Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Federal judges could soon issue rulings in a pair of appeals cases over the future of plutonium and plutonium operations in the state, following oral arguments in a federal appeals court this week. Arguments in both cases ― separate lawsuits the state brought against the federal agency in 2016 and 2018 ― happened Thursday in […]

Vivienne Machi Defense Daily More B-21 aircraft could be procured if the Air Force succeeds in doubling its number of bomber squadrons over the next decade, but service officials are not yet ready to talk tails. The Air Force’s proposal to increase its squadron numbers from 312 to 386 by the 2025-2030 timeframe would include […]

President Donald Trump plans to appoint Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton to the top position on a permanent basis, the White House said Tuesday. Hamilton, a Navy veteran who spent decades in the nuclear energy industry, joined the board in August 2015 and was elevated to vice chairman last year […]

The State Department is relying in part on the Sandia National Laboratories to prioritize spending on global nonproliferation assistance programs, a senior State official said Tuesday. The New Mexico-based laboratory will help State’s bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation target financial aid to foreign countries based on the urgency of threats to the United States, […]

Bechtel National will have a new project manager in place next month for the next-generation Uranium Processing Facility the company is building at the Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. However, it is not ready yet to identify the project chief. Bechtel is moving current UPF project manager Valerie McCain across […]

The Department of Energy again moved to waive a requirement to continue building a planned plutonium disposal facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., papers filed with a federal appeals court this week show. The waiver came in the form of a Sept. 18 letter from Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of DOE’s semiautonomous National […]

The Senate this week confirmed Jackie Wolcott as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency and as the U.S. representative to the Vienna, Austria, office of the United Nations. Senators approved Wolcott’s nomination Monday by a vote of 75-19. Trump nominated Wolcott, a longtime Washington hand and a seasoned diplomat with […]

Nuclear Fuel Services, of Erwin, Tenn., will downblend 20.2 metric tons of uranium needed to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear warheads under a roughly seven-year National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) contract worth $505 million, parent company BWX Technologies announced Friday. The NNSA needs to turn some of its stock of highly enriched uranium into low-enriched […]

President Donald Trump on Friday signed fiscal 2019 appropriations legislation that would provide full-year funding for the Department of Defense, with a plus-up for its nuclear missile programs. Trump signed the measure days after the House of Representatives passed it by a vote of 361-61, following Senate approval last week. Trump signed the bill despite […]

In a move first proposed by the Senate this summer, the final fiscal 2019 budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) moves funding for uranium downblending into the agency’s tritium sustainment account. The move was contrary to the Donald Trump administration’s request, which grouped money for uranium downblending under the NNSA domestic uranium enrichment […]

Despite threats of severe weather that required the Savannah River Site to brace for impact, the facility emerged unscathed after Hurricane Florence slammed into South Carolina last week. The storm, which has been linked to dozens of deaths in several coastal states, had no impact on missions or facilities at the 310-square-mile Department of Energy […]

The Defense Department’s fiscal 2019 budget is a step closer to President Donald Trump’s desk, after the Senate on Tuesday voted 93-7 in favor of an appropriations bill that funds the Pentagon for the full year and keeps most other federal agencies going at 2018 spending levels through Dec. 7. The Department of Energy is […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will get its full-year appropriation on time for the 2019 fiscal year, after President Donald Trump on Friday signed a multi-agency appropriations act that includes more than $15 billion for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency. Overall, the NNNSA will get a roughly 4-percent year-over-year raise for […]

Democrats in the House and Senate on Tuesday unveiled legislative language that would ban research, development, manufacturing, and fielding of the planned low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead for which Congress and the White House approved $65 million in funding during the fiscal year that begins in 13 days. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) sponsored the House bill, with co-sponsors Reps. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will hold two more public hearings about a controversial Department of Energy order the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog said would prevent it from exercising its lawful authority to inspect nuclear weapons sites. Acting DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton mentioned the meetings in a Sept. 17 letter to Energy Secretary Rick […]

A sentencing date has been scheduled for the second man who pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government while serving as a subcontractor for the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). Aaron Vennefron is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1 in Columbia, S.C., according to an order last week from U.S. […]

Rich Abott Defense Daily The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) a $481 million modification on last Thursday for more Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program long-lead time work. The cost-plus-fixed-fee modification is in preparation for FY 2019 and 2020 lead-ship advance procurement, advance construction, and long-lead time material funding for the Columbia-class. […]

A judge recently spiked the Department of Energy’s motion to dismiss a complaint lodged by CB&I AREVA MOX Services in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, potentially allowing the government contractor to collect what it alleges are almost $6.5 million in improperly denied fees. The complaint is one of eight now consolidated under a $200-million-plus […]

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Charles Verdon to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons portfolio as deputy administrator for defense programs. Verdon, most recently principal associate director at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate, got the thumbs-up nearly seven months after President Donald Trump nominated him for the top NNSA weapons post. […]

WASHINGTON ―  It would make sense for the Department of Energy to have more than one production facility for the fissile cores of nuclear warheads, a senior Pentagon official with broad responsibility for nuclear weapons procurement said here Friday. “To me, it doesn’t quite make sense to go down to a single point of failure […]

The Donald Trump administration still has not decided whether to extend beyond 2021 a pivotal arms control treaty that limits the number of nuclear weapons the United States and Russia may deploy, a senior official with the U.S. Department of State said Wednesday in a Senate hearing. “A decision has not been made at this […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said it will keep only essential safety and security staff on duty if Hurricane Florence threatens the nearby region inland. The essential staff number fluctuates depending on what is needed at the time, but in recent memory it has been roughly 340 members of the […]

Congress approved  the National Nuclear Security Administration’s final 2019 budget this week, including increased funding for maintenance and cleanup of buildings across the nuclear security enterprise, decreased funding for a controversial plutonium-disposal project, and $65 million to make a low-yield, submarine-launched, ballistic-missile warhead. The House approved the bill 377-20 on Thursday. The Senate approved the legislation 92-5 on […]

Former Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman died Sept. 7, news outlets reported. He was 79. Bodman led the Department of Energy from 2005 to 2009 during George W. Bush’x second term in office. During his tenure, Bodman fired Linton Brooks — the second full-time administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration — following security lapses at […]

The House and Senate this week sent a multiagency spending bill to President Donald Trump’s desk that boosts the Department of Energy’s budget for nuclear warhead modernization, and reached a compromise on separate appropriations legislation that would accelerate development of the missiles that will carry those weapons. Congress overwhelmingly approved the warhead funding as part of […]

Errors and poor policy have fueled the controversy over reimbursement of expenses at a regional group intended to promote communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. That is the crux of an Aug. 28 analysis by Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess, addressing financial irregularities by the Regional Coalition of […]

A motor vehicle operator temporarily lost commercial driving privileges after transporting nuclear samples needed for counterterrorism training without completing the proper paperwork. The driver shipped the material Sept. 4 from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Counter Terrorism Operations Support office in Nevada to a training facility in Hagerstown, Md., the Department of Energy  disclosed on […]

The minibus appropriations bill on its way to President Donald Trump’s desk would block the independent federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board from downsizing by about 20 percent, and require the Department of Energy to explain why it has restricted some communications with the federal nuclear safety watchdog. Bill language approved by Congress this week forbids […]