Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

By Richard Abott Defense Daily The Navy announced the establishment of Program Executive Office Columbia (PEO CLB) on Wednesday to better focus on the Navy’s “number one acquisition priority,” the new nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines. James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said PEO CLB will provide oversight of construction […]

The state of South Carolina has no better idea than anyone else outside the National Nuclear Security Administration  (NNSA) about whether the agency has yet shipped 500 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium to the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, according to a recent court filing. In December 2017, a federal judge in South Carolina ordered the […]

The Department of Energy said this week it has not yet decided whether to accept highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. There is no schedule for a decision to be made. While Germany would pay for the mission, the total cost and potential technology concerns are being […]

An increased risk of radioactive contamination combined with the flouting of federal environmental laws should have persuaded a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending weapon-usable plutonium to Nevada, the Silver State told an appeals court this week. Nevada wants the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California to overturn U.S. District […]

The Senate Arms Services Committee on Thursday approved William Bookless, for the second time, to be second-in-command at the National Nuclear Security Administration. The committee approved Bookless, along with three nominees for non-DOE senior administration jobs, by voice vote at the top of a hearing.  Bookless is a former senior physicist at the Lawrence Livermore […]

The relationship between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Department of Defense “has never been stronger,” the head of the semiautonomous Department of Energy stockpile steward this week. U.S. Strategic Command “is our customer. But they don’t think of themselves as our customer, they think of themselves as their partner,” NNSA Administrator Lisa […]

The leader of U.S. Strategic Command is seeking collaboration with industry to ensure the U.S. military’s next nuclear command, control and communications (NC3) enterprise is properly hardened against cyber attacks. Air Force Gen. John Hyten has spent the last six months investigating the issue and visiting industry partners and federally funded research development corporations to […]

The U.S. Department of Energy could do a better job of monitoring how its contractors spend billions of dollars in federal money, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. A new GAO report recommends DOE entities, including the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, put more emphasis on how management and […]

The head of U.S. Strategic Command this week again praised the advantages of a key treaty limiting the U.S. and Russia to 1,500 deployed strategic warheads, but said any follow-on accord should apply limits all other types of nuclear weapons. “We would like to have all nuclear weapons as part of a future strategic arms […]

A federal judge this week refused Nevada’s second request to legally block the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from shipping weapon-usable plutonium to the state from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du, in an order published late Monday, refused to grant an injunction, writing that the request was […]

WASHINGTON — A Navy admiral and the head of U.S. Strategic Command sent conflicting signals in Washington on Tuesday about whether a botched welding job on long-lead parts of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine could spell delay for the Navy’s top procurement. BWX Technologies, which reported record earnings this week on early work as a […]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) this week signed a bill that could require contractors operating the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories to pay the state’s gross receipts tax, even if the contractors are nonprofit organizations. Grisham, the former Democratic congresswoman from Albuquerque, signed Senate Bill 11 on Thursday. The state House of Representatives in […]

BWX Technologies, of Lynchburg, Va., said Monday it capped 2018 with better than 50-percent earnings growth after clinching more nuclear naval, environmental cleanup, and uranium downblending work from the Department of Energy. Company-wide net earnings came in at over $225 million in 2018, up more than 50 percent from just under $150 million in 2017. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has certified its first new low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead as battle ready. In a Monday press release, the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said it “successfully completed the First Production Unit (FPU) of the W76-2 warhead Feb. 22 at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas.” The W76-2 warhead is […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) finalized its first safety recommendation to the Donald Trump administration’s Department of Energy, urging the agency to improve the safety of nuclear explosives handling at the Pantex weapons assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, documents published Tuesday show. In the recommendation, the independent federal board zeroed in on equipment and processes […]

The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site could be headed to trial near the end of the year over a federal negligence lawsuit filed in November by a site employee. A scheduling order filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South Carolina outlines tasks that must be completed by […]

Three Department of Energy field managers in New Mexico said Thursday that an agency order issued last year will bring little change in a good relationship with an independent federal watchdog, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The officials spoke at a DNFSB public hearing in Albuquerque, N.M. The four board members and about […]

Westinghouse got roped into a brewing political battle in Washington this week, when the Democratic-controlled House Oversight and Reform Committee ordered the White House to turn over records of the Donald Trump administration’s exploration of possible nuclear-power exports to Saudi Arabia. Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) directed the administration to by March 5 produce any records […]

Tickets to Masters Tournament golf and NASCAR events were among the perks provided to participants in a scam that defrauded the federal government of more than $6 million, the U.S. Justice Department stated in a lawsuit filed against two companies that worked on a now-terminated plutonium-conversion facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. […]

It will cost about $1 billion through 2025 to build a new X-ray camera to observe subcritical plutonium experiments at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), according to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Those figures come from a conceptual design for the planned Advanced Sources and Detectors (ASD) project headed by the Los Alamos National […]

As part of its efforts to put its house in order, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) intends hire a high-level staff management position, Chairman Bruce Hamilton said during a recent meeting in Washington, D.C. “We need to hire this executive secretary, or chief of staff, or whatever you want to call it,” Hamilton […]

Environmental groups that sued to stop construction of the Department of Energy’s new uranium hub in Tennessee want a federal judge to cut to the chase and rule in their favor, court papers filed this week show. The anti-nuke coalition on Monday asked for a summary judgment in the nearly 3-year-old lawsuit in the U.S. […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has ramped up downblending of a tranche of plutonium at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with work to increase further if the mission continues at a successful pace. In November, site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) increased operations to two 12-hour shifts per day, […]

Current and former executives with connections to the nuclear industry are among the eight members announced Wednesday to the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB). “I am pleased to announce the Secretary of @ENERGY Advisory Board members and I look forward to working with this team to enhance energy security, innovation, and the nuclear […]

By Calvin Biesecker Leidos on Tuesday posted higher sales and earnings due to top-line growth across its business segments and higher operating income in its Health and Civil segments. Net income increased 65 percent to $188 million, $1.25 earnings per share (EPS), from $114 million (74 cents EPS) a year ago. The strong earnings were […]

The Department of Energy has yet to reply to an angry letter from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) demanding details about the agency’s plan to help Centrus Energy Corp. build a new uranium enrichment cascade in Ohio. A Senate aide said Friday that DOE had not respond to the Jan. 23 letter, despite Barrasso’s request for […]

Updated safety documents for a ventilation tunnel at the Savannah River Site’s H Canyon facility are expected to be approved this summer and implemented in the fall, according to the Department of Energy. The documents should reflect a different approach to how the 310-square-mile site will handle incidents at the facility during an earthquake or […]