Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Congress inched a little closer to finalizing a 2019 budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration this week after the Senate passed a “minibus” appropriations package, but the two chambers still have about half a billion dollars’ worth of differences over nuclear weapon and nonproliferation spending to hash out in a bicameral conference committee. The […]

By Marc Selinger Defense Daily The U.S. Air Force, which has been developing the B-21 Raider for almost three years, is on track to conduct a critical design review by year’s end, a service official said June 25. “We are on our way to critical design review,” said Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities […]

Teri Donaldson, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Department of Energy inspector general, drew hardly any attention in her initial confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Donaldson, a former corporate environmental lawyer and federal prosecutor now working as general counsel for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), has “impressive credentials,” committee Chairwoman Lisa […]

Energy Department Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said Tuesday it could take an additional year to secure New Mexico approval to change the way the volume of transuranic waste is counted for underground disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The New Mexico Environment Department said June 1 it plans a more extensive […]

A federal judge this week refused to lift a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Energy from canceling the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. The Tuesday ruling means project prime contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services will continue building the plutonium-conversion plant — which is by […]

The House of Representatives approved a defense spending bill this week that would phase out development of a nuclear warhead usable on both Navy and Air Force missiles, while the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a companion bill that could delay deployment of a planned low-yield nuclear warhead. The House approved its version of the 2019 […]

For four years and through two presidential administrations, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) failed to supply Congress with an adequate plan to verify and monitor global proliferation of nuclear weapons, weapon components, and fissile materials, the Government Accountability Office reported this week. Congress set the agency up for this public slap on the wrist […]

The Senate this week approved a fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would clear the way for the National Nuclear Security Administration to build one, and possibly more, low-yield nuclear warheads. The bill also would prohibit the semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency from dismantling the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina […]

The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) could hire a new executive director by the end of the month. The deadline for the RCLC’s request for proposals was June 6, and the executive committee of the group’s Board of Directors’ could make a recommendation at a board meeting tentatively set for June 29, Los Alamos […]

At least 1 metric ton of plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site may be suitable for use in the nation’s defense program and could be shipped out of South Carolina in time to meet a Jan. 1, 2020, deadline set late last year by a federal judge, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. […]

U.S. and Russian arms reductions under the New START treaty led an overall trickling down of deployed nuclear forces in 2017, and North Korea might have anywhere from 10 to 20 nuclear weapons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s latest annual yearbook on nuclear weapons and arms control. Including deployed and nondeployed forces, […]

The Department of Energy wants a federal judge to let the agency resume closing an over-budget plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina, court papers filed on June 15 show. On June 7, in a lawsuit brought by South Carolina, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs ordered DOE to halt its planned closure of the unfinished […]

Invoking the threat of countermeasures he did not specifically explain, the head of security at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has warned drone pilots they might lose their aircraft if they fly too close to the storied New Mexico nuclear weapons lab. “The laboratory is authorized by federal law to track, intercept, disrupt, control, and […]

The Senate adjourned Friday without passing an appropriations package that includes a little under $15 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), though a key Democratic senator signaled she would not oppose the bill over the low-yield nuclear warhead the measure funds. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), one of the longest-tenured senators still serving, said […]

The 10-day clock is ticking to protest the National Nuclear Security Administration’s award of a potentially decade-long management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, now that the agency has debriefed the companies behind three failed bids to run the storied New Mexico weapons lab. Debriefs of losing bidders wrapped up this Friday, June 22, […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) last week elected a new member to its Board of Directors and re-elected another six members. First-time board member Bob Miklos is director of Production Facilities and Infrastructure at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex. He has 30 years of experience with nuclear facilities and also chairs EFCOG’s project […]

Bechtel, a major contractor for the Energy Department’s nuclear complex, announced June 7 it will move its corporate headquarters to one of Washington, D.C.’s Northern Virginia suburbs. The international engineering, procurement, and construction company said it will move corporate operations from Houston and San Francisco to Reston, Va., by the end of 2018. Bechtel already […]

Consolidated National Security said last week it has since 2015 awarded some $725 million in purchase orders and subcontracts for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. “Some of the largest awards included structural steel, rebar, specialized equipment and a subcontract for an onsite concrete batch plant,” the project prime […]

The Department of Energy could be allowed to develop new nuclear warheads, or modify existing ones, without permission from Congress, after the Senate on Thursday defeated an amendment to its 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The version of the defense policy bill pending before the Senate would still authorize $65 million in 2019 spending […]

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) must return some $20 million in fees its clawed back in 2016 from the prime contractor on the unfinished, over-budget Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In a series of filings since consolidated in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, CB&I AREVA MOX […]

Teams that lost the race to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 10 years are expecting a formal debriefing from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) next week, after the agency’s decision to entrust the storied weapons lab to a team including longtime manager the University of California. A pair of sources […]

The Trump administration has officially nominated former corporate environmental lawyer Teri Donaldson to be the Department of Energy’s inspector general, but a logjam in the Senate means it could be a while before she gets a nomination hearing. Donaldson, currently the general counsel for Sen. John Barraso (R-Wyo.), was officially nominated Monday evening, when the […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) this week resumed casting enriched uranium at the World War II-vintage Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a company spokesperson said Thursday. Casting was offline for about two-and-a-half months after an unspecified quantity of fissile material leaked into machinery at the National Nuclear Security Administration […]

A final hearing to help determine if the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor overcharged the federal government by $5 million will likely be held in October, according to a status report filed Monday in the lawsuit. The joint report was submitted by legal teams for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) and the U.S. […]

Department of Energy contractor TechSource Inc. has hired a new chief operating officer to manage its daily operations and lead its staff and business development efforts. Jeffrey Giangiuli comes to the Los Alamos, N.M.-based science and engineering consulting company after 13 years at management consultant CALIBRE Systems, of Alexandria, Va., most recently as executive vice […]

Road upgrades are due to begin this week around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a byproduct of a settlement agreement between DOE and the state of New Mexico over a 2014 accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday the first of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration did a generally good job estimating its share of the cost to upgrade the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb, but the agency has yet to explain a roughly $2.5 billion gap between its forecast and one provided by a nominally independent intra-agency office, according to the Government Accountability Office. The National […]