Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The United States’ contributions to international nuclear security and verification organizations would not be reduced under the White House’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal, despite significant proposed cuts to the overall State Department budget. A State Department official said by email this week that the United States’ voluntary contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) […]

Senate lawmakers on Tuesday challenged new Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to explain the service’s secrecy regarding its B-21 nuclear bomber program. During a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said it was “difficult to understand” why the Air Force is keeping all the B-21’s capabilities classified “under the veil […]

A second failed bidder has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the new management and operations contract for the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site. Nuclear Security & Technology LLC, a partnership between Northrop Grumman Technical Services, AECOM subsidiary URS Federal Services, and CH2M Hill Constructors Inc., filed its protest […]

The United States is months ahead of schedule in meetings its obligations to cap the U.S. nuclear arsenal under the bilateral New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia, according to a top Air Force official. Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said Wednesday at a Senate Armed Services strategic forces […]

As though channeling Luis Tiant of his beloved Boston Red Sox, former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz turned away from Washington only briefly before coming back around full-tilt at the marble-pillared city he called home for more than three years as President Barack Obama’s last DOE chief. In March, just months after Donald Trump was sworn into office and […]

Following in the footsteps of his partner in crime, the second man accused of stealing more than $4 million from the federal government while conducting work for the Savannah River Site MOX project reached a plea deal Wednesday. Aaron Vennefron, the founder of Ohio-based AV Security, initially pleaded not guilty to a host of charges […]

The bidding team that lost its initial contract award for management and operation of the Nevada National Security Site has filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office. Nevada Site Science Support and Technologies Corp. (NVS3T), a partnership between Leidos, Fluor Federal Services, and consulting firm Longenecker & Associates, filed the protest on May […]

The Trump administration has proposed funding decreases in fiscal 2018 to the State Department’s arms control and nonproliferation work, as well as reductions for the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO). The White House released last week a budget proposal requesting $37.6 billion for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded SOC, LLC a contract for security protective force services at the Nevada National Security Site and the agency’s field office facilities, NNSA announced Wednesday. The contract is valued at roughly $202.9 million over 5 years, with all options, for security at the Nevada site; the Remote Sensing Laboratory […]

Thomas Zacharia will be the next director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the lab’s management and operating contractor UT-Battelle announced Thursday. Zacharia will take over on July 1, the day current lab director Thom Mason leaves to join Battelle in Columbus, Ohio, as senior vice president for laboratory operations. Zacharia began at […]

Members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees responsible for annual defense authorization have voiced opposition to the White House’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal for differing reasons, raising questions about whether Congress will be able to agree on defense spending levels past the end of this fiscal year. While committee Republicans argue that the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is seeking greater federal staffing levels in its fiscal 2018 budget request and remains concerned about recruiting talent to its sites across the United States, agency Administrator Frank Klotz said Wednesday. The request for the budget year starting Oct. 1 grants $418.6 million for NNSA’s federal salaries and expenses, which […]

Top U.S. Air Force officials are standing behind a significant increase in funding the service is proposing for its controversial Long-Range Standoff nuclear cruise missile for fiscal 2018. There seems to be “broad bipartisan support for LRSO,” Gen. Stephen Wilson, Air Force vice chief of staff, said Thursday at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies […]

The United Nations General Assembly on Monday released the first draft of a legally binding global prohibition on nuclear weapons, which details bans on the use, production, transfer, and testing of such arms. In October, 123 U.N. member states voted to begin negotiations on the treaty; 38 voted against the process, including nuclear powers France, […]

The White House has officially proposed $1 billion in additional funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration in fiscal 2018, almost all of it for the agency’s weapons activities account. The Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday released President Donald Trump’s spending request for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, which would grant the Energy […]

The Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal sustains its predecessor’s plan to terminate the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, a decision the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said is unrelated to carryover in leadership at his agency. The NNSA’s $13.9 billion budget proposal includes $1.8 billion […]

The leaders of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff have been nominated to stay in their positions, the Defense Department announced on May 19. The Pentagon said in a statement that Air Force Gen. Paul Selva has been nominated for reappointment as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman. […]

While negotiating the best path forward to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the state is also looking for resolution for the $200 million it is seeking from the federal government. Under a court order, the state and federal governments are in talks to resolve the plutonium dispute. The South Carolina […]

Savannah River Site security has been given direction to take appropriate action if a drone flying above the site presents a threat, an official at the South Carolina facility told a local advisory board on Monday. “Protocols are in place for engagement and I don’t really want to say anything else about that,” according to […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily The Air Force’s fiscal year 2018 budget request contains billions of dollars to ramp up development work on several major new aviation and missile programs, including the B-21 bomber and the Long Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO). The B-21 Raider, which will replace aging bombers, would receive $2 billion in FY 2018, up from […]

The White House is angling for a sharp $1 billion increase to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons activities budget in fiscal 2018, according to a spreadsheet that appears to show line items from the president’s full budget request to be released next week. The spreadsheet, obtained and released Thursday by the centrist Third Way […]

A change in corporate parents was enough to quickly undo the 2016 award for the management and operations contract for the Nevada National Security Site. The primary issue was the corresponding shift in past performance portfolios, an industry source told NS&D Monitor this week in the wake of the second and presumably final contract award […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission offered another positive assessment of contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services’ work in building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The regulator said in a May 10 letter to contractor President and COO David Del Vecchio that “no violations or deviations were […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily U.S. Air Force efforts to develop the new B-21 Raider bomber aircraft are proceeding as planned, according to the head of Air Force Global Strike Command. ”We’re where we said we were going to be,” said Gen. Robin Rand, whose command will eventually be charged with operating the aircraft. “I’m satisfied […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) last month began receiving liquid highly enriched uranium from Canada under a controversial program that will have the material traveling major U.S. highways on its way to South Carolina for the next few years. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in an April 21 site report […]

Top generals with the U.S. Air Force on May 12 reaffirmed their call for continued modernization and recapitalization of the country’s nuclear capabilities. “We must modernize our aging delivery platforms, nuclear weapons and supporting infrastructure so that America’s deterrent remains credible and effective in the future,” Gen. David Goldfein, the service’s chief of staff, and Gen. […]

The U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals on May 12 dismissed an appeal filed by the management and operations contractor of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site over a dispute on the allowability of certain contract costs. In 2013, a DOE contracting officer “disallowed” $1.3 million paid to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) under the […]