Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

By Richard Abott Defense Daily The Navy’s estimate that Columbia-class submarine procurement will cost $115 billion is overly optimistic about labor hour assumptions, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said this week. The Navy plans to start replacing the Ohio­-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) with 12 Columbias in 2027. In creating the new vessel, the Navy is developing […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) told members of Congress here Tuesday he hopes the Department of Energy will “fix” a controversial rule that could limit board access to nuclear weapons facilities during the agency’s upcoming one-year review of the directive. In May 2018, the department issued the controversial […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated Air Force Gen. John Hyten as vice chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, opening up a vacancy at both the nation’s top nuclear command post and on the joint Pentagon-Department of Energy body that oversees nuclear weapons procurement. Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command since November 2016, “was […]

BWX Technologies’ mistake last year welding ballistic-missile tubes for the first Columbia-class submarine consumed 15 of the 23 months of schedule cushion built into the Common Missile Compartment program, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported Monday. The report marked the first time the Navy and Columbia prime General Dynamics Electric Boat publicly quantified the amount […]

After Nevada demanded in a lawsuit that the Department of Energy produce detailed records of all plutonium shipments to and within the state during the last 20 years, the agency on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss the case entirely. Nevada sued DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in November to stop […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission blasted as unbalanced a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the small civilian agency should consider tighter regulation of nuclear material that terrorists could use in a radioactive dispersal device. In the report published April 4, the GAO said the NRC’s regulation of radioactive material storage should be stricter because of […]

A planned South Carolina facility will be able to produce 50 plutonium nuclear-weapon cores a year by 2030, despite a Department of Energy-funded study that says 2035 is more realistic, according to a top official with DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). “We have been working on scenarios to bring it back in time to […]

No one was injured and no special nuclear material was damaged after an apparent hydrogen fluoride leak Thursday morning in the 9212 uranium processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration said. An alarm first detected the gas release at 7:52 a.m. Eastern […]

The contractor for the Nevada National Security Site is looking for a miner to expand the underground test space where future explosive plutonium experiments will help verify that refurbished nuclear weapons work as intended, according to a procurement notice released this week. The eventual subcontractor will “[p]rovide mining equipment and personnel to excavate, stabilize, and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) naval reactors budget is entering a relative lull as development ramps down on reactor design for the Navy’s flagship Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program, according to the agency’s 2020 budget request. For Naval Reactors, which researches, develops, and manufactures reactors and refueling infrastructure for nuclear-powered Navy warships and submarines, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was not moved by a Department of Energy statement this week that plutonium stored in the Nevada National Security Site’s Device Assembly Facility is safe from earthquakes that might cause high explosives to detonate in the facility and spew plutonium into the air beyond the site’s borders. “The […]

The contractor for the now-terminated MOX project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina tallied more than $54 million in cost overruns through “inadequate” management of its subcontract with North Carolina-based Intermech, according to a June 2017 assessment from the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The report further states that, […]

As lawmakers on Capitol Hill sound alarms about the possibility of entering fiscal 2020 with a continuing resolution – or worse, sequestration – Air Force leadership said Thursday that $29 billion is at stake should the 2011 Budget Control Act spending cap levels return. A return to sequestration levels would cause four times the amount […]

The specter of burdensome data calls between the Department of Energy and its site contractors might still haunt the nuclear security enterprise, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) uses the calls — which may be written requests rather than telephone or voice calls — to glean […]

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) this week grilled Energy Secretary Rick Perry about the Department of Energy’s plans to award Centrus Corp. a sole-source contract for domestic uranium enrichment. On Jan. 7, DOE issued a notice of intent to award Centrus a contract potentially worth $115 million over three years to deploy a cascade of 16 […]

WASHINGTON  — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) can only wait five to seven more years before beginning a potentially costly life-extension program on the megaton-class B83 gravity bomb, a senior agency official said here Wednesday in a budget hearing. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) coaxed the estimate out of Charles Verdon, deputy administrator for NNSA […]

Centrus Energy on Thursday reported a decline in revenue for both the fourth quarter of 2018 and the year in whole. The Bethesda, Md.-based nuclear fuel provider reported revenue of about $84 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, and $193 million for 2018, down respectively from $117 million and $218 million for the corresponding […]

After the Department of Energy released some 650 pages of details on its $16.5-billion nuclear-weapon budget request for 2020, the chair of the House Appropriations panel that funds the agency demanded more information on proposed weapons spending. “With respect to nuclear weapons, this is not a budget that establishes clear priorities with a responsible plan […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday defended the Donald Trump administration’s decision to pursue sales of U.S.-made nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia, including by granting seven unidentified companies approval to transfer some technology and expertise to the nation. On Wednesday, the Daily Beast reported, and Reuters confirmed, that the Department of Energy had granted […]

The Pentagon continues to assess the costs and benefits of directing the two contractors building the forthcoming Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) to partner with the two remaining rocket builders in the country, the Air Force’s military acquisition chief said March 28. Testifying before the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Thursday on Capitol Hill, Lt. […]

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a friend of the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories who has spent the last two decades on Capitol Hill, announced this week that he will not run for re-election in 2020. Rather than seeking a third term, New Mexico’s senior senator said Monday he will leave the Senate in January 2021. […]

South Carolina has named its terms for settling a $200-million plutonium lawsuit against the Department of Energy, according to a late Tuesday court filing. South Carolina on Jan. 30 gave attorneys at the Justice Department “a list of potential terms for negotiation” in the ongoing settlement talks that began in October, according to a status […]

Proportionally or by raw dollars, the W80-4 life-extension program would get the biggest increase of any active Department of Energy nuclear warhead refurbishment in fiscal 2020, if the Trump administration’s budget request becomes law. The program led by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California already received an enormous budget increase in 2019 to pace […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry will testify before the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee next week on his agency’s fiscal 2020 budget request. Perry is the only witness scheduled to appear before the panel at 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday at Rayburn House Office Building Room 2362-B in Washington, D.C. The subcommittee is led […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tapped John Benner, who in early March returned to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to aid the agency with future warhead core production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The lab subsequently detailed Benner to Washington, where the longtime Los Alamos staffer will work […]

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that he doesn’t believe that cyber capabilities can be a substitute for the nation’s nuclear deterrence forces. “[W]e need to be very careful to maintain a safe, effective, and credible nuclear deterrent on its own,” […]

As the state’s elected officials in Washington maintain a measured approach, local officials in Aiken County, S.C., are going all-in on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to bring plutonium pit production to the nearby Savannah River Site. In a resolution passed March 5, the Aiken County Council said it “officially supports” the NNSA “decision […]