Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

In a blow to local interest groups that backed the measure, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have increased taxes for nonprofit entities that operate Department of Energy national laboratories in the state. Martinez vetoed the measure — which would have levied the states gross receipts tax on nonprofit […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) stuck to its guns that it does not need to conduct further environmental reviews for its plan to perform bigger explosive tests nearby the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, a Thursday regulatory filing shows. “[A]fter considering all comments received, DOE NNSA has determined that the […]

The future of the Savannah River Sites nuclear-weapons mission should become clearer by next month, when the Department of Energy plans to release a draft solicitation for the contract that includes the site’s work for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). To date this year under a series of short-term budgets, the NNSA is spending […]

A federal judge will resume consideration of CB&I AREVA MOX Services’ argument that it should quickly receive a partial award in a $200 million lawsuit it filed against the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration for alleged mismanagement of a multibillion-dollar nuclear nonproliferation contract. In an order filed Thursday, U.S. Court of Federal Claims […]

Faced with local news coverage raising questions about her expense account, and in the middle of a state legislative campaign, Andrea Romero acknowledged Friday her days at the helm of an advocacy group for communities near the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are likely over. “It would be hard for me […]

In an expected move, CB&I AREVA MOX Services argued Thursday a federal judge should not dismiss a $200 million lawsuit that claims the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration mismanaged the company’s contract to build a massive plutonium-disposal facility in South Carolina. Hitting back against claims in the agency’s motion to dismiss the suit, MOX Services […]

In a letter Tuesday to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, two Democratic senators questioned whether the prime contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California inappropriately billed the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to fight what the lawmakers called “whistleblower-related” cases in court. In particular, Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) questioned whether the […]

The metric ton of plutonium South Carolina took the Department of Energy to court over in 2016 is unlikely to leave the state for years, but the agency is seeking more money from Congress to make a move happen sooner, according to its latest budget proposal. In its detailed 2019 budget request issued last week, […]

It could be another year before the U.S. Department of Energy publishes an official cost estimate for the multibillion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) that Bechtel National is building in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency said last week in its detailed fiscal 2019 budget justification. At the same time, significant portions of the UPF at the […]

The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday it will begin the bidding process for the new Savannah River Site management and operations (M&O) contract by May 1. In an online announcement, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said that, within 30 to 60 days, it would issue a draft request for proposals (RFP) to kick off the […]

The Department of Energy wants to do more plutonium chemistry and experiments in an existing building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as part of a plan to resume the lab’s production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores called plutonium pits. The move would mean raising the amount of plutonium-239, or its equivalent, allowed […]

Although the Department of Energy has nearly finished the first of four ongoing warhead modernization programs, the U.S. nuclear arsenal is “very close to zero-percent modernized,” the general in charge of the Pentagon’s nuclear forces said Wednesday. “We’re starting down that path,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said Wednesday in […]

WASHINGTON — Brent Park, the White House’s choice to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nonproliferation office, promised he would if confirmed weigh in on a big nonproliferation construction project Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants to protect in South Carolina. In a confirmation hearing that ended without anyone outright opposing the Oak Ridge physicist’s […]

One of the two men who pleaded guilty to stealing from the federal government while working for the MOX project at the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site is scheduled for sentencing on April 5. Phillip Thompson will be sentenced at 10 a.m. by U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs in Columbia, S.C. He plead guilty […]

President Donald Trump this week nominated current Lawrence Livermore hand Charles Verdon to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) roughly $9-billion-a-year nuclear weapons portfolio. The White House sent Verdon’s nomination to the Hill Tuesday. If recommended by the Senate Armed Services Committee and confirmed by the full Senate, Verdon would be put in charge […]

Thursday was the first day of SOC’s security contract at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site, where the Chantilly, Va.-based company will work for up to five years under a deal worth about $200 million, including options. SOC won the contract in 2017 but did not start work until recently after competitor […]

The Department of Energy in the fourth quarter of 2017 exercised an option worth more than $490 million on BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) naval nuclear propulsion parts production contract, the Lynchburg, Va.-based company announced nearly four months into 2018. “A variety of manufacturing and material procurement activities will be performed under these contracts that will primarily […]

BWX Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden said Wednesday the company’s  Nuclear Services Group, which includes its business with the U.S. Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, is experiencing “a resurgence.” Much of that is due new cleanup business at DOE’s shuttered Cold War nuclear-weapon sites, but a large — if not unexpected — […]

None of the 21 drone sightings in 2016 at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina resulted in any significant findings, according to Department of Energy documents recently released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In some cases, what employees saw might not have even been a drone, the records indicate. In November 2016, […]

South Carolina should withdraw one of its two plutonium removal lawsuits – each seeking $100 million from the federal government – in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC) and amend the other suit to seek the full $200 million, a judge recommended late last week. Doing so would resolve the Energy Department’s complaint that […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has the technical and safety chops both to manufacture plutonium pits and to lead new research on the nuclear-weapon cores, the head of the lab’s weapons program said Wednesday amid an intensifying turf war over the Department of Energy’s plutonium mission. “Something that I’ve heard a […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory said Tuesday he is “confident” the Northern New Mexico nuclear weapons site could help create the low-yield nuclear warheads the Donald Trump administration requested in the Nuclear Posture Review released in early February. “Again, I go out on a branch, but I know from […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — To help hash out military requirements for two new low-yield nuclear warheads called for in the Trump administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review, the bi-agency Nuclear Weapons Council is planning a series of road trips to key Department of Energy nuclear weapons labs and production facilities this spring, a senior Pentagon official said here […]

The White House requested roughly $31 million for the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in 2019, roughly even with the appropriation that now funds the independent health-and-safety watchdog of the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapon sites. The requested budget of $30.6 million is less than one percent lower than the $30.9 million the Defense Nuclear […]

Rich Abott Defense Daily By the end of 2019, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to identify the best ways to secure low-enriched uranium for U.S. nuclear-weapon programs over the next 20 years, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency wrote in response to a Government Accountability Office report published Friday. The National Nuclear Security Administration […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could turn the existing W76 warhead into the low-yield submarine-launched weapon requested by the Donald Trump administration by dialing back its explosive yield, a senior agency official said here Wednesday. “A low-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead capability, deemed the W76 Mod 2, will be fielded […]

Accelerating upgrades for the nuclear warhead slated to fly in the next decade on a new air-launched cruise missile would consume the single largest portion of the budget increase proposed for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear weapons programs in 2019, according to a detailed budget document released Friday. For fiscal 2019, the semiautonomous Department […]

By the end of 2019, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to identify the best ways to secure low-enriched uranium for U.S. nuclear-weapon programs over the next 20 years, the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency wrote in response to a Government Accountability Office report published last week. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will complete […]