Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

By Marc Selinger Defense Daily Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, whose duties include overseeing big-ticket acquisition programs, attended a recent “deep dive” briefing on the Air Force’s B-21 Raider to better familiarize himself with the bomber development effort, a service official said April 9. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson said that he and prime contractor Northrop Grumman [NOC] […]

The Environmental Protection Agency told an official South Carolina nuclear-advisory body there is nothing the federal agency can do, for now, to prevent the Department of Energy from proceeding with its plan to cancel a multibillion-dollar nonproliferation project at the Savannah River Site in the state. That is according to a letter dated April 2 […]

The ranking Democrat on the Senate panel that writes the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) annual funding bill said this week she would not vote for a budget that keeps the B83 nuclear gravity bomb in service. Meanwhile, New Mexico’s senior senator laid into the Energy Department subagency’s top official about plans to move production […]

Laying out the annual weapons budget for some of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) major sites over the last decade yields little in the way of surprise: generally, the weapons budget is going up. Source: DOE Congressional Budget Requests (Laboratory Tables). Link: Interactive Version of Chart. Figuratively speaking, these trends were written on […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday formally opened a new building to house a host of administrative and support functions at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) attended a ribbon-cutting for the John C. Drummond Center, named for the longest-serving manager for the nuclear-weapon […]

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC) should require the Department of Energy to pay South Carolina $200 million in their dispute over plutonium disposal at the federal Savannah River Site, rather than allowing the lawsuit to go to trial, the state said in a March 30 motion. Specifically, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office […]

The Department of Energy says it should get to keep around $20 million in fees it clawed back from a contractor that failed to build a major nuclear-nonproliferation project in South Carolina on time. The federal agency’s filing in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims last week was the latest turn in one of the two slow-simmering […]

More than a week after the Senate confirmed him for the job, Brent Park was sworn in Tuesday as the National Nuclear Security Administration’s top nonproliferation official. Park will be deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation: the roughly $2 billion-a-year stovepipe charged with controlling the spread of weaponizable nuclear material while encourage peaceful atomic programs. […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory contracted out just shy of 60 percent of its total procurement dollars to small businesses in fiscal 2017, handily exceeding the Department of Energy’s goal for the nation’s oldest nuclear-weapon lab. In the penultimate year of Los Alamos National Security’s (LANS) management and operations contract, the northern New Mexico weapons […]

The former head of an advocacy group for communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday she has repaid $800 in questioned expenses in an effort to resolve a public dispute that marred the end of her tenure. The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of […]

Days after the Department of Energy (DOE) gave the go-ahead to start building key parts of a $6.5 billion facility to process uranium for U.S. defense programs, a federal judge ordered a venue change in a lawsuit aimed at stopping the plant’s construction. Three environmental groups and four individuals filed suit in July 2017 in […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex had not cast any enriched uranium for national defense programs for about a week as of Friday, after an unspecified quantity of the fissile material leaked into casting machinery at the National Nuclear Security Administration plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Casting furnaces at Y-12’s 9212 building — operated by the […]

Scores of Democratic congresspeople wrote to President Donald Trump this week to complain that the White House’s plans to add new low-yield nuclear warheads to the U.S. arsenal is dangerous and fiscally irresponsible. That was the takeaway of a letter dated March 26 and signed by 43 Democrats, including Rep. Adam Smith (R-Wash.): ranking member of […]

The House Armed Services Committee plans to start marking up the fiscal 2019 defense authorization bill, which will include policies for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in late April. All six of the Armed Services subcommittees are scheduled to conduct their markups on April 26, the committee said. That includes the strategic forces subcommittee […]

It was all over but the waiting at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, at which time Brent Park had still not been sworn in as deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). But barring personal or political catastrophe, Park will soon take the reins of the […]

Organizations bidding to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory met with National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) officials last week, marking one of the final steps in the competition for a 10-year, $20-billion-plus management and operations contract. The meetings in Washington, D.C., between government officials and an undisclosed number of bid teams keep the Department of […]

Friday marked the official start of the 30-day window during which the Department of Energy has said it will release a draft solicitation for the Savannah River Site management and operations contract that includes oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium-refining operations. The window is open through April 29, a Sunday, according to the presolicitation […]

A joint U.S. Navy and a Lockheed Martin industry team successfully launched two Trident II D5 Life Extension missiles from the Ohio-class USS Nebraska (SSBN-739) ballistic missile submarine. This test certified the submarine’s strategic weapon system and crew are ready for patrol and provided more information on the D5 Life Extension missile configuration. The test was called Demonstration and Shakedown […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration gave Bechtel National the go-ahead to begin about $4 billion worth of construction on the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., marking the official start of the busiest, costliest years of the project to date. However, the agency still has not divulged the official cost and schedule estimate for […]

WASHINGTON — Replacing an under-construction plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina will be billions of dollars cheaper than finishing it, even after accounting for transportation and storage costs associated with a proposed alternative, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) told lawmakers here Tuesday. The Department of Energy wants to cancel the the […]

The Senate on Thursday unanimously approved Brent Park to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s roughly $2-billion-a-year nuclear nonproliferation branch. It took the Senate a little over a month to confirm Park, a physicist and associate director at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, as deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation. President Donald Trump […]

The fiscal 2018 omnibus spending bill President Donald Trump signed this week would give the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) warhead refurbishment programs the 30-percent boost the White House requested, but it would also sustain a major nonproliferation construction project the agency has tried to cancel for three years. Overall, the permanent, government-wide spending bill […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) both assured Congress this week that the two new low-yield warheads called for in the Donald Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review can fit in projected agency budgets. Perry and NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty faced the same question Thursday on separate sides […]

Sen, Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) publicly went on the offensive this week against the National Nuclear Security Administration’s slowly gelling plan to shift production of some nuclear-weapon cores to South Carolina from New Mexico. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is in the final stages of deciding whether to start manufacturing a select number of plutonium […]

The U.S. Air Force is reviewing options for re-engining the B-52 bomber and intends to formally launch the acquisition effort later this year, a service official said Wednesday. William Roper, the Air Force’s new acquisition chief, said he conducted his first review with the re-engining team a few weeks ago and he expects to receive […]

A small group of unpaid advisers that helps the Department of Labor process medical reimbursement claims from workers sickened at Department of Energy nuclear sites remained idle Monday, about a month after the terms of most of its members expired. The terms of all but one member of the agency’s Advisory Board on Toxic Substances […]