Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The U.S. Justice Department and the contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina hope a civilian board will soon offer an opinion on whether the company overcharged the federal government by $5 million. Before a decision can be made, the two sides must wrap up a weeks-long hearing in […]

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday alleged CB&I AREVA MOX Services submitted $6.4 million in false invoices based on fraudulent claims from a subcontractor while they worked on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Filed on Thursday, the False Claims Act lawsuit says […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Senate Armed Services Committee still has the nominee for the No. 2 spot at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in a holding pattern, the nominee himself said here Tuesday. After his nomination lapsed in the 115th Congress, which ended Jan. 3, the Donald Trump administration again nominated former Lawrence Livermore […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will hone its acquisition approach for the plutonium-pit plant to be built at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina around September 2020, a long-time agency contractor said here Wednesday. Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the Savannah River Site management contractor, is on the hook to […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Department remains satisfied with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) strategy to produce plutonium pits at two facilities, but time is short to get started, a senior Pentagon official said here. “DOD is fully behind the NNSA’s current plan,” Peter Fanta, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear matters, said […]

The Department of Energy is changing the rules for its agency-wide Employee Concerns Program, removing a mandate that employees be allowed to have someone other than their immediate supervisor inspect their claims, and aiming to resolve concerns quickly. The Employee Concerns Program is a sort of whistleblower channel for agency and contractor employees. The old DOE […]

A motorist who died in an automobile crash inside the Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Feb. 7 was not an employee of the Department of Energy or its contractors. “It wasn’t connected to our work,” a DOE spokesperson said by email. “It does appear that it was just a tragic accident — one […]

The Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (DOD OIG) plans to evaluate 11 separate efforts related to space, nuclear deterrence and missile defense in fiscal year 2019, including whether the Air Force properly certified SpaceX for military launch missions. The DOD OIG released its fiscal year 2019 oversight plan last December with little fanfare, where […]

In a paperwork milestone that marks another coffin nail for the canceled project, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Feb. 8 terminated MOX Services’ license to build the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. A 1998 federal law gave the industry regulator responsibility for authorizing construction of the […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The second of two Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear power reactors could this year obtain a license to start producing tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons, a National Nuclear Security Administration official said here Thursday. The government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) already produces tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons by irradiating tritium -roducing burnable absorber […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The head of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hazarded an educated guess here Wednesday that the Department of Energy will soon extend his team’s contract to manage the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. After a one-year, $1-billion extension awarded in 2018 by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, SRNS is slated to […]

ARLINGTON, Va. —The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in January completed its first low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead, which now awaits a final design review in Texas before the agency can ship it to the Navy, an agency official said here Tuesday. The NNSA assembled the first W76-2 warhead, a modified version of the recently refurbished […]

Blocking all plutonium shipments to Nevada, as the state desires, would disrupt experiments there that help the government determine whether U.S. nuclear weapons still work as intended, the National Nuclear Security Administration argued in federal court this week. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du should deny injunction requested by the state in part because it “would […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — It could take a decade to build the low-yield, nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM) demanded by the Donald Trump administration, and development might not start until the Pentagon finishes a separate nuclear missile, a senior Defense Department official said here Thursday. The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review called on the Departments of Defense and Energy […]

After moving relatively quickly through the confirmation process, former Senate staffer Terri Donaldson became the Department of Energy’s (DOE) permanent inspector general. The Energy Department swore in Donaldson on Jan. 23 for a lifetime appointment, but did not announce her installation at the Forrestal Building in Washington until Thursday. The Donald Trump administration nominated Donaldson in June 2018. The […]

The federal government is holding on to more than $600,000 it seized over three years ago from a Savannah River Site subcontractor who is now serving prison time for committing fraud while working at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In a Jan. 30 filing in the fraud case, Carrie Fisher Sherard, an attorney with […]

Matthew Beinart Defense Daily MONTERRY, Calif. — The president’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Pentagon is likely to be delayed until mid-March and will arrive in two parts: a skinny budget followed by the full request a week later, a staff member on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee said this week. Congressional staffer John […]

A recent local government report shows that the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico accounted for a greater share of a shrinking Los Alamos County workforce over the last decade. As of mid-2018, the Department of Energy facility employed more than 65 percent of the county’s total workforce of roughly 16,300. In 2009, the lab […]

Kim Budil started this week in her new job as director of weapons complex and integration at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, making her the point person for the nuclear warhead to be used on a next-generation cruise missile. Monday was Budil’s first day in her new role, a lab spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. […]

A second face-to-face between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was the biggest nuclear news of this week’s State of the Union address. From the dais in the House of Representatives, Trump told a joint session of Congress that he and Kim plan to meet Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam to continue […]

The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Y-12 and Pantex sites spent about $30 million from 2016 to 2018 to create consolidated business information systems it says will save the government nearly $3 billion over the life of a 10-year site management contract, according to the Government Accountability Office. That is less than […]

MOX Services, the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., will lay off roughly another 400 people on April 1, according to South Carolina’s quasi-official unemployment services. MOX Services announced the impending layoffs Monday, the same day almost 450 workers were hit by […]

With half a metric ton of plutonium already shipped there over the state’s objections, Nevada on Thursday asked a federal judge to block the Department of Energy from sending any more of the fissile material. In a request for a preliminary injunction filed Thursday, the state asked U.S. District Judge Miranda Du to stop DOE […]

House Democrats on Thursday introduced a bill to ban the low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead the National Nuclear Security Administration recently acknowledged it started producing. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) leads the cadre of Democrats, which includes House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.). The text of the bill, “H.R.1086 – To prohibit the research and […]

Los Angeles-based AECOM is eyeing work in the nuclear security complex, Randall Wotring, the company’s chief operating officer, said this week. On a Tuesday quarterly earnings conference call with investors, Wotring suggested AECOM will be an active bidder not just on Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear cleanup contracts, but also on “defense-type projects” at the […]

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) on Wednesday became the latest outraged politician to demand answers about the Department of Energy’s secretive shipment of plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in November. In a heated letter dated Feb. 6, Sisolak told Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Lisa […]

The United States would adopt an official policy not to start a war using nuclear weapons, under legislation announced Wednesday by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Democrat member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is mulling a presidential run. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the chamber’s Armed Services chair after […]

Roofing repairs at the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) H Canyon processing facility will begin this summer after rainwater dripped through a crack in the roof to the ground floor of the facility. The water became contaminated as it passed through the nuclear materials processing area on its way to the first level of the canyon, Monte […]