Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

With the partial shutdown of the federal government resolved, at least until mid-February, a lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has resumed, according to a court filing this week. The $200-million lawsuit ground to a halt during the 35-day shutdown, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “before November 2018” moved roughly half a ton of weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site from the Savannah River Site, in Aiken, S.C., the agency said Wednesday in a bombshell court filing. The announcement caught Nevada's governor and congressional delegation by surprise, prompting an outpouring of online […]

The United States will suspend its obligations under the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on Saturday, meaning it will be free to deploy missiles with a range of 310 miles to 3,100 miles anywhere in the world by Aug. 2. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the news early Friday morning. The U.S. […]

By Cal Biesecker Defense Daily General Dynamics, the Pentagon’s contractor for the next-generation ballistic-missile submarine, on Wednesday posted a strong finish to its fiscal year, delivering big gains in earnings and sales in the fourth quarter, aided in part by lower taxes and an acquisition last year. Net income in the quarter soared 43 percent to […]

Boeing, a central player on the Pentagon side of the current U.S. nuclear arsenal modernization, broke its own sales and earnings records for the year and quarter ended Dec. 31, the Chicago-based defense prime said Wednesday. Among other things, Boeing is working on designs for next-generation nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles and production of a tail […]

By Richard Abott Defense Daily Lockheed Martin on Jan. 30 won a $560 million modification to produce Trident II (D5) missiles for the U.S. and U.K. The Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs awarded this as a cost-plus-incentive-fee modification for Trident II missile production and deployed system support. The missile work will mostly be split among Magna, Utah […]

In an annual pregame tradition as sure as the coin toss, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will again police this year’s Super Bowl for signs of radiological dangers. The NNSA Remote Sensing Laboratory Aerial Measuring System swept the area around Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday to measure background radiation, and is scheduled to do so again Sunday […]

More work on nuclear-tipped missiles contributed to yearly and quarterly earnings gains in 2018 at Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Md.-based defense giant announced this week. Lockheed’s 2018 net earnings from continuing operations were more than $5 billion, or $17.59 a share in 2018: up more than two-and-a-half times from just under $2 billion in 2017. […]

Nekiylo Dawayne Graves, 27, of Iowa, died Monday after contract security forces and a local sheriff’s deputy shot at him following an 8-mile car chase into the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), in Mercury, Nev. In a Wednesday Facebook video, Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly identified Graves as the deceased. She also identified Nye County […]

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Thursday kept its metaphorical Doomsday Clock at two minutes to midnight, citing continuing aggressive posturing by nuclear-armed nations. “The risks associated with nuclear weapons, over the long term, are increasing for three reasons: expensive programs to modernize nuclear arsenals, expansive nuclear doctrines, and a decisive turn away from […]

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), whose Nashville, Tenn.-centered congressional district is more than 100 miles from the nearest nuclear security site, will lead the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee that sets policy for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) will be the ranking member on the subcommittee, which writes the parts of […]