Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The shape of the Capitol Hill defense establishment in the post-John McCain era formally gelled Wednesday, as Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and former Arizona senator Jon Kyl was sworn in to serve the remainder of the McCain’s term. McCain died on Aug. 25 after ceasing treatment for brain cancer. […]

The United States does not need as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as the Air Force plans to build, and Congress should take another look at a low-yield warhead lawmakers just approved, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday. “I think we have too many ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles], absolutely,” Rep. Adam […]

Fewer countries have nuclear weapon-usable nuclear materials, but the risk of nuclear terrorism and cyber attacks on nuclear facilities has increased, the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative said this week in its latest biennial report on global nuclear threats. The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) published its 2018 Nuclear Security Index on Wednesday. The organization crafted the 132-page […]

HENDERSON, Nev. — Department of Energy officials and industry executives expressed hope Wednesday that no last-minute snags hold up passage of a fiscal 2019 budget with healthy funding for the agency’s nuclear weapons programs. “Who wants to do layoffs in an election year?” Eric Knox, vice president of strategic development, nuclear and environment, for the […]

While two reports made public this month in New Mexico have illustrated poor accounting practices at the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess rejects the suggestion county employees, acting as the group’s fiscal agency, have engaged in wrongdoing. The New Mexico attorney general is investigating any potential fraud in reimbursements […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is carrying through with a pledge made earlier this year to provide $40 million more to support development of domestic commercial production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99. The aim of the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency is to promote means of manufacturing that do not require reactors powered […]

The Department of Energy will not be able to deliver 80 new nuclear-warhead cores per year in 2030 unless it starts building new plutonium processing facilities in South Carolina by the middle of 2019, the head of the Nuclear Weapons Council said Thursday. “From the Nuclear Weapons Council perspective, the Department of Energy (DOE) needs […]

The article “Draft RFP Issued for SRS Management Contract” (Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, Vol. 22, No. 32) should have said the Department of Energy expects to issue a final solicitation for the Savannah River Site management contract in January 2019.

Some time after they return to Washington next week, the House and Senate will come together for final negotiations on a fiscal 2019 defense spending bill that cleared the upper chamber last week. The Senate on Aug. 23 approved a multiagency appropriations measure with Pentagon funding that provided a small boost for development of a next-generation […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries said Jason Ward is the new vice president of its Newport News Shipbuilding segment’s Columbia-class submarine construction program and that Dave Bolcar, who was previously vice president of all of the segment’s submarine construction, is now vice president of the Virginia-class submarine construction program. Ward was previously director of Columbia-class construction. Separately, U.S. Navy Rear […]

WASHINGTON — The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is not convinced, despite statements from the deputy secretary of energy here this week, that the Department of Energy intends to preserve the independent federal nuclear-watchdog’s unfettered access to U.S. nuclear-weapon sites. Energy Department officials testified Tuesday before the four-member board about an order published in […]

Halting construction on the controversial Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) is not only legal, but it’s the quickest way to remove nuclear weapon-usable plutonium from South Carolina, the Department of Energy said Friday in a brief filed in federal court. The DOE reply brief in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals provides more pieces […]

Honeywell Vice President David “DJ” Johnson may be new to Department of Energy work, but he’s got national security chops from more than 20 years in the Air Force, from which he retired as a colonel. Honeywell put Johnson in charge of the company’s four major site management contracts with the National Nuclear Security Administration […]

After years of prolonged operations and little chance of a decreased tempo in years to come, the U.S. Air Force faces force structure shortfalls to varying degrees for each of its aircraft classes, a new study by the RAND Corp. has found. Analyzing four separate hypothetical operational situations, the nonpartisan research group found that whether […]

A dispute over irregularities in expense reimbursements for the former executive director of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) has attracted the attention of the New Mexico attorney general. “We can confirm the Office of the Attorney General has received a public referral and this matter is under review,” David Carl, spokesman for New […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Thursday announced a new interagency agreement to continue providing the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority with low-enriched uranium that makes it possible to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. Under the agreement, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency will downblend highly enriched uranium into low-enriched uranium that […]

The August doldrums in Washington weren’t quite as quiet as in past years, and there was plenty of news during the ExchangeMonitor’s annual publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories we’ve been following. NNSA Sticks With Plan to Increase Plutonium Limit in Los Alamos Rad Lab To support […]

An internal reorganization at Honeywell has placed the company’s work on four management and operations contracts with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under the management of single retired Air Force colonel. Effective July 16, the company’s aerospace segment put David “DJ” Johnson — a Honeywell man since retiring from a 23-year Air Force career […]

Restructuring the independent federal agency charged with health and safety oversight at Department of Energy nuclear-weapon and cleanup sites will not involve layoffs, according to the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. “We are not going to have to involuntarily separate anyone,” acting DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton said in an Aug. 16 telephone […]

The Defense Department must better train and empower its acquisition workforce if it hopes to buy and develop critical capabilities more rapidly, the candidate for a key Pentagon leadership position said this week. “Acquisition is not something that someone can walk in off the street and do well,” Alan Shaffer, nominated in June to become […]

Irene Qualters, most recently with the National Science Foundation (NSF), has been selected as associate laboratory director for simulation and computing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, incoming lab manager Triad National Security said this week. In her new role, Qualters will be “responsible for high performance computing, theory, and simulation in support of the […]

Incoming Los Alamos National Laboratory manager Triad National Security will indeed have to pay a state gross receipts tax of just over 7 percent, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department said this week. Triad — a nonprofit organization encompassing nonprofit, tax-exempt senior partners Battelle Memorial Institute, the University of California, and […]

The Board of Regents of Texas A&M University, one of the senior partners on incoming Los Alamos National Laboratory Manager Triad National Security, last week appointed Katherine Banks vice chancellor for engineering and national laboratories. The move reflects Banks’ ascent to Triad’s governing board, an A&M spokesperson wrote in an email Monday. Banks was formerly […]

The White House has nominated longtime Lawrence Livermore hand William Bookless to fill the No. 2 slot at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration — a post that has sat vacant throughout the Trump administration. President Donald Trump nominated Bookless, now a Livermore senior physicist, on Aug. 16. If recommended by the Senate […]

The Department of Energy this week released a draft solicitation for a Savannah River Site management and operations contract that could be worth nearly $15 billion over 10 years, including construction of new tritium facilities to power up U.S. nuclear weapons. Interested parties can meet DOE officials on site for two days of one-on-one meetings and […]

William Cooper, the Trump administration’s nominee to become Energy Department general counsel, was passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a voice vote Thursday afternoon. The vote came after the panel’s business meeting was postponed Thursday morning, a committee staffer said. The nominee will now await action by the full Senate, […]

LA VISTA, Neb. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) may not be able to produce 80 nuclear-warhead cores a year by 2030, unless it resolves issues this year that have prevented it from converting an unfinished plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina into a weapons facility, the commander of U.S. nuclear forces said here […]