Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

By Marc Selinger Defense Daily Recent increases in U.S. defense spending have bolstered the Air Force’s nuclear modernization efforts, but the possible return of across-the-board budget cuts in FY 2020 looms as a potential threat to those programs, a service official said May 1. The two-year budget agreement that President Trump signed into law in February […]

Sentencing has been scheduled for the two men who pleaded guilty to stealing $4.4 million from the federal government while conducting work for the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Aaron Vennefron and Phillip Thompson will both be sentenced on May 24 by Judge J. Michelle Childs, of […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory called a two-day time out on some of its plutonium work late last month after personnel put fissile material in the wrong containers, according to a report released April 27 by an independent federal nuclear-safety watchdog. Both mishaps took place in March at the New Mexico lab’s Plutonium Facility. During […]

A merger of McDermott International and CB&I, the majority partner in the contractor building a plutonium-conversion plant for the Department of Energy, is expected to close May 10 after shareholders for both companies approved the combination. That is according to a joint press release Wednesday from the companies. McDermott shareholders would end up owning 53 […]

Barbara Rusinko, a veteran of Bechtel National’s Yucca Mountain and Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant programs, has joined the parent company’s Board of Directors, Bechtel Group announced Tuesday. Rusinko, president of Bechtel Nuclear, Security & Environmental, gets her vote on the board after 33 years with the company. Before taking charge in 2016 of the unit that […]

A federal judge has decided to let the Department of Energy and a contractor argue in court about whether the agency was allowed to claw back some $20 million in fees on a long-overdue, over-budget plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina. That is according to an April 27 order by U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge […]

A federal judge in New Mexico last week sentenced a former Sandia National Laboratories contractor to three years in prison for fraudulently steering procurement money to a moving company she owned. U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo also ordered Carla Sena, the convicted 56 year-old former contractor from Santa Rosa, N.M., to pay back $643,000 […]

The Senate on Friday confirmed a former national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. The Senate confirmed Andrea Thompson by a voice vote. A retired U.S. Army colonel, Thompson was most recently a special adviser at State’s Office of Policy Planning. In her new […]

The government sector was one of the few bright spots early this year in what Fluor Chairman and CEO David Seaton described Thursday as “a disastrous quarter.” “I think we have a good brand in that market and are continuing to bid those projects and being successful,” Seaton said of the company’s business with the […]

The governor of South Carolina this week promised a court challenge if the Department of Energy cancels the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) under construction in his state, or turns the planned plutonium-disposal plant into a new weapons facility. The sprawling facility, billions over budget and years behind schedule, is being built to turn […]

The House of Representatives’ version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act would authorize $65 million in funding to begin work on a new low-yield nuclear warhead for submarine-launched ballistic missiles as part of an overall $15.3 billion National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) budget, according to a bill summary provided Friday by the House […]

Joseph Henry, president and chief operating officer of BWX Technologies’ Nuclear Operations Group, will retire June 30, the company disclosed Monday in a regulatory filing. It was not immediately clear who would succeed the retired Navy admiral at the helm of the Lynchburg, Va.-based company’s nuclear manufacturing and fuel-enrichment business. “We will announce [Henry’s] successor […]

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 […]