Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily As expected, Boeing on Wednesday reported lower sales and earning stemming from a halt in deliveries and flights of its 737 MAX passenger aircraft but the pain from that issue was softened by gains in the defense and services segments. “I want to be very clear, when it comes to resource […]

The independent JASON panel of scientists appears set to receive a reprieve from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration after the Pentagon last month said it would not renew MITRE Corp.’s expiring contract. “The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) anticipates the award of a firm-fixedprice/cost Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) hybrid contract to support the JASON program […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Lockheed Martin blew open the door in its first quarter financials with a strong showing across all of its operating segments and the company increased its guidance for earnings, sales and cash this year. Net income jumped a whopping 42 percent to $1.7 billion, $5.99 earnings per share (EPS), from […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily The acquisition last year of Orbital ATK, combined with strong results in the company’s Aerospace Systems, led to a solid opening quarter for Northrop Grumman, with sales and earnings higher and the outlook for earnings higher this year. Net income increased 3 percent to $863 million, $5.06 earnings per share […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily General Dynamics on Wednesday posted higher first quarter sales due to gains in each of its business segments but net income fell on higher interest expenses and slightly higher taxes, which combined to more than offset a small rise in segment income. Net income dropped 7 percent to $745 million, […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Raytheon on Thursday reported strong first quarter results with the company’s earnings leading the way with a double-digit gain on operational performance, some pension tailwinds and other positives. Despite beating its own and analysts’ expectations on earnings, Raytheon left its outlook for 2019 unchanged. Company officials on their investor call said […]

The State Department has kept the moribund U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) in a congressionally mandated annual report of arms-control compliance concerns. The agency expended some 80 words of the roughly 5,000-word Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments report to warn that Moscow’s 2016 supension of adherence to […]

WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy locked Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff out of meetings at at least one defense nuclear site, a member of the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog said here Tuesday. At a public meeting, board member Joyce Connery said DNFSB staff at a site she did not identify were denied […]

A key figure in federal lawsuits involving weapon-usable plutonium moved last year to the Nevada National Security Sitehas retired from the Department of Energy, the agency confirmed this week. Henry Allen Gunter left DOE after a long federal career, a spokesperson for DOE’s Environmental Management Office at Savannah River confirmed in an email Tuesday. The […]

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon danced around questions this week about whether the National Nuclear Security Administration can support the planned deployment of next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles if Congress allows the civilian agency to build only a single plutonium pit-production plant. But with lawmakers headed back to Washington next week to prepare bills that will […]

South Carolina says the U.S. Department of Energy owes another $100 million for failing to meet its commitment for disposal of plutonium from the Savannah River Site, and will owe more in 2020 even if the agency meets its federal court-mandated deadline to remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from the state by the end […]

Watchers of the Department of Energy’s defense nuclear waste and weapons budgets will endure another week of added uncertainty about those programs after Congress blew town for an extended spring break without making progress on a deal to avert automatic spending cuts that will kick in on Oct. 1. The House did make an opening […]

The prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) sought and received a federal judge’s help Tuesday in ensuring that the rapidly downsizing company retains control of proprietary information at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. MOX Services has been shedding jobs since the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in October […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plan to produce the fissile nuclear-weapon cores known as plutonium pits in two states is “potentially achievable,” according to a new study the agency publicized, but did not release, this week. Congress last year ordered the secretary of defense, in consultation with NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, to commission a […]

The leader of Air Force Global Strike Command expects the cost of the service’s new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to increase in the short term, he said April 17. However, Gen. Timothy Ray is not concerned about the impact to the ongoing Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program, as the cost will likely then go down […]

Michael Graham, a principal vice president at Bechtel and general manager of its environmental, nuclear, security and environmental business line, is retiring this month. “After a distinguished, 40-year career, 23 of them with Bechtel, Michael Graham is retiring,” company spokesman Fred deSousa said by email Tuesday. “Michael has held senior environmental leadership roles at many […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General would not confirm or deny this week whether it is investigating a regional organization in New Mexico that advocates for local governments around the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The office does not comment on the existence of any “investigative matters,” the DOE IG’s Felicia Jones said by telephone […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week revealed new details about its proposed dilute-and-dispose plan to eliminate 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium — including that the agency is close to beginning a yearlong environmental review of its new approach. The agency will release its draft dilute-and-dispose supplemental environmental impact statement “in the very […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration ramps up spending on nuclear-weapon refurbishments, the Kansas City, Mo., plant that produces the non-nuclear components of these weapons is rushing to expand the footprint it right-sized in 2012, and preparing to lease more production space this summer. That is according to a report released last week by the Government Accountability […]

A bipartisan pair of senators last week introduced a bill to tighten ethics and transparency requirements for members of federal advisory committees: expert groups that advise federal agencies including the Department of Energy. The bill from Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) would require, among other things, that agencies creating and maintaining such committees openly nominate […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) expects in October to solicit bids for design and construction of a facility to treat liquid transuranic waste generated by future production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores, called plutonium pits, according to a recent procurement note. Triad National Security, which since November has managed the New Mexico facility for the National Nuclear […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General would not confirm or deny this week whether it is investigating a regional organization in New Mexico that advocates for local governments around the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The office does not comment on the existence of any “investigative matters,” the DOE IG’s Felicia Jones said by telephone […]

Department of Energy contractor Honeywell on Thursday attributed a 15% drop in first-quarter revenue primarily to the spinoff of two business lines, saying organic growth was otherwise up by 8%. Company-wide sales dropped from $10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2018 to $8.9 billion in the same period of 2019. “The difference between reported […]

The House Armed Services panel that writes nuclear weapons law will reveal its plans for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s future plutonium-pit production complex, low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead and more on June 4, when it marks up part of the lower chamber’s 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) sets policy […]

The Air Force last week awarded Boeing a $14.3 billion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to modernize the B-1 and B-52 bomber weapons systems through 2029, according to an April 12 announcement. The contract includes the modification, modernization, engineering, sustainment and test for the weapons systems on the B-1 Lancer and the B-52 Stratofortress. “This B-1/B-52 Flexible Acquisition and […]

The Energy Department is extending the deadline for bids on the paramilitary security services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from April 22 until May 7. In a question-and-answer exchange posted online April 5, a prospective contractor asked for a two-week extension, noting the pre-bid meeting and tour on March 26, “coupled with Good […]

The Pentagon is pulling the plug on the contract for the JASON civilian science advisory panel even as contractor MITRE Corp. works on multiple studies for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), according to congressional testimony this week. The NNSA has “three studies being considered and planned with JASON pertaining to the topics of: cyber […]

An article in the April 5 edition of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, “DNFSB Stands By Claim That Nevada Plutonium Storage Spot is At Risk From Earthquakes,” should have said the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s concerns about plutonium at the Nevada National Security Site were unrelated to the half metric ton of weapon-usable plutonium shipped […]