Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday approved Charles Verdon of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) defense programs office. The committee approved Verdon’s nomination by a voice vote. The nuclear engineer, currently principal associate director at Livermore’s weapons and complex integration directorate, now needs approval from the […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration does not think it needs to conduct additional environmental study of the next-generation Uranium Processing Facility being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. That is the preliminary conclusion of the semiautonomous civilian steward of the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, expressed Monday in a 69-page […]

South Carolina could sue the Department of Energy today over plans to terminate the Savannah River Site’s MOX project, state Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a letter Tuesday to DOE Secretary Rick Perry. The Energy Department earlier this month formalized plans to convert the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) for production of […]

Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, head of U.S. Air Force Materiel Command, told defense reporters last week she is confident that the B-52 bomber, which the Air Force plans to equip with new engines, can remain in service until 2050. Although the plane is more than 55 years old, it has relatively few flight hours and has […]

The House of Representatives easily passed its version of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Thursday, sending the Senate a strongly bipartisan bill that calls for the National Nuclear Security Administration to begin work on a low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead. The same day, the Senate Appropriations Committee also overwhelmingly approved funding for the […]

Chris Roscetti will become technical director for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on June 23, the independent federal health-and-safety watchdog for Department of Energy nuclear programs announced May 18. Roscetti, a naval submarine veteran, previously served as the board’s associate technical director for nuclear programs and analysis, and has also served as DNFSB […]

Both congressional appropriations committees have now cleared the National Nuclear Security Administration to start work on a low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead in fiscal 2019, with Senate appropriators approving $65 million for the proposed weapon as part of a spending bill passed Thursday. House appropriators approved the same amount for the warhead, which is to be made […]

The week came and went without any announcement from the National Nuclear Security Administration about who would manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next decade — but the identity of one more bidder was revealed to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Engineering giant Jacobs, of Dallas, is part of a team that also […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies appointed Joel Duling president of its Nuclear Operations Groups, effective June 22. Duling, currently leading the company’s Nuclear Fuel Services subsidiary, will succeed Joe Henry, who is retiring. Before joining Tennessee-based Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) five years ago as director of operations, Duling was vice president of production for B&W Y-12, former […]

The blockbuster lawsuit between the Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the unfinished Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will go to trial in April 2019, a federal judge ordered this week. Judge Thomas Wheeler of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims handed down the order the week after DOE made official its […]

Marc Selinger  Defense Daily The U.S. Air Force may ask Congress to move around previously approved funds for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) because the program is running ahead of schedule, according to service officials. GBSD “is on schedule. In fact, it’s actually a little ahead of schedule and we may be coming to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would get the $65 million it seeks in fiscal 2019 for a low-yield nuclear warhead, but nothing for a new warhead-core factory in South Carolina, under a budget bill approved this week by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill, voted to the floor Wednesday 29-20 along party lines, also […]

A leaked report from a nominally independent office within the National Nuclear Security Administration offers a trove of new details about the plan the agency must sell to Congress in order to start producing nuclear-warhead cores in South Carolina. On May 10, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said he would officially cancel the Mixed Oxide Fuel […]

The House Rules Committee will craft the rules of debate for the chamber’s fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act beginning Monday, and already members have proposed several amendments related to Department of Energy nuclear programs. One proposed amendment, from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), would entirely strip out $65 million the House Armed Services Committee authorized […]

Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has hired nuclear industry veteran Mike Briggs to the newly created post of senior program manager for operational support. Briggs, who has worked on major projects within the Energy Department complex, will oversee L&A’s operational support business, which includes training, nuclear safety, and radiation protection. “As L&A […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday it is gearing up to provide another $40 million in cooperative agreements supporting commercial programs to develop production capabilities for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). That would be on top of $100 million pledged in recent years to four projects led by three companies: NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, […]

The U.S. Department of Energy and South Carolina said Tuesday they probably will not settle their differences about whether the agency owes the state hundreds of millions of dollars for its failure to remove plutonium from the state by 2016. That conclusion was all but foregone, as South Carolina has already submitted a motion for […]

After a marathon of amendments and votes that began Tuesday morning and ended Wednesday morning, the House Armed Services Committee defeated a doomed-to-fail Democratic attempt to prevent the National Nuclear Security Administration from starting work on a new low-yield nuclear warhead in fiscal year 2019. Ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who called the low-yield […]

Rich Abott Defense Daily The chair of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) seapower panel on Thursday said the FY ’18 shipbuilding authorization of $26.2 billion should be maintained before adding $3 billion when the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) starts production. “I think even the Navy hasn’t been as direct as they need to be […]

Department of Energy veteran Theodore Garrish has become the agency’s acting general counsel — a position he has held before. Garrish, whose name appeared without announcement in the general counsel spot on a Department of Energy organization chart, was already the agency’s assistant secretary for international affairs. The Senate confirmed him for the post in April. It was not […]

Seeking to cut the time it will spend in court, the Department of Energy last week asked a federal judge to consolidate five lawsuits filed against the agency by the prime contractor on a long-delayed plutonium-disposal plant in South Carolina. CB&I AREVA MOX Services first sued the Department of Energy (DOE) in the U.S. Court […]

The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee approved a roughly $36-billion Department of Energy budget bill Monday, which heads to the full committee for a markup Wednesday, May 16. The Department of Energy (DOE) would receive a 5-percent budget raise over all from 2018, if the bill the House Appropriations energy and water development […]

The Department of Energy said Thursday it will produce nuclear-warhead cores for the ongoing 30-year, $1 trillion modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal at two sites instead of one, and will convert a major nonproliferation facility into a weapons plant to do it. The Department of Defense wants DOE to make 80 fissile “plutonium pits” […]

The man who would lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons branch, better than a $10-billion-a-year portfolio that includes the some of nation’s most sensitive and secret defense work, drew barely any attention Thursday in a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing. The exception was Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who warned Charles Verdon that if […]

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is replacing an inner reflector plug at its neutron source with a new one, filled with about 6 metric tons of heavy water purchased from Iran. The Energy Department’s lab Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) produces neutrons for experiments to support scientific disciplines including physics, chemistry, materials science, and […]

The Board of Directors for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) voted April 27 to advertise for a new executive director to succeed Andrea Romero, whose contract was not renewed at the end of February following a public dispute over expense reimbursements. Los Alamos County, N.M., is preparing the necessary advertisement, County Manager Harry […]