Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

A federal judge ruled Thursday the U.S. Department of Energy cannot legally stop work at the Savannah River Site’s multibillion-dollar Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility plutonium recycling plant, finding the agency did not follow safety and environmental protocols before attempting to shutter the project. U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs ruled in favor of the […]

The House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation that fully funds a new low-yield warhead in fiscal 2019, shies away from a future warhead usable by both Air Force and Navy missiles, and potentially trips up the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to make warhead cores in two states. The House voted 235-179, essentially along […]

Two candidates with ties to organizations funded by or concerned with the Los Alamos National Laboratory won primary elections Tuesday night that effectively assure them seats in the New Mexico state House of Representatives, according to unofficial results from the New Mexico secretary of state. Andrea Romero, former executive director of the local interest group Regional Coalition of […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday evening approved the acquisition by Northrop Grumman [NOC] of Orbital ATK [OA] contingent on Northrop Grumman agreeing to operate its new solid rocket motor (SRM) business independently to avoid anticompetitive behavior. Northrop Grumman on Wednesday afternoon after the close of stock markets on the […]

The Senate adjourned for the week Thursday without passing a 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would authorize work on a new low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead, and delay the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to begin producing plutonium pits in South Carolina. A report appended to the massive military policy bill would also ratchet up […]

The University of California will remain entrenched at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for up to 10 more years after winning the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next lab-management contract as part of privately held team with Battelle and Texas A&M University. The NNSA announced the award Friday. The University of California managed the New […]

Staff at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board still suffer from low morale, and board leadership has not been able to improve the mood, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s inspector general wrote in a report published this week. The NRC inspector general doubles as an internal watchdog for the five-member Defense Nuclear Safety Facilities Board’s (DNFSB). […]

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has been in an operational safety pause since April 26 due to a “trend of concerns” that include deficiencies in safety, work performance, and planning, the Department of Energy said this week. The pause covers nearly all work at the lab, except essential activities needed to maintain safe operations. A DOE spokesperson […]

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday will ask a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Energy from stopping construction of its plutonium conversion plant at the Savannah River Site. The state filed a preliminary injunction request and full lawsuit on May 25 in U.S. District Court with the […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico to start planning for accommodating 34 metric tons of processed plutonium that was supposed to be converted into nuclear reactor fuel at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in South Carolina. Energy Secretary Perry officially canceled the MOX […]

Official documents unearthed this week by anti-nuclear organizations show price took a back seat when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) settled on a strategy to produce nuclear-warhead cores in both New Mexico and South Carolina — a strategy both states dislike, and which Congress may not approve. However, according to the roughly 300-page engineering […]

The House and Senate disagree about whether to fund construction of new tritium facilities at the Savannah River Site in fiscal 2019, according to their latest appropriations proposals. The two chambers have also staked out very different negotiating positions about an Obama administration program to create nuclear warheads that could fly on both Air Force […]