Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The Savannah River Site has conducted three tritium extractions in the current fiscal year, furthering the Department of Energy facility’s goal of providing the gas for the nation’s defense program. The DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Thursday that fiscal 2017 marks the first time the SRS Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) has conducted […]

The House Appropriations Committee approved Wednesday its fiscal 2018 State Department funding bill, which would cut overall agency funding while making more modest changes to the accounts related to arms control and international security. The bill in total provides $47.4 billion for the State Department in discretionary and Overseas Contingency Operations funding – $10 billion […]

A group of senators on Wednesday encouraged the U.S. secretaries of state, defense, and energy to implement a set of actions in the ongoing Nuclear Posture Review process meant to increase transparency and reinforce national nuclear policy positions. In a July 19 letter, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and 20 of their colleagues, […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, along with technical experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, China, and Ghana, last week finished converting Ghana’s GHARR-1 miniature neutron source reactor (MNSR) to run on low-enriched uranium fuel rather than highly enriched uranium. The NNSA said in a Wednesday announcement that this work, part of its effort to […]

Dan Parsons Defense Daily Efforts to slow modernization of the nuclear triad until the Defense Department completes a comprehensive study of the programs’ total cost largely failed to make it into the House version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which was approved Friday in a 344-81 vote. An amendment to the law that […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy and water appropriations bill calls on the National Nuclear Security Administration to address lingering cost and schedule concerns in its modernization and infrastructure programs as it boosts agency funding by nearly $1 billion. The legislation, which on Wednesday passed the chamber’s Appropriations Committee and will next be considered […]

The House of Representatives is moving forward with plans to direct the Defense Department to begin work on an intermediate-range ground-launched missile despite pushback from the White House, striking amendments opposing the move from the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act it passed today in a 344-81 vote. The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee […]

Two bid protests filed over the award of the management and operations contract for the Nevada National Security Site have been withdrawn, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Friday. Transition activities for the M&O contract awarded in May to Mission Support and Test Services LLC (MSTS) will therefore resume Aug. 1, according to the semiautonomous Department […]

Several nuclear-weapon states vowed not to support or sign a new nuclear weapon ban treaty after it was adopted by a United Nations conference last week. The U.N. conference on July 7 adopted its final text of the legally binding global prohibition on nuclear weapons following months of negotiations, with 122 nations voting in favor, […]

The House Appropriations Committee released Wednesday its fiscal 2018 funding bill for the State Department, featuring a more modest cut than the 30 percent decrease the administration proposed in its May budget request. The bill provides $47.4 billion for the State Department in discretionary and Overseas Contingency Operations funding, a $10 billion drop from its currently […]

Members of the House of Representatives have thrown early support in the latest budget process behind sustaining funding for the MOX project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, but their colleagues in the Senate are so far silent on whether they will also again back the controversial program. The House version of the fiscal 2018 […]

A June 26 letter from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has provided new insight into safety design features for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Uranium Processing Facility. Details regarding progress of the Tennessee facility have been something of a secret since the project was significantly reconfigured in 2014 to encompass a mix of new […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy funding bill directs the National Nuclear Security Administration to address various legal and diplomatic hurdles in its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method before Congress considers funding the new approach and abandoning the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The House version of the energy and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has released a draft request for proposals for the next management and operations contract for its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, while the facility takes steps to address a recent error in shipping special nuclear material, the latest in a series of safety and security issues that have plagued […]

The White House’s pick to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration will meet next week with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who might still be pursuing other candidates for the job, sources told NS&D Monitor this week. Sources said late last month that Lisa Gordon-Hagerty is the White House’s choice to replace Obama administration holdover Frank […]

President Donald Trump has nominated Capitol Hill aide and Air Force veteran Matthew Donovan to be Air Force undersecretary. Donovan most recently was majority policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also worked for the committee’s airland and seapower subcommittees. During his 31 years in the Air Force, he led the Air Force […]

A United Nations conference today adopted its final text of a legally binding global nuclear weapons prohibition following months of negotiations on the document. One hundred and twenty-two nations voted to adopt the treaty, while the Netherlands posted the sole vote in opposition and Singapore abstained. Participants in the negotiations broke into applause after the […]

Stephen Kadenacy on June 30 formally ended his nearly two-year tenure as president and chief operating officer of global engineering firm AECOM, one of the major contractors at Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country. Kadenacy has been with AECOM for nearly a decade, starting as senior vice president for finance in 2008 and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will extend its contract with Centerra Group for protective force services at the agency’s Nevada Field Office for up to six months due to the incumbent’s bid protest over a follow-on contract the agency recently awarded to a competitor, SOC. The current security contract, awarded in December 2011 to Centerra, […]

Two aging buildings at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee are undergoing electrical modernization upgrades under the facilities’ Extended Life Program (ELP), according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA last December received an ELP implementation plan from site contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security for extending the lives of Buildings 9215 and 9204-2E, decades-old enriched uranium […]

The U.S. State Department this week released additional details about the types of ballistic missiles, launchers, and bombers being counted under the latest New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) aggregate data. The treaty requires the United States and Russia by next February to each cap its nuclear arsenal at 700 deployed ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission working group will in August provide recommendations on improving the security of industrial radiological sources, according to a new letter from NRC Chair Kristine Svinicki to Gene Dodaro, comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office. In her June 23 letter, Svinicki provided an update on NRC […]

Three of the 26 companies recognized for safety excellence in 2016 by the state of South Carolina are contractors at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The companies are: liquid waste management contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR); management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS); and security provider Centerra. The Energy Department reported June 28 that […]

As they look to reduce bilateral tensions, the United States and Russia could begin by issuing a joint presidential declaration that a nuclear war is unwinnable and must be avoided at all costs, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and onetime top officials from three nations said this week in an open letter to Presidents […]

The House of Representatives’ version of the Department of Energy funding bill for fiscal 2018 would again defy the agency’s intention to kill its Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee on Wednesday approved its $37.56 billion spending legislation, which would provide $340 million for construction of the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday issued a presolicitation notice for the next management and operations contract for its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The notice comes just days after the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency said it is investigating the improper shipment of nuclear material from the laboratory to sister sites […]

South Carolina’s governor reiterated his concerns late last week about the federal government’s continued efforts to end the Savannah River Site’s MOX project, a local elected official said Monday. The 310-square-mile Department of Energy facility is primarily housed in Aiken County, S.C., near the state’s border with Georgia. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster was in Aiken on […]