Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

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 […]