Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Legislation that allows New Mexico to collect gross receipts taxes from nonprofit entities that run Department of Energy national laboratories there flew through the state Senate and now is set for its first committee stop in the House of Representatives. The House Taxation and Revenue Committee had not yet scheduled action on the bill at […]

WASHINGTON — About a month after word first leaked that the White House wanted to develop a pair of new low-yield nuclear warheads, Defense Secretary James Mattis this week characterized the proposal as a “bargaining chip” to persuade Russia to freeze what the United States says is a nuclear-capable cruise missile program. In congressional testimony […]

Members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation this week got on board with constituents’ calls for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to start manufacturing nuclear-warhead cores at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R) say the pit mission — currently entrenched at the Los Alamos National […]

The Department of Energy will remain frozen at fiscal 2017 spending levels through at least late March, under the stopgap spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday morning after an overnight government shutdown — the second of fiscal 2018. The bill is the fifth continuing resolution of the fiscal […]

Plans for pit-production and new warheads figure to feature in the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2019 budget request, which at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor was still expected to be released Monday. While no details had leaked out as of Friday, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) appeared well positioned for a […]

Jacobs Engineering Group reported $2 million in net earnings for its latest financial quarter, a steep year-over-year dive from $61 million linked to its recent acquisition of CH2M. Earnings for Jacobs’ fiscal 2018 first quarter ended Dec. 31, 2017, took a hit from the $3.27 billion CH2M acquisition and a one-time tax charge, the company […]

Department of Energy contractor AECOM on Tuesday reported $4.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter of its fiscal year, ended Dec. 31, 2017. That was 12.7 percent higher than the $4.35 billion recorded in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The Los Angeles-based global infrastructure company reported quarterly net income and diluted earnings per […]

WASHINGTON — Territorial snarling over Department of Energy plutonium programs imparted some edge to an otherwise cordial nomination hearing here Thursday, where President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said production of nuclear-weapon cores would be her top priority if she is confirmed. “We do need to have a robust […]

Russia met a Monday deadline to place its count of deployed long-range nuclear delivery systems and warheads below levels prescribed in the keystone New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the Russian Foreign Ministry said this week. The 10-year bilateral treaty, known as New START, went into force in 2011 and required the U.S. and Russia to cap […]

Cost and schedule details about a proposed low-yield warhead for submarine-launched ballistic cruise missiles will appear in the White House’s fiscal 2019 budget requests later this month, but details about planned improvements to the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons complex will not be published until next year, the agency’s top nuclear official said Friday. The Donald […]

Longtime member Sean Sullivan was set to leave the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) today after a short and tumultuous run as chairman, during which he suggested eliminating the independent federal agency where he has worked for the last five years. Sullivan announced his impending exit on Jan. 19 in a memo circulated to […]

Less than two weeks before 2019 budget negotiations are set to compete for lawmakers’ attention on Capitol Hill, the Senate still has not taken a look at the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration. President Donald Trump nominated former Department of Energy and National Security Council staffer Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to the […]

The federal government wants the two men who stole more than $4 million while conducting work for the Department of Energy’s MOX project at the Savannah River Site to fork over enough money and assets to cover the total sum. In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, U.S. Attorney Beth […]

The House’s top Department of Energy appropriator signaled Monday he might be interested in running the full Appropriations Committee next year after current Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) retires from Congress. In a Twitter message, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the blunt-talking, hard-nosed dentist-turned-lawmaker who chairs the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, said he has “always” […]

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis is scheduled to brief House lawmakers Tuesday on the Donald Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review: a policy document that proposes refurbishing Department of Energy nuclear infrastructure in part to develop a pair of new warheads for submarine-launched missiles. Mattis is slated to appear alongside Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of […]

Bechtel National and Purdue University have teamed up on a bid to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory after incumbent Los Alamos National Security — a partnership that includes Bechtel — is off the job later this year, according to a pair of sources. Bechtel has been the lead corporate partner on the incumbent since […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is set to consider a draft recommendation for the Department of Energy, according to a vote tally posted online. The board voted three to zero in favor of a meeting to consider a “staff generated outline for a draft recommendation provided to the Board on January 23, 2018,” […]

An advisory board to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is the latest entity in the state to support relocating Department of Energy nuclear warhead-core production to the Savannah River Site. The board, known as the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council (GNAC), voted 7-0 on Tuesday in support of the plan being considered by DOE. Two of […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has tapped CenturyLink [CTL] and collab9 to secure its enterprise communication networks with their joint cloud communications service. Under the deal, announced Jan. 31, the two companies will deliver their Unified Communications as a Service (UCaas) platform to start DNFSB’s transition to cloud computing platforms. “CenturyLink is excited […]

A former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory official has landed in a senior Pentagon arms-control post, the Department of Defense announced Monday. Charles Ball was appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for threat reduction and arms control in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics: part of the Office of the […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is upping its vigilance against nuclear terrorism at an event some already consider radioactive in a metaphorical sense: Super Bowl 52. The big game this year will be played in Minneapolis between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles: teams whose fervent fan bases occasionally provoke resentment […]

Two New Mexico state Senate panels have unanimously approved a bill that would ensure even nonprofit managers of Department of Energy national laboratories in the state would pay a gross receipts tax. The state Senate’s Finance Committee on Thursday approved the bill unanimously Thursday, less than a week after the measure unanimously passed the chamber’s […]

When Congress returns to work next week, lawmakers will once again find themselves barreling toward another fiscal cliff with federal funding set to expire in just a matter of days without some kind of compromise. The federal government is operating on its fourth short-term budget since fiscal 2018 started on Oct. 1 of last year. […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) criticized the Trump administration’s nearly completed Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) Jan. 24, saying its call for more weapons is unaffordable and unnecessary and would fuel an arms race. “This review is a missed opportunity to introduce realism into our nuclear weapons […]

The Donald Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review would add new warhead work to the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) portfolio at a time when the agency’s budget is already stretched to the limit, nuclear-weapons experts — including the NNSA’s recently retired administrator — said this week. The semiautonomous Department of Energy branch, steward of […]

Setting aside the effect of major spinoffs in 2017, Honeywell, a major player in U.S. nuclear weapons and waste programs, saw sizable sales and earnings boosts last year, while profits rose in the Aerospace segment that houses two of its big Department of Energy contracts. Excluding the effects of the spinoffs, Honeywell’s full-year per-share earnings rose […]

The Department of Energy’s plan for plutonium pit manufacturing will be made clearer in the Donald Trump administration’s 2019 budget request in February, agency officials told members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board last week. That is according to a presentation uploaded to the board’s website Jan. 19 after a briefing with Department of […]

The University of California and its mystery teammates have submitted a “clever” bid to run the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the next 10 years, the regent in charge of the institution’s national lab activities said in a public meeting late Wednesday. “We do have the most excellent bid,” Ellen Tauscher, the incoming chair […]