Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) acknowledged the third test of 2017 for components of the updated B61-12 gravity bomb the agency is developing as part of the $1-trillion-plus U.S. nuclear modernization program. The two qualification flights took place Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the NNSA said in a […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to consider at least one nuclear safety recommendation to the Department of Energy during closed-door meetings in early December, according to notices published Monday. The specific topics to be discussed by the five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Dec. 6 and Dec. 18 are unknown. In notices posted online, the […]

Centrus Energy said this week it anticipates completing cleanup of its retired advanced centrifuge technology demonstration site in Piketon, Ohio, by the end of the year. Decontamination and decommissioning of the American Centrifuge facility began in the second quarter of 2016 after the Department of Energy cut off funding for the project the year before […]

A former contracting official at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico swindled the government out of more than $2 million by steering a lab contract to a moving company she founded, according to an indictment filed this week with the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. In 2010, while employed at the Department of Energy […]

A day after an influential Senate committee mulled whether to change the president’s unilateral authority to launch a nuclear strike, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee introduced a bill to ban the U.S. from launching a nuclear first strike. U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Wednesday introduced exceptionally short legislation that would […]

The company that has run the Los Alamos National Laboratory for a decade will split up, with members of the incumbent manager set to pursue separate bids to run the nuclear weapons lab for the next 10 years, a University of California official said Wednesday. The University of California (UC) managed the Los Alamos National […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Friday, Nov. 24, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 1.

Changing the structure of the contract for the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would not necessarily help restrain the rising costs for building the plant that will eliminate stocks of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Wednesday. The report does not include any recommended action, but rather reveals […]

UT Still in Hunt for Next LANL Management Contract The University of Texas has not suspended work on its bid to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a spokesperson for the Austin-based institution said. “Bid preparation is in progress and will be reviewed by the Board of Regents later this month,” a University of […]

Congress this week sent a defense authorization bill to President Donald Trump’s desk that would authorize research into a new nuclear-capable cruise missile, allow construction of a controversial plutonium processing facility the administration wants to cancel, and let the Department of Energy build a new office building for nuclear-weapons support personnel in Albuquerque. The House […]

An interest group representing communities that host Department of Energy nuclear weapons and cleanup sites wants a meeting with the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), who earlier this summer urged the White House to dissolve the decades-old safety watchdog. The Energy Communities Alliance “believes DNFSB must not be eliminated in order […]

President Donald Trump plans to nominate nuclear industry lobbyist and former Capitol Hill staffer Melissa Burnison as assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, the White House announced Wednesday. If nominated and then confirmed by the Senate, Burnison would lead the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs as the principal Department of Energy […]

The massive defense authorization bill now on its way to President Donald Trump’s desk would make it harder for the Department of Energy to move plutonium pit production out of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico — something the agency has not actually proposed doing. However, that the Department of Energy (DOE) has […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants to perform larger explosive tests to support nuclear arms-maintenance and counterrorism research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to a Nov. 3 regulatory filing. The 65-year-old nuclear weapons research facility in Livermore, Calif., wants to increase the size of the non-nuclear explosive tests it is allowed to […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Huntington Ingalls Industries on Wednesday posted strong financial results in its third quarter driven by work on aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships for the Navy and the acquisition last year of a technical services company. Huntington Ingalls is the parent company of Stoller Newport News Nuclear: one of the partners on […]

The fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes Congress to give the National Nuclear Security Administration even more money than President Donald Trump requested, while also bucking the commander in chief on a couple big nuclear programs. The latest NDAA, which emerged from a bicameral conference committee Wednesday afternoon, would allow congressional appropriators to […]

The federal government this week doubled down on its request that the Court of Federal Claims dismiss South Carolina’s lawsuit over disposal of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The filing arrived just days after the prime contractor on the Department of Energy facility designed to convert that plutonium into […]

Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame have received $27.5-million worth of Department of Energy grants to study high-energy physics potentially applicable to nuclear-weapon sustainment, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Tuesday. Cornell’s Multi-University Center of Excellence for Pulsed-Power-Driven High Energy Density Science will get $15-million to study high energy density plasmas from […]

Richard Abbot Defense Daily The Navy has been able to reduce the cost of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine by $80 million per unit and the program remains on schedule, a top Navy acquisition official said last week. Rear Adm. Michael Jabaley, Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Submarines, said Nov. 2 that after the Columbia […]

The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor faces a $320,000 penalty after being cited by the Department of Energy for retaliating against an employee who reported a safety issue. The Energy Department issued a preliminary notice of violation (PNOV) to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) on Wednesday. The violation, according to the department, occurred when […]

If it holds up under protest, the $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will provide BWX Technologies with one of its bigger wins as a prime contractor in recent years, executives said during a quarterly call on Tuesday. But management said it would […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently announced that it somewhat-less-recently recognized contractors and national laboratory staff at the Nevada National Security Site for technical contributions to nuclear stockpile stewardship. Earlier this week, the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency shared the names of those projects with NS&D Monitor. The following teams at the former nuclear weapon-testing […]

The University of Texas’ Board of Regents on Thursday deferred official approval of the institution’s planned bid to run the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory by more than two weeks, to Nov. 27. The board was scheduled to take action on the proposal Thursday — the Austin-based system in August approved $4.5 million […]

More days have passed than remain in astronomical autumn, which means Los Alamos National Security could soon announce the interim Los Alamos National Laboratory director who will replace the retiring Charles McMillan and run the site until the company’s contract expires Sept. 30, 2018. McMillan, who has led Los Alamos National Laboratory for about six […]

The Donald Trump administration on Thursday nominated current White House counterproliferation adviser Christopher Ford to be assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation. If confirmed by the Senate, Ford would lead State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation: the arm of Foggy Bottom tasked with preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, […]

While would-be bidders mull over the Department of Energy’s request for proposals to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next decade, a community representative is cautiously breathing a sigh of relief that the agency has made some concession to the local businesses for which the lab is lifeblood. The final solicitation was “surprising […]

Fluor, one of the major contractors in the Department of Energy complex, on Thursday reported a significant earnings spike for the third quarter of 2017. The international construction and engineering firm reported quarterly net earnings of $94 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, compared to just shy of $5 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, […]