Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The lead attorney at the Savannah River Site was honored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for helping the agency pivot away from processing surplus weapon-usable plutonium at the South Carolina facility’s now-canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Mary-Ellen Noone, counsel for the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, won the NNSA General Counsel […]

Brian Zieroth on Oct. 29 replaced Valerie McCain as Bechtel National’s project manager on the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a company spokesperson said Monday. Zieroth will now manage construction of a roughly $6.5 billion facility designed to mold uranium into shapes usable in […]

The New Mexico congressman whose district covers the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s wants a leadership role with the House Democrats, who in midterm elections Tuesday secured control of the lower chamber for the next two years. Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a five-term congressman who just won a sixth, announced the move online Wednesday, including […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said Tuesday its Newport News Shipbuilding had secure a roughly $200 million subcontract modification to provide long-lead components, including commodities materials, and labor for the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. Huntington Ingalls is a major subcontractor on General Dynamics Electric Boat’s roughly $5 billion Naval Sea Systems Command prime contract to develop and […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The head of the joint Navy-Department of Energy naval reactors program said Wednesday construction on the first Columbia-class ballistic submarine will begin in 2021, but warned that “there will be problems” and that the Navy will “have to work hard to get her on patrol in 2031.” “We need Columbia boats,” Adm. […]

The results of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, from the Democratic takeover of the House to the extra GOP pickups in the Senate, will be reflected in the two chambers’ armed services committees. As of Wednesday afternoon, Democrats had taken control of 222 House seats and the Republicans control 196, with 418 out of 435 […]

Democrats this week won control of the House of Representatives, and the aspirant chair of the House Armed Services Committee said they plan to go after nuclear weapons when the 116th Congress convenes in January. In the cross hairs: the 30-year nuclear modernization program established by the Barack Obama administration in 2016 and augmented this year […]

The Department of Energy said this week it has started work to move a metric ton of plutonium out of South Carolina, after three federal appeals judges affirmed a lower court’s order to remove the material from the state by Jan. 1, 2020. Barring an escalation to the U.S. Supreme Court, or a rehearing in the U.S. […]

Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton on Thursday lauded two Department of Energy contract extensions for programs led by the company and expressed optimism about winning more business during the fourth quarter. The Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions team, which manages the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, received a 12-month contract extension from in […]

The Department of Energy and the Pentagon could be studying a new nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile by this time next year, the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week in an annual report on its nuclear-weapon programs. The Donald Trump administration called on DOE to research the weapon in the Nuclear […]

After about a month of negotiations, the Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility could not agree to settle their differences over some $1 million in disputed payments related to raises the company gave 55 employees a few years ago. “Unfortunately, the parties’ efforts have not resulted […]

While it did not generate the same level of attention as a security scare last week at the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Nevada National Security Site also dealt with an incident — for which the culprit was an ultimately harmless cell phone. According to a Department of Energy summary posted Wednesday, a suspicious package […]

Triad National Security took over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on Thursday, ending a decade-long experiment in running the nation’s oldest nuclear weapons laboratory as a for-profit business. After a four-month transition, Triad — led by the nonprofit trio of Battelle Memorial Institute, longtime Los Alamos manager the University of […]

A trio of advocacy groups asked the Department of Energy and the Pentagon to provide a little budget bump for three National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)-funded optics facilities across the country, including one in Rochester, N.Y., the Donald Trump administration tried to cancel last year. In a letter last week, the groups urged Energy Secretary Rick […]

The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management will attend a Nov. 28 public hearing about a controversial agency order the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) fears will limit its access to defense-nuclear sites across the country. Anne Marie White, assistant secretary for environmental management, accepted the invitation on or […]

A Democratic House with a Democratic Armed Services Committee chairman who is openly skeptical of the established nuclear modernization program is perhaps the most plausible consequence of the 2018 midterm elections, for those who watch the National Nuclear Security Administration. Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) are not in particularly competitive races. In […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) won’t rule out pressing Triad National Security, the incoming management contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to apply for federal nonprofit status. The company apparently hasn’t done that yet, and its new host county hopes it never does. The NNSA “is focused on making the transition […]

In another sign the final end of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) might be near, South Carolina is trying to negotiate a settlement with the Department of Energy over $100 million the state says it is owed because the unfinished, now-terminated plant never processed plutonium. That is according to an order filed Tuesday […]

The first round of layoff notices at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will be issued at some point in November, with impacted employees expected to exit in early 2019, the contractor building the Department of Energy plant said in an Oct. 22 letter to employees. The notice was first reported Tuesday […]

The internal emergency response organization at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, responded Tuesday to what the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) described as a “security event" involving an ultimately harmless parked car. “Just before noon on October 23, a routine inspection at Pantex identified a potential concern with a vehicle in the John C. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) voted against submission of a preliminary fiscal 2020 budget request to the White House Office of Management and Budget after three of the four board members questioned whether the document reflected the agency’s funding and staffing needs, according to a recently published voting decision. On Oct. 17, the DNFSB […]

The contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina performed well during its emergency response drills earlier this year, but needs to improve its response in several areas, according to a new agency report. In a detailed assessment of the SRS Emergency Management Exercise Program, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said this week it has hired two former National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) field office managers to lead a performance assessment team for company affiliates at Department of Energy nuclear sites. Kim Lebak, who managed the NNSA’s Los Alamos Field Office from 2014 through 2017, and Doug Dearolph, who ran the NNSA […]

Former government officials suggested this week that the Donald Trump administration could reach for either the retired W84 warhead or the workhorse W80 if it wants a nuclear-tipped missile after walking away from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Trump announced Saturday, and reaffirmed Monday, that his administration would cease complying with the 1987 accord that forbids […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has concerns about the Department of Energy’s proposed change to nuclear safety management rules governing the agency and its contractors. The proposed rule, published in the Aug. 8 Federal Register, does not spell out certain bedrock nuclear safety principles such as “defense in depth” and the “hierarchy of controls,” […]

Representatives of seven companies attended a mandatory preproposal briefing for a contract to build custom road equipment needed to transport tritium to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., from a commercial nuclear power plant in Tennessee, according to a document the Department of Energy published online Tuesday. The companies that attended the August meeting, […]

Four universities will split more than $40 million in grant funding under a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) program designed to bolster fundamental science applicable to nuclear weapons and encourage students to come to work in the nuclear security enterprise. This brings the total number of universities receiving funding through the NNSA Stewardship Science Academic Alliances […]