Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The nominee for a high-level nuclear security jobs at the Department of Energy could get another trip through the Senate confirmation process for Christmas, according to a spokesperson for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Asked whether there was any chance that William Bookless — principal deputy administrator-designate for the National Nuclear Security Administration — might […]

Congress would have to affirmatively, rather than tacitly, approve any agreement to allow exports of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, under bills introduced in both chambers Tuesday by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced the No Nuclear Weapons for Saudi Arabia Act in the Senate, while […]

The federal government’s nuclear health-and-safety watchdog has raised concerns about whether an exhaust tunnel at the Savannah River Site’s nuclear materials processing facility can withstand the impact of an earthquake. The concern is related to two ongoing issues at the facility that have not yet been remedied, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said […]

WASHINGTON — The White House has someone in mind to fill a vacancy on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), the acting head of the independent nuclear-health-and-safety watchdog said in a public meeting here Thursday. Acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton would not identify the potential nominee. The DNFSB has been without a fifth board member since […]

Nuclear security made some news on Capitol Hill in 2018, but the biggest news in the enterprise concerned another hill in New Mexico, where the Department of Energy formally ended the abortive experiment of running the Los Alamos National Laboratory for profit. On Nov. 1, the nonprofit Triad National Security took over as the National […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Dec. 28 in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Please look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019.

As employees at the Savannah River Site’s MOX project continue to receive termination notices, local stakeholders in the Aiken, S.C., area are optimistic that more jobs are on the way and that the local economy will remain stable. That is because other contractors have been making necessary hires for various missions at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy […]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who this year secured full construction funding for a crucial defense uranium plant in his state, announced this week he will leave the Senate after 2020. Alexander chairs the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, in which capacity he is the gatekeeper for upper chamber funding of the Department of Energy and […]

The White House this week released what it says is the first comprehensive strategy for countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by terrorists, including radiological and nuclear threats. The 22-page document eight lines of effort to guide policy and operations, covering capabilities including intelligence collection, technical detection, law enforcement, and various databases “to track the movement of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Dec. 7 it helped send more than 1 kilogram of highly enriched uranium back to China from the Nigerian Research Reactor-1 at Ahmadu Bello University near Zaria, Nigeria. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency worked with the Chinese government and the U.N.-chartered International Atomic Energy Agency to repatriate […]

Fluor Federal Services will build a nuclear weapons storage and maintenance facility at the Frances E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyo., under a three-and-a-quarter-year U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contract announced this week and worth $145 million. The 90,000-square-foot facility will include a fueling station, a generator building, and a fire pump building, […]

A pair of nuclear doves in the Senate demanded this week that Energy Secretary Rick Perry brief them about his negotiations to bring U.S. nuclear-power technology to Saudi Arabia. In a Tuesday letter to Perry, Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also told Perry the United States should indefinitely suspend […]

Defense contractor Boeing is clear to start production on crucial hardware for the B61-12 next-generation nuclear gravity bomb, the U.S. Air Force announced. Boeing’s tail kit cleared Milestone C — which in Pentagon program management precedes a project’s construction phase — in late October, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at the Kirtland Air Force […]

Vivienne Machi Defense Daily The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) will include Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Doug Jones (D-Ala.) when it convenes for the 116th Congress in January. Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)’s office released the list of new committee assignments for his party Dec. 12. Republican assignments and all subcommittee […]

The United States could shave about $13 billion off the federal deficit over 20 years by slashing some 500 warheads from the nation’s nuclear arsenal, the nonpartisan federal Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. The suggestion was only one of many money-saving ideas in the biennial Options for Reducing the Deficit report, which this year covers […]

The sitting leaders of the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee plan to remain in place when the next Congress convenes in January. Staffers for both subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) confirmed their bosses’ intentions this week. Alexander has held the post since 2015, taking over from Feinstein […]

The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) swirled more rapidly around the drain this week, as the canceled project’s prime contractor announced more layoffs that will cut across trades, disciplines, and salary tiers at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. MOX Services will lay off another 70 people on Feb. 4, bringing the total […]

A Government Accountability Office report published recently roughs out the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) timeline for producing a refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile warhead by roughly 2030. The NNSA would begin studying options for a W78 replacement between April and June 2019, nail down a cost and schedule baseline by June 2022, and produce the first war-ready […]

Texas A&M University said it will partner with Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) on workforce and technology development programs at the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly plant in Amarillo, Texas. The partnership, founded under a February memorandum of understanding between CNS and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), will be based at Pantex’s new John […]

Nevada escalated a closed-door dialogue with the Department of Energy (DOE) to the federal court system because the agency got cagey about its plans for moving 1 metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium to and from the state beginning in 2019, according to an affidavit produced this week. The document, from an adviser to Nevada […]

As Pentagon officials and lawmakers mull the topline of the fiscal year 2020 defense budget, Huntington Ingalls Industries will be focused on ensuring the Navy’s next generation of nuclear submarines remains sufficiently funded without sacrificing other shipbuilding priorities, the company’s leader said. The forthcoming Columbia-class of nuclear submarines has been identified as a top service priority, said HII […]

The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims the company is responsible for injuries an employee suffered while working on a trailer. In the Nov. 29 response to a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, lawyers for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) wrote that […]

WASHINGTON — The day the United States said it could leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty by early February, hawkish think-tankers and former government officials shared weapons shopping lists for the post-treaty world — which in one case included in-theater nuclear missiles. The defense hawks spoke on a panel hosted by the Air Force […]

The U.S. Navy has awarded Bechtel Plant Machinery $1.5 billion worth of contracts for naval nuclear propulsion components, the Pentagon announced Friday. The money is spread across a pair of Naval Sea Systems Command contracts: one worth about $890 million, another valued at roughly $615 million, according to the Department of Defense. “No completion date […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to delay more than $1 million is wage-related payments to the contractor of the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility over a legal technicality, according to recent filings in a federal lawsuit. The department is not disputing U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler’s mid-November decision that DOE […]

The management and operations contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it has enough job openings for more than half of the people who will be laid off as a result of the Department of Energy canceling construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) “does have […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management prime Triad National Security is whipping together plans for addressing the major weapons projects of the future and cleaning up after major lab faux pas of the past. Triad, a three-way partnership of Battelle, longtime Los Alamos operator the University of California, and Texas A&M University, took over as the […]