Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Alabama-based Caddell Construction will build a new office building in Albuquerque for more than 1,000 National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees under a contract worth a little under $150 million, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week. The Army Corps is procuring construction services for the planned Albuquerque Complex and managing the contract. […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Lockheed Martin on Tuesday posted strong financial results in its first quarter buoyed by operating performance, a lower tax rate and a pension tailwind, and the company raised the outlook for its top and bottom lines in 2018. Net income soared 47 percent to $1.2 billion, or $4.02 earnings per […]

Citing declining health due to multiple sclerosis, and the need for 24-hour assistance, one of the men who defrauded the federal government while working for the Savannah River Site MOX project is hoping to avoid a prison sentence of up to five years. Phillip Thompson is instead requesting five years of probation, with the special […]

While neither the United States nor Russia met a nonbinding target to start disposing of tons of plutonium this year, neither country has actually violated the agreement to get rid of the nuclear material, the U.S. State Department said in a recent report. The Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA), negotiation of which began in […]

Fundamental physics research at the University of Texas at Austin will get a $7 million boost from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is funding the work under a 16 year-old program aimed at providing people with the technical qualifications to maintain U.S. nuclear weapons. The grant came from the NNSA Stewardship Science Academic Alliances […]

In court papers Wednesday, the Department of Energy doubled down on its argument that the contractor on an over-budget plutonium-disposal plant targeted for cancellation contorted the language of its deal in an attempt to convince a federal judge the company should keep $20 million in contested fees. The $20 million is only a small part […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Driven by strong results across its operations, Boeing on Wednesday reported a big increase in its bottom line and a solid gain in the top line in its first quarter, and the company boosted its guidance this year for earnings and cash. Net income was up 57 percent to $2.5 […]

The University of California submitted its best and final offer to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next decade, a spokesperson for the institution said last week. “It’s my understanding that all teams have submitted their final bids at this time,” the spokesperson wrote in an April 20 email to Nuclear Security & Deterrence […]

WASHINGTON —The full House Armed Services Committee plans to authorize production of the low-yield nuclear warhead sought by the Donald Trump administration, a lawmaker said here Thursday. The new Nuclear Posture Review issued in February calls for the new weapon. For fiscal 2019, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has proposed spending $65 million to develop […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Northrop Grumman on Wednesday opened its fiscal 2018 with solid results, driven by improved operating performance, lower taxes, and a pension benefit, and the company upgraded its earnings outlook for the year. Net income in the quarter was up 14 percent to $739 million, or $4.21 a share, from $650 […]

By Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Raytheon on Thursday posted strong first-quarter financial results, driven by lower taxes, and improved operating performance, and the company increased its guidance this year for sales and earnings. Lower taxes that went into effect on Jan. 1 have helped underpin solid to strong results for all the major defense companies […]

About two months after he left the federal ranks, the former top Department of Energy official at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., joined Atkins in a new role created for him. Jack Craig, who in February retired as manager of DOE’s Savannah River Site office after three years in that role and over […]

The bid team that includes Texas A&M University has submitted its final offer on a contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 10 years, a university spokesperson said Thursday. “Best and final have been submitted and we believe NNSA [the National Nuclear Security Administration] will announce an award in the May […]

A new list published Tuesday by federal inspectors general called out crumbling Department of Energy nuclear infrastructure as one of the federal government’s top management challenges. “Agencies may be hampered in performing their missions effectively because of breakdowns in essential equipment or hazards posed by unmaintained infrastructure,” the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity […]

The Department of Energy relied on a flawed reading of a contract to justify its 2016 decision to take back some $20 million in fees from CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the company argued in the latest legal volley on an over-budget plutonium disposal plant being built in South Carolina. In a 2016 lawsuit filed in […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily Software deliveries have begun for the U.S. Air Force’s future B-21 Raider bomber, a service official said late April 18. “We’ve delivered the first set of software for the platform, and we’re going through that,” said Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy in the Air Force acquisition office. “And we’re getting set up […]

Following a five-month pause, plutonium downblending resumed in mid-March at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The mission involves dilution of 6 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable, non-pit plutonium, and not the 34 metric tons of material intended to be processed by Savannah River’s MOX program. Operations began in September 2016, […]

Honeywell Aerospace, the division of that diversified contractor with major contracts throughout the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex, saw sales and profits rise by about 10 percent in the first quarter of 2018. Excluding costs related mostly related to foreign currency transactions, quarterly revenue for the Aerospace segment — which include the company’s work […]

Diplomats from the United States and Russia wrapped up a 10-day meeting about the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in Switzerland on Friday, but did not announce any imminent plan to sign a successor arms-control agreement. That is according to a Thursday press release from the State Department on the 15th session of […]

The White House wants $65 million in fiscal 2019 for the Department of Energy to start work on the low-yield ballistic-missile warhead called for in the latest Nuclear Posture Review: a weapon Congress must authorize before the agency can start building it. The Donald Trump administration made the funding request official on April 13 in […]

South Carolina’s governor and attorney general have asked the U.S. Energy Department to find a neutral third party to determine whether it would cost more to complete a controversial plutonium-disposal project at the Savannah River Site or cancel it. According to a letter dated Feb. 23, which subsequently leaked to the press, Gov. Henry McMaster […]

Over 400 days into the Donald Trump administration, two of the four National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) leadership slots requiring Senate confirmation remain empty, and there is no nominee for one of them. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was confirmed as NNSA administrator in February, and Brent Park followed her into NNSA headquarters in March as deputy administrator […]

John Sarrao will replace Alan Bishop as principal assistant director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Science, Technology, and Engineering branch, a lab spokesperson said Monday. In his new role, Sarrao will run the lab’s fundamental science programs, which include research applicable to nuclear weapons, among other things. The directorate’s four sub-branches are: chemistry, life, […]

The Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration are seeking bids on a new series of exascale supercomputers, including one at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that would cost up to $600 million and switch on early next decade, according to a request for proposals released Monday. Funding for the proposed Livermore […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions will stay on the job for another year as the management and operations contractor of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Department of Energy wrote in a procurement note earlier this month. The agency announced the extension April 4, ahead of the July 31 expiration of the contract held […]

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) took over as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, but the leadership of the subcommittee in charge of the Department of Energy’s annual budget bills has not changed. Shelby replaces Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who retired April 1 due to ailing health. In a press announcement, the senior senator […]

By Marc Selinger Defense Daily The U.S. Navy, which has said for years that it wants to buy 12 Columbia-class, nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines to replace its aging Ohio-class fleet, is leaving open the possibility that it will end up acquiring more than that, a service official said April 11. “That’s a decision that will be made […]

Purdue University on April 6 confirmed it teamed with Bechtel National, of Reston, Va., on a bid to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico — a teaming arrangement first reported by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor in February. The confirmation came Friday from Mitch Daniels, president of the Indiana-based university. Daniels spoke to the […]