Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

By Rich Abott Defense Daily A top Navy official confirmed the service is looking to fund the upcoming Columbia-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine program (SSBN) separately from the normal shipbuilding budget. Vice Adm. William Merz, Deputy Chief Of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems (OPNAV N9) told reporters following a Senate Armed Services Seapower subcommittee hearing on […]

Nearly lost amid higher-profile nomination hearings in high-octane committees this week is a nuts-and-bolts piece of legislation that could open the door for more whistleblower disclosures in the nuclear weapons, waste, and power industries. The bill, one of many discussed in a Thursday hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources energy subcommittee, is sponsored by […]

Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) will be the assistant Democratic leader in the 116th Congress come January, bolstering the political bona fides of the six-termer, whose 3rd Congressional District includes the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Luján confirmed the news in a Twitter post late Wednesday. It is a relatively low-ranking leadership post — fourth after […]

The Energy Department expects to soon issue a request for proposals for paramilitary security services at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. The notice of the upcoming solicitation was posted Tuesday on the Federal Business Opportunities website. The RFP is due to go out within 15 to 60 days, which translates to the […]

The Department of Energy should increase use of solar power at the Savannah River Site as it addresses aging infrastructure issues, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) said Tuesday. The recommendation was forwarded to DOE headquarters on a 17-0 board vote. It emphasizes the 310-square-mile South Carolina facility’s suitability for solar power: plenty of cleared land on which solar panels could […]

The management and operations contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., recently hired 24 new workers for tritium operations and plans to continue ramping up the staff. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) manages production of tritium gas under the Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE). Tritium gas triggers the chain reaction […]

Lawmakers set the stage for the nuclear weapons debate to come in the next Congress with a wave of bills and rhetoric that burned the post-Thanksgiving fog from Washington this week. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — upon whom partisans and the press have heaped presidential buzz — provided a capstone Thursday with a speech at […]

The federal government and South Carolina expressed optimism Monday that they can settle a $100 million claim over plutonium that remains stranded in the state. “Pursuant to the Court’s Order filed October 24, 2018 … the parties report that at this time they continue to believe that it is possible to resolve the pending disputes […]

The Department of Energy should consider performing a lengthy environmental review of its plan to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium by burying the material deep underground, a congressionally chartered panel said Friday. The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might find the disposal plan easier to manage if it produces […]

Bechtel has hired a veteran Energy Department and nuclear energy industry manager as chief for nuclear safety and operations within its Engineering division. Chip Lagdon will oversee nuclear safety analyses for Bechtel’s DOE cleanup and nuclear security missions, the company said in a press release. Lagdon will also work on safety and licensing for Bechtel’s […]

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) fiscal 2018 budget increase handily outpaced the rise in dollars under contract, according to a report from the agency’s Office of the Inspector General late last week. The DOE budget rose about 10 percent to some $34.5 billion between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2018, while the amount of money under […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has deployed a system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that can “detect, identify, track and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones.” The Department of Energy agency announced the news in a press release Nov. 19, shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Los Alamos’ new counter-unmanned aircraft […]

NS&D Monitor took a break last week for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, but out affiliate publication, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing did not. Here’s a recap of some of the nuclear security enterprise news covered last week. DOE Investigating CNS For ‘Criticality Safety Weaknesses’ The Department of Energy’s Enterprise Assessments (EA) office will investigate Consolidated Nuclear […]

WASHINGTON — William Bookless, nominated to be second-in-command at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), defended the agency’s plan to build two nuclear-warhead-core factories in the face of a double-edged inquisition from a pair of Senate Democrats here Thursday. Facing pressure from a third Democratic lawmaker during his confirmation hearing, the physicist and longtime […]

Matthew Beinart Defense Daily Officials from the State Department and Pentagon briefed international partners last month on the potential U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, with the U.S. delegation citing support from NATO and ally officials on the decision. Andrea Thompson, the State Department under secretary for arms control and […]

An employee at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has sued its management and operations contractor for more than $75,000, alleging he was severely injured while working on a trailer that had not been safely maintained. The lawsuit, filed Nov. 7 in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, says Henry Bradley […]

A Kansas City, Mo., company will help upgrade infrastructure at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to accommodate future exascale computing capability, under a contract from lab prime Livermore National Security. Burns & McDonnell announced the award Monday. The company did not provide the financial terms of the contract, which involves design services for Livermore’s […]

Publication Notice Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published next week in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Please look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Nov. 30.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled on Nov. 29 to vet William Bookless, an experienced nuclear weapons scientist who spent much of his career at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to be second-in-command at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The Donald Trump administration on Aug. 16 nominated Bookless as principal deputy administrator for […]

Boeing has been awarded a $70.5 million contract modification for the Air Force’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) flight test, telemetry and termination program, the Defense Department said Nov. 13. The modification changes the “specifications for the parts management plan, flight termination receiver, electromagnetic interference, cable qualification requirements, and antenna testing requirements,” according to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was wrong to withhold about $1 million in wage-related payments under a now-canceled contract to build a plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina, a federal judge ruled Friday. The agency must now return the money withheld from MOX Services, prime contractor on the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility […]

The next-generation submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) to be featured on the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine will incorporate some elements of the current Trident D5 Life Extension (D5LE) weapon, a top Navy official said. Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), told the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium Nov. 8 that the follow-on missile is […]

WASHINGTON — The aspiring chair of the House Armed Services Committee wants to scrap the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, whip up a multilateral Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces-style treaty, and take a run at making no-first-use the nuclear law of the land. Speaking here Wednesday at the Ploughshares Fund’s “Future of U.S. Nuclear Policy” conference, Rep. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has “underperformed” its mission to protect the public from the hazards posed by defense nuclear weapons sites, and the quality of the small agency’s interactions with the Department of Energy has fallen to “an all-time low,” according to a study published this week. The DNFSB contracted the National Academy […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California sent many of its 7,000 employees home early Wednesday and Thursday because of poor air quality resulting from wildfires burning in other parts of the state, a lab spokesperson said. The early dismissals applied both to employees at the main Livermore campus and the lab’s Site 300 non-nuclear-explosives […]

The prime contractor for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility will lay off roughly a third of its workforce in early January, according to federally required layoff notices filed Nov. 8, two days after the U.S. midterm elections.  CB&I Project Services, now part of McDermott and a subcontractor-owner of Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) prime […]

George Rael, a longtime Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official, has joined Longenecker & Associates as a project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico effective this week. Longenecker is a subcontractor to Triad National Security, which on Nov. 1 took over as the NNSA’s management and operations […]

Botching welds on 12 missile tubes for the Columbia-class submarine earlier this year proved a costly mistake for BWX Technologies, which on Wednesday said the problems with its welding program in Indiana were more complicated than first thought. On a conference call with investors, BWXT said its Nuclear Operations Group took a $40 million revenue hit in […]