Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to publish a master schedule for overhauling elements of its uranium program no sooner than Dec. 31, 2018, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. A cornerstone of that overhaul is the Uranium Production Facility (UPF) to be built at the Y-12 National Security Complex near […]

The University of California will seek new industry partners to chase a follow-on operations contract the Department of Energy expects to award next year for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a university regent suggested Thursday. “As we go forward … we’re going to be bidding with a different group of private sector […]

A number of major policy questions must be addressed before the federal government drops the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) project in South Carolina in favor of a “dilute and dispose” approach to disposal of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium, House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said Thursday. “There are a […]

Rich Abott Defense Daily A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Tuesday found that the U.S. Navy’s four public shipyards’ facilities and equipment remain in poor condition leading to a continued backlog in maintenance and are inadequate to Navy needs. The four public shipyards are the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday Approved $790 million for nonproliferation, anti-terrorism, demining, and related programs for 2018: a high-water mark for the State Department account that includes international nuclear nonproliferation efforts. The Senate recommendation is about 60 percent more than what the White House requested for the account in 2018 as part of a […]

Defense Daily Boeing will not challenge contracts the Air Force awarded to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to mature designs for the Long-Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO), a replacement for the aging, nuclear-armed, air-launched cruise missile. “We received the customer debrief and after reviewing the information, Boeing has decided not to protest the Air Force’s decision” on […]

Szuhsiung Ho, a nuclear engineer and naturalized U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, was sentenced Thursday to a prison term and a fine for conspiring to help the Chinese government produce unauthorized nuclear materials using U.S. expertise, the Justice Department said. Ho received a two-year prison sentence and a year of supervised release, plus a $20,000 […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site has lost about 900 jobs over the past five years, primarily due to attrition, according to a recent economic impact study. Released late last month, the study – The Savannah River Site: Economic Impact and Workforce Transition – was prepared by the SRS Community Reuse Organization (SRSCRO), a group tasked with working […]

Congress this week passed a temporary spending bill that will keep the Department of Energy funded at 2017 levels for at least more than two months into the new fiscal year, setting up another holiday-season budget showdown on Capitol Hill. The House on Friday voted in favor of a Senate-approved plan of disaster relief and debt-ceiling […]

The Energy Department has extinguished wildfires that were burning at the Nevada National Security Site, the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration wrote in a social media post Tuesday. “NNSS firefighters successfully extinguished a lightning-generated fire which began on Aug. 24,” reads a post on the Nevada National Security Site’s Facebook page. “The NNSS fire […]

The University of New Mexico is the third institution to express interest in the next management and operations contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a university official confirmed to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor this week. “The University of New Mexico is very interested in the LANL Management and Operations contract competition,” Joseph Cecchi, senior adviser […]

Although the soon-to-be-retired Charles McMillan, director of the the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory now only through December, has two deputies, the order of succession at the northern New Mexico nuclear-weapon facility will officially remain a mystery at least until later this year. McMillan announced Tuesday he would step down in December after six years […]

The Department of Energy should take a number of steps to ensure it comprehensively understands its transuranic waste management needs as it looks to dispose of 34 metric tons of diluted plutonium at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent […]

The White House shouted its objection to the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and reseearch on a new intermediate-range missile system in a statement of administration policy Thursday. The measures are part of the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2018, which the upper chamber plans to take up next week now that […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency ceremonially opened a $150-million facility in Kazakhstan to store and distribute nuclear-power fuel for peaceful uses, the United Nations-chartered body announced Tuesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank Storage Facility at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk will eventually distribute LEU to IAEA member states that […]

The Senate is scheduled to take up the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018 when Congress returns from recess next week. A spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday the annual military authorization legislation “will be on the floor next week,” although the exact timing of debate was yet to be decided. The bill […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will apparently wait until at least December for the funding increase the White House has proposed, as Congress is expected to move quickly on a short-term spending bill that will hold the federal budget at current levels for the first three months of fiscal 2018. The move would, at least temporarily, […]

It was a packed house at the Los Alamos National Laboratory this week, when the Energy Department hosted would-be bidders on a new, decade-spanning contract to manage and operate the nuclear weapons facility. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is managing the forthcoming procurement for DOE, did not release an official headcount or attendees […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday it is is pleased with the outcome of a federal operational readiness review (FORR) for the Transuranic Waste Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, in which 12 of the 13 functional areas passed muster. “This was a successful review in the eyes of […]

At the prodding of a senior U.S. senator, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is working on a “thorough review” of its primary plutonium-pit production facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a spokesman for the semiautonomous Energy Department agency said Tuesday. In early August, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) — after reading […]

A portion of the Savannah River Site’s security personnel with union representation are on the job this week even as nearly 300 of their colleagues remain on strike in the wake of failed labor negotiations. Of the 337 security employees represented by the United Professional Pro-Force of Savannah River (PPSR), 48 are currently working. That […]

Lockheed Martin, which recently lost a competition to mature designs for the U.S. Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), announced Aug. 30 that it has chosen not to challenge the contracts awarded to two rivals. “After receiving a debrief and reviewing information provided, Lockheed Martin has accepted the Air Force’s decision on the Ground […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday it helped remove 1 kilogram of Chinese highly enriched uranium from Ghana, clearing the last cache of such nuclear weapon-usable material out of the West African nation. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said in a press release it cooperated with Ghana, China, and the International Atomic […]

Scott Gibbs is returning to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico more than three years after retiring from a senior management position at the Department of Energy facility. Gibbs will be back at LANL on Sept. 5 as deputy director for mission assurance, lab spokesman Matthew Nerzig said by email Monday. Gibbs’ […]

The Pentagon should not have rushed to hand out more than $1 billion in contracts to modernize U.S. nuclear missiles before the Donald Trump administration completes the Nuclear Posture Review it started in January, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said Sunday. “We should not be doubling down on these legacy nuclear […]

About four dozen people representing a host of security companies and Energy Department contractors attended the Aug. 14 industry day for the new paramilitary services contract for DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Among the companies represented were current security provider Centerra, BWX Technologies, Wastren Advantage, the Government Training Institute, Paragon Systems, Professional Project […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Monday revealed it tested components of the B61-12 gravity bomb intended it is developing as part of the U.S. nuclear modernization effort. The two qualification flights took place Aug. 8 at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the NNSA said in a press release published on its website. […]