Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the safety watchdog for Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country, has issued a new plan for operations in the event of a federal government shutdown. Congress has until Jan. 19 to pass a budget for the remainder of fiscal 2018, or another continuing resolution to keep the […]

South Carolina on Monday sued the federal government again to claim $100 million it says it is owed for the Department of Energy’s failure to remove 1 metric ton of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium from the state. The complaint filed in U.S. Court of Federal Claims, State of South Carolina vs. The United States of America, […]

Local governments near the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina this week said they would be glad if the facility took over manufacturing plutonium pits for the National Nuclear Security Administration. On Tuesday, the nine-member Aiken County Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution “Supporting and Encouraging the Department of Energy/National Nuclear […]

WASHINGTON — National Nuclear Security Administrator Frank Klotz told NS&D Monitor on Tuesday he will retire from the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency on Jan. 19. If he leaves the agency as planned in two weeks, the retired Air Force lieutenant general will have helmed the NNSA for three years, nine months, and 12 days, including […]

WASHINGTON — The semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might not need all the semiautonomy it has now, Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said here Tuesday in congressional testimony. As part of a three-hour hearing on modernizing the Department of Energy, Brouillette said it was “awkward” that the NNSA has its own legislative affairs […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration should prioritize work on existing warheads, but also modify some of those warheads for new nuclear capabilities, according to a draft of President Donald Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that leaked Thursday. Also, according to the leaked document, the agency should remain ready to resume explosive nuclear tests, and […]

The prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has demanded in federal court that its customer quickly return more than $20 million in contract fees the agency voided in 2016. It was the latest turn in a $200-million lawsuit CB&I AREVA MOX Services filed against DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office confirmed Tuesday that the state has resumed penalizing the federal government for its continued failure to remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site (SRS).   The state also noted it is considering appealing a U.S. District Court judge’s dismissal of one $100 million claim from South Carolina […]

In an end-of-the-year press release, the National Nuclear Security Administration bid farewell to three longtime employees who have retired. The three retirees, all of whom spent at least some time in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Defense Programs office are: Ralph Schneider, a Ph.D. physicist who was most recently director of the Office of […]

New Year’s is the time to take the measure of the 12 months to come, as much for those who watch the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons programs as anyone else. So, in the spirit of the season, this volume of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor begins with a list of things to expect for the […]

The prime contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California did not properly document more than $1 million worth of work it did in 2015 under a number of interagency agreements, the Department of Energy’s inspector general reported just before the new year. The roughly $1.26 million in costs the Inspector General’s Office tagged were […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) will remain without a full-time general counsel for a while longer after a Senate rule that kicked in Wednesday automatically reset the confirmation process for the agency’s top lawyer. President Donald Trump nominated David Jonas as DOE general counsel in May, but the choice drew flack from Democrats on the […]

Norman Pattiz, the University of California regent who oversees the institution’s work with Department of Energy nuclear weapons labs, will resign in February, news outlets reported Wednesday. Pattiz, who has served about 16 years on the Board of Regents, informed board Chairman George Kieffer of his decision in a Dec. 28 letter posted online by […]

Rich Abbott Defense Daily A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress found that several technologies for the Columbia-class submarine program need more development and testing to prevent cost and schedule delays that could delay deployment of the lead submarine beyond a 2031 deadline. Twelve Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are planned to replace the existing 14 Ohio-class vessels […]

Centerra has won 96 percent of its potential fee award from the Department of Energy for providing a security force to protect the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In particular, DOE in a new award-fee scorecard praised Centerra-Savannah River Site for establishing and testing an “active shooter response plan.” Centerra was also cited for […]

As expected, federal programs including nuclear-stockpile and nonproliferation work  managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration would continue running at 2017 budget levels until Jan. 19, under a stopgap budget bill expected to be signed Friday. Congress passed the so-called continuing resolution late Thursday. At deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, President Donald […]

Privately operated Bannister Transformation and Development has taken deed to an old nuclear-weapon support facility in Kansas City, Mo., the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) confirmed last week. The semiautonomous Department of Energy stockpile steward transferred ownership of more than 200 acres of the Bannister Federal Complex in November, according to an NNSA press release […]

Katherine Herrera will become deputy technical director of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) effective Dec. 24, a spokesperson for the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety group said this week. In her new position, Herrera will help manage about two-thirds of the board’s full-time employees as the No. 2 official in the DNFSB’s Office of […]

Incoming Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Director Terry Wallace plans a wave of personnel changes, including elevating an associate director to the No. 4 post at the Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, a spokesperson said this week. Carolyn Zerkle will be promoted to executive director at LANL effective Jan. 1. The executive director […]

A recently leaked study that claims it would be cheaper to manufacture nuclear-weapon cores in South Carolina than New Mexico is full of holes, and an internal National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) document proves it, U.S. lawmakers from the Land of Enchantment wrote this week in letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. In a so-called […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Dec. 29 in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Please look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018.

The U.S. Department of Energy must remove 1 metric ton of plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The injunctive order from U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs grants one of the key demands in a 2016 lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Alan Wilson, but […]

At least where it concerns maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal under the care of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, the National Security Strategy that President Donald Trump released this week does not depart radically from the nuclear modernization plan set in place by his predecessor. The United States must sustain “a nuclear […]

The White House this week officially nominated National Security Council and Department of Energy veteran Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to replace retired general Frank Klotz as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency in charge of U.S. nuclear warhead stewardship and nonproliferation programs. The Donald Trump administration took the procedural […]

One of the parent companies of the prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility said Monday it will be acquired by Houston-based McDermott International in a $6-billion all-stock deal slated to close in the second quarter of 2018. At the close of the transaction CB&I, the Woodlands, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to ship some 3 pounds of weapon-grade uranium abroad for eventual conversion into medical isotopes, according to a license application the semiautonomous Energy Department stockpile agency filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week. The unalloyed metal covered by the application is a roughly 93-percent concentration of U.S.-origin uranium-235 […]

Having just completed its $3.27 billion buyout of CH2M, Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering released new information Monday about its business going forward as a $15 billion engineering and infrastructure heavyweight. “Today, we are celebrating the creation of a new Jacobs,” Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou said in a news release. In the release, Jacobs praised CH2M’s […]

The Energy Department this week published a long-awaited environmental review that paves the way for the agency to accept more than 450 casks of spent nuclear fuel from Germany for processing and storage at the agency’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The spent fuel contains U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium, which was shipped to Germany […]