timetable for finishing the job or reoccupying the Seattle facility. The contractors are International Isotopes, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Chase Environmental, of Louisville, Ky. They are assisting the Washington state Department of Health, […]

After three years of wrestling with Congress, the Department of Energy has finally convinced at least one chamber that it is time to move on fully from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In a bullet point so brief as to belie the drama that has beset the failed plutonium disposal plant, the House […]

By Rich Abott Defense Daily The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assesses Russia “probably is not adhering” fully to a multilateral prohibition on nuclear testing, the agency’s director said Wednesday. Speaking at a Hudson Institute event, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr. argued Russia’s development of new nuclear warhead designs and overall stockpile management is enhanced by […]

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee this week approved legislation that would slow development of next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, along with Department of Energy infrastructure that supports them. The next stop for the two bills — which passed essentially along party lines, and without any amendments directly affecting nuclear arms spending — is the […]

President Donald Trump announced May 21 that he is nominating Barbara Barrett to become the next Air Force secretary, as current Secretary Heather Wilson completes her final weeks on the job. “I am pleased to announce my nomination of Barbara Barrett of Arizona, and former Chairman of the Aerospace Corporation, to be the next Secretary of […]

The Navy on Monday awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $497 million modification for a submarine industrial base development and expansion to support the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. According to the contract announcement, the award also covers the overall nuclear shipbuilding enterprise, which includes Virginia-class attack submarines and Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. This is part of the “integrated […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration this week appealed a court decision in a lawsuit to let some 20 employees of contractor MOX Services retain access to vital project information about on the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The federal government filed its appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the […]

WASHINGTON — In an event that was part photo-op, part celebration, and part power networking, senior Department of Energy officials mixed with Capitol Hill staffers, think-tankers, and the press on Tuesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence (NSDD) program. Born from a need to prevent proliferation of the Soviet stockpile […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act would allow for full funding of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plan to build plutonium nuclear-weapon cores in two states, a senior committee aide confirmed Thursday. The committee finished a closed-door markup of the annual military policy bill Wednesday, then had senior staffers […]

After nine months of stop-and-start progress, the Senate on Thursday confirmed former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicist William Bookless to be the principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Senate confirmed Bookless by voice vote. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had not set a date for his swearing-in at deadline Friday […]

A 2020 spending proposal passed Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee directs the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to tap the independent group of JASON scientists for at least one, and perhaps two, new studies. After the Pentagon ditched the JASON contract in April following more than 50 years, the NNSA picked up the deal […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has given the go-ahead for the roughly $145 million High Explosives Pressing Facility at the Pantex Plant in Texas to begin full-scale operations. The facility can press some 2,500 pounds of conventional high explosives a year, and shape up to 500 explosive hemispheres, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) does not anticipate initiating oversight of a planned plutonium warhead core plant in South Carolina until the National Nuclear Security Administration approves an official cost and schedule estimate for the expected multibillion-dollar nuclear facility — a milestone that could be years away. “I predict that oversight will begin […]

By Richard Abott Defense Daily The next contract for the U.S. Navy’s program to build its fleet of Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines will be the Block I construction contract, according to program manager Capt. John Rucker. That is expected to cover the first two boats. “[W]e will award that no later than Oct. 1, 2019, […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., has taken custody of some 700 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the United Kingdom, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said. The material, shipped to the U.S. from the U.K.’s Dounreay fast-reactor decommissioning site beginning in 2016, was at Oak Ridge awaiting downblending in “commercial […]

Oral arguments are set for Thursday between the contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) and its customer, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), over some $800,000 in interest the contractor says it is owed. CB&I AREVA MOX Services sued the NNSA in 2016, and repeatedly afterward in cases that have been […]

An article in the May 3 issue of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor should have said that the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority arranged to ship 700 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to an undisclosed U.S. site.

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee is set to vote early next week on a 2020 budget bill that would increase the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2020 budget overall, but provide fewer dollars than requested for active nuclear weapons programs. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee approved the unamended, $46.4 billion Energy and […]

Deployed nuclear weapons do not contain the underperforming commercial capacitors blamed for delaying delivery of the first B61-12 and W88 Alt 370 nuclear weapons, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency “has verified that these components are not in use in other deployed weapons, nor will they […]

International Isotopes on Wednesday confirmed its role in an accident two weeks ago that contaminated more than a dozen people with cesium-137 during the Department of Energy-funded removal of a blood-irradiation machine from a research facility at the University of Washington in Seattle. “[O]ur radiological services team was involved in a contamination event at an […]

As expected, major Energy Department contractor Fluor has formally selected longtime executive Carlos Hernandez as its permanent CEO, about two weeks after he took the job on an interim basis. Fluor’s Board of Directors also announced Thursday in a press release that Hernandez, previously the company executive vice president and chief legal officer, would serve […]

The Department of Homeland Security should pay closer attention to how cities are spending federal dollars earmarked for an anti-nuclear-terrorism program, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. The DHS Securing the Cities program began in 2006 and helps municipalities develop plans to prevent and respond to acts of radiological terror, including deployment of the radiological […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) indicated Monday it will not start disposal of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium in South Carolina until 2028 — a date by which the agency could accrue more than $1 billion in financial penalties for failing to remove the material from the South Carolina facility. The semiautonomous […]