Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has for a second time awarded the management and operations contract for its Nevada National Security Site – this time to Mission Support and Test Services LLC (MSTS), a partnership of Honeywell International, Jacobs Engineering Group, and Stoller Newport News Nuclear. The contract, valued at $5 billion over 10 years […]

The possibility that U.S. nuclear waste could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb” if not interred at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is not a compelling argument in favor of the always controversial project, experts said after a lawmaker from Texas cited the threat. Republican Rep. Pete Olson late last month at a House Energy […]

The Pentagon said Wednesday that Elbridge Colby has been appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development. Colby has been working as a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan think tank focusing on U.S. national security policy. Colby’s role in the Senior Executive Service will involve advising […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily The Senate late May 8 confirmed former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) to be the 24th secretary of the Air Force. Wilson, who was approved by a 76-22 vote, is President Trump’s first service secretary nominee to be confirmed. She is expected to be sworn in “within a week,” according to the […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has implemented a new initiative aimed at streamlining spent fuel operations and cutting costs in the process. Workers with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the site’s management and operations provider, are making better use of the transfer bay in L Area, according to the latest edition of […]

The Department of Energy is months late in providing Congress with a mandatory annual report on the MOX program at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to documents released Thursday. SRS Watch, a local nuclear watchdog, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request on March 15 asking DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to provide […]

The U.S. intelligence community has identified Russia as a threat to the U.S. nuclear weapons program due to its violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, intelligence leaders said Thursday on Capitol Hill. Russia was a recurring topic during a Senate intelligence committee hearing on worldwide threats and in the written statement of Daniel […]

The nuclear energy industry and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to press for a new U.S. domestic uranium enrichment capability, though not necessarily for the same reasons. At a May 3 public witness hearing before the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) asked Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the […]

New leadership is wrapping up its first week on the job at the Sandia National Laboratories, following a transition that removed former contractor Lockheed Martin from its management position. The National Nuclear Security Administration last December awarded the management and operations contract to National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, a subsidiary of Honeywell International. The deal […]

A key project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site that supplies tritium for nuclear weapons is up and running for the first time since 2015. The Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) removes the material from tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) that have been irradiated in commercial light-water reactors by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The […]

The sponsors of nuclear no-first-use legislation accepted Wednesday on Capitol Hill roughly 500,000 signatures collected by nongovernmental and anti-nuclear advocacy groups in support of the bill. Just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) introduced in their respective chambers of Congress the Restricting First Use of Nuclear […]

The United States must increase its share of the global market for nuclear energy technologies if it wants to ensure that customer nations are securing sensitive materials and systems against potential acquisition by terrorists, the head of the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm and a prominent nonproliferation advocate said Tuesday. Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily The Senate plans to vote May 8 on the nomination of former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) to be Air Force secretary, according to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). A hold that an unnamed senator had placed on the nomination over a “local issue” has been lifted, McCain told Defense Daily May 4. McCain said […]

The first Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference is currently meeting in Vienna, Austria. The first session of the committee, led by Ambassador Henk Cor Van der Kwast of the Netherlands, will meet until May 12; two more sessions will be convened after that, before the 2020 conference, to address […]

Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday reported revenue of $1.72 billion in the first quarter of 2017, a 2.2 percent decrease from the same period last year, and operating income of $164 million, down from $198 million year over year. Diluted earnings per share dropped from $2.87 in 2016 to $2.56 in the latest quarter. […]

BWX Technologies on Monday reported $428.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2017, up by 17 percent from $364.8 million in the same quarter last year, and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) operating income of $83.2 million, spiking 95 percent year over year from $42.6 million. Earnings per share were reported at $0.55 in […]

The fiscal 2017 omnibus spending bill approved by both chambers of Congress provides $12.9 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, an increase of $142 million from the fiscal 2016 level and $63 million more than former President Barack Obama’s request for the current budget year. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into […]

President Donald Trump is expected today to sign into law an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2017 that largely maintains funding for construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina while leaving room to study former President Barack Obama’s proposed alternative method of plutonium disposition. This means questions about the future of […]

Editor’s note: This is the final in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and the U.S. nuclear deterrent during the new administration’s crucial first days. The Donald Trump administration continues to shape its nuclear arms policy even as it very slowly advances its efforts […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has made progress in its governance of the U.S. nuclear security enterprise but will need to take more concrete steps to improve the federal-contractor relationship and reduce bureaucratic burdens, according to a new congressionally mandated report. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Academy of Public […]