Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

In a 10-9 vote Tuesday, the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) took a stance against the Energy Department facility’s potential receipt of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany. The decision, which included two abstentions, will now elevate to DOE headquarters for consideration. The Energy Department three years ago announced potential plans for the […]

General Atomics appeared a lock to once again win a contract, potentially worth more than $125 million over five years, to help the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) simulate conditions of a nuclear explosion. The San Diego-based company is the incumbent on the work under a nearly $150-million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract awarded in 2012 […]

As has been expected, the Energy Department on Tuesday issued a six-month extension for the current contract for legacy nuclear cleanup operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The department said Tuesday that Los Alamos National Security, the lab’s management and operations contractor, would also remain its environmental management provider through March […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government’s independent watchdog for defense nuclear sites backed off a formal safety recommendation to the Energy Department here Tuesday, citing a lack of confidence that the measure would better prepare DOE facilities for emergencies. In an open meeting at its headquarters, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) voted 4-1 to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it helped South Africa on the road to producing a medical isotope using low-enriched uranium instead of weaponizable highly enriched uranium. The conversion effort wrapped up in August, allowing the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation’s NTP Radioisotopes SOC to produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 without highly enriched uranium, […]

Earlier this month, Charles Hopkins was appointed associate administrator for emergency operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the U.S. stockpile steward said. Hopkins’ first day was Sept. 5, a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spokesperson wrote in an email Monday. Hopkins replaced Eric Smith: deputy associate administrator for emergency operations since November. Smith had […]

Workers were evacuated from a high-explosives research area at Los Alamos National Laboratory late last week after lightning apparently sparked a wildfire nearby, the Energy Department disclosed Tuesday. On Thursday, “personnel responded to a wildland fire west of Technical Area (TA) 40,” according to a report published in DOE’s official Occurrence Reporting and Processing System […]

A Japanese newspaper reported the United States and Japan are preparing to extend a longstanding bilateral nuclear-cooperation agreement, which the U.S. State Department would neither confirm nor deny Monday. Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday the Japanese and U.S. governments were “making arrangements to enable the automatic extension” of thei agreement. which was signed in 1988 and set to expire […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily The U.S. Air Force, which awarded two contracts last month to mature designs for the Ground-based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), plans to hold the program’s first major review next month, a program official said Sept. 28. The system requirements review will ensure the prime contractors, Boeing [BA] and Northrop Grumman [NOC], fully […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Northrop Grumman late Tuesday afternoon announced a number of forthcoming leadership changes, including the elevation of Kathy Warden to the position of president. Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman’s chairman and CEO, is also president. Warden, who is currently in charge of the company’s Mission Systems Sector, will become president and chief operating […]

Workers responsible for a breach of criticality safety procedures at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are back on the job, the lab’s prime contractor confirmed this week. The workers had been temporarily “disqualified” from working at Los Alamos’ Plutonium Facility after moving a shell — part of a nuclear-weapon core — into […]

The federal government is mishandling the MOX project through improper cost evaluations and ongoing attempts to abandon construction of the plutonium-conversion facility, according to a group that advises the governor of South Carolina on nuclear issues. The South Carolina Nuclear Advisory Council (SCNAC) issued its report this month following a site visit to the MOX plant at […]

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The U.S. Air Force intends to conduct a “deep dive” on the B-2 Spirit to determine how that bomber program’s strengths and weaknesses could guide the development of the B-21 Raider, according to a service official. The deep dive is designed to prevent the B-21 from experiencing the kind of cost and […]

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of David Jonas to be Department of Energy general counsel by a 14-9 vote. The roll-call vote split almost entirely along party lines, with only Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) Angus King (I-Vt.) breaking ranks with the Democrats to support Jonas’ nomination. There […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday it returned the final tranche of highly enriched uranium from a Kazakh reactor to the material’s point of origin in Russia. The U.S. stockpile steward and nonproliferation agency said in a press release it worked with Kazakhstan’s Institute of Nuclear Physics to repatriate the weapon-grade uranium from the […]

Northrop Grumman’s proposed $7.8 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK will drive improved affordability for its customers, strengthen its competitiveness in a number of areas such as space and missile defense systems, and help spur innovation, Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman’s chairman, president, and CEO, said Monday on an investor call. Bush said that the operating environment in space […]

Kim Davis Lebak, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos Field Office, will retire after nearly 30 years at the Energy Department. Davis, who has managed the Los Alamos Field Office for the past three years or so, will leave the agency in “early October,” a spokesperson for the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said Monday. […]

Another 11 labor union employees have crossed the picket line and returned to work for Savannah River Site security contractor Centerra-SRS. That brings the total to 59 employees who either did not join the strike that began last month or who have since gone back to work, according to Centerra spokesman Rob Davis. On Sept. 6, […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily The Navy on Thursday awarded the submarine building division of General Dynamics [GD] a $5.1 billion contract to complete design work on the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. The detailed design award, which includes $175.1 million in initial funding, is for the Integrated Product and Process Development and additional work, including “component and […]

The Senate approved its version of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a 90-8 vote Monday, setting the stage for a conference with the House to iron out differences between the two chambers’ version of the annual military policy bill. The White House has said it opposes some of the bill’s provisions. The […]

The Energy Department would not agree to increase the fees it plans to pay the next management and operations contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), despite repeated complaints that they are too low to attract quality bidders. The agency also confirmed this week that Bechtel, senior industry partner on the troubled LANL prime […]

Ellen Tauscher will replace Norman Pattiz as the chair of the University of California Board of Regents’ national laboratories subcommittee, the board said Thursday. Tauscher is a former California congresswoman who later served as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs during the Obama administration. Pattiz is the founder of radio giant […]

The White House could announce new leadership for the National Nuclear Nuclear Security Administration before September is out, a source said Thursday. Frank Klotz, the current undersecretary for nuclear security and National Nuclear Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) administrator, has said privately his successor could be announced by the end of the month, according to an […]

A treaty to ban nuclear weapons garnered 51 signatures from United Nations member states this week after it became eligible Wednesday for signing, despite strong objections of the body’s nuclear-armed nations. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which not a single nuclear-armed U.N. member supports, must be ratified by 50 nations to enter […]

The Senate this week marked a major milestone toward passing its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018, which would set reporting requirements for unmet Energy Department nuclear-weapons needs, and encourage appropriators to fund research on a new intermediate-range missile. The Senate voted to end debate Thursday, setting up floor action on the bill as […]

Damage at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site this week from Hurricane Irma was limited to downed trees, with no reported issues at any facilities. Wind gusts reached up to 76 mph at the site near Aiken, S.C., with sustained winds of 35 mph on Monday when Irma did most of its damage in the area. Outside […]

Former Sen. Peter Domenici (R-N.M.), a stalwart ally of virtually all things nuclear in his state, died Wednesday following complications from abdominal surgery, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He was 85. Domenici was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and served six terms. During his Senate career, he chaired the chamber’s Energy Committee and Budget […]

Former House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon penned an op-ed in support of the Department of Energy Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, which since retiring from Congress he has lobbied the federal government to continue building. “I am concerned about the effect on our national security of a further proliferation […]