Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded $10 million in Phase II funding to SHINE Medical Technologies as part of the agency’s program to promote a domestic supply of molybdenum-99 (mo-99). The funding is part of a cooperative agreement, which involved a 50-50 cost-sharing arrangement between SHINE and DOE. The recent award […]

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, announced this week as the nominee to become energy secretary in the Donald Trump administration, would be responsible for a massive program to ensure the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, sparking debate about whether he is qualified for the role – and whether management skill and bureaucratic experience matter […]

The Energy Department is scrapping a never-used step in the Savannah River Site’s spent nuclear fuel (SNF) processing campaign following a potential inadequacy at the site’s L Area, where the fuel is stored. Maxine Maxted, the site’s program manager for SNF, addressed the issue Tuesday during a meeting of the Nuclear Materials Committee of the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is accepting bids for the new contract to provide protective force services at the agency’s Nevada National Security Site. The contract would feature a one-year base period, from June 1, 2017, to May 31, 2018, followed by four single-year option periods through the end of May 2022, says the request […]

VIENNA — Governments, industry, and international organizations should work together to boost the cyber defense capabilities at nuclear facilities worldwide, according to a report from the nongovernmental Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), released at a Wednesday side event during the International Atomic Energy Agency’s International Conference on Nuclear Security. NTI’s Outpacing Cyber Threats report says traditional cyber defense methods at […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) found deficiencies in Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) procedures to guide employees at the Pantex Plant in Texas on the proper disposal of classified information, resulting in four security incidents in recent years, according to a Nov. 30 enforcement letter to Morgan Smith, CNS president and chief executive. The […]

Vienna – The United States and Russia have not held any discussions about resuming full implementation of the bilateral plutonium elimination agreement that Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended in early October, a senior U.S. State Department official said here Wednesday. Thomas Countryman, acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said in an […]

VIENNA – A top Interpol official said Tuesday that funding for the global police organization’s CBRNE defense operations is a matter of concern given its work in building the capacity of law enforcement agencies worldwide to prevent acts of nuclear or radiological terrorism. Doug Ledingham, acting assistant director of Interpol’s CBRNE subdirectorate – which focuses on the threat […]

VIENNA – The role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the global nuclear security architecture is taking further shape as it inherits the commitments of its member states from the defunct Nuclear Security Summit process and adapts to expectations for a mission expanding beyond its traditional nuclear safeguards and security work. A series […]

With just a handful of days left until the end of the 114th Congress, a number of bills filed this year on U.S. nuclear security and nonproliferation are on the precipice of failure. Many of the bills made little progress through the legislative process – though in a couple instances this was seemingly intentional. Amid Republican […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 92-7 to approve the conference version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, sending it to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature. The compromise bill authorizes nearly $619 billion in spending through the end of the budget year on Sept. 30, the vast majority at the […]

A government shutdown loomed Friday as some Senate Democrats held hostage a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government and its Cold War nuclear cleanup work funded through late April. The House passed the so-called continuing resolution Thursday, then adjourned for the week. In the Senate, however, Democratic lawmakers led by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) […]

Slashing the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is one option to save tens of billions of dollars in the coming decade for efforts to reduce the growing federal deficit, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. The CBO’s latest analysis of deficit-cutting opportunities covers the 2017 to 2026 fiscal years and encompasses 115 options to […]

The conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017, which the House of Representatives approved Friday, strips out language from an earlier version of the bill that could have given the Energy Department a route to kill the embattled MOX project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its last budget […]

With the impending ascension of former NASA hand Rex Geveden to the top spot at BWX Technologies, the Lynchburg, Va.-company has set an outsider from the aerospace business in charge of an effort to grow the company’s legacy nuclear cleanup business with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. “We remain strongly committed to that […]

Nuclear Navy vet Don Hoffman, longtime president of Excel Services Corp., in Rockville, Md., is reportedly out of the running to head the Department of Energy’s legacy nuclear cleanup operations, and Eric Knox, a former Energy Department civil servant with ties to the Yucca Mountain, is rumored to be in consideration, sources in Washington said […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily Six senators and 33 House members have signed letters urging key congressional appropriators to pass language allowing the successor to the Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine to enter its next development phase. Navy officials have said the Ohio Replacement Program (ORP) must begin detailed design work by January to meet a requirement […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration has received the implementation plan for extending the service lives of two decades-old enriched uranium processing buildings at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, an agency spokesman said this week. The Extended Life Program implementation plan for the nuclear-weapon site’s Buildings 9215 and 9204-2E is considered a controlled […]

President Barack Obama this week nominated nuclear energy industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve a full term on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Hamilton joined the board in August 2015, replacing the late Ken Mossman. If approved by the Senate, he would serve a full term of five years. Hamilton was president of nuclear fuel […]

A recently released report from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Inspector General (IG) identifies seven significant management challenges facing the agency in fiscal 2017. They are: financial assistance and contract management; cybersecurity; environmental cleanup; nuclear waste disposal; safeguards and security; stockpile stewardship; and infrastructure modernization. All but one of these categories were previously identified […]

South Carolina wants a U.S. District Court judge to reconsider her recent opinion that she has no jurisdiction to rule on the $100 million the state is seeking in its lawsuit over disposition of DOE plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. State Attorney General Alan Wilson sued the Energy Department, Energy Secretary Ernest […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) next week hosts its International Conference on Nuclear Security: Commitments and Actions. The event will be held in cooperation with a number of international organizations including Interpol, the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs, and the nongovernmental Nuclear Threat Initiative. NS&D Monitor will be reporting on conference proceedings throughout […]

U.S. lawmakers, Obama administration officials, and international organization leaders made the case this week that the United States would reap benefits for its national security if it ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The National Nuclear Security Administration and the State Department hosted an event on Capitol Hill on scientific innovation in nuclear […]

The nearly comprehensive global moratoria on nuclear explosive testing will remain fragile in the absence of a legally binding prohibition on such activities, Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), warned this week during a trip to Washington, D.C. “If there is no entry into […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will within the next 13 days release a request for proposals for protective force services at the Nevada National Security Site, according to a special notice posted Wednesday. The sources sought solicitation said the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency is seeking a contractor for work to be performed at the […]

Pat Host Defense Daily House and Senate conferees working on the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill have not reached a deal to move forward while Republican lawmakers decided to pursue a continuing resolution (CR) instead of passing a spending bill during the lame duck session. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Ranking Member Adam Smith […]

Federal agencies including the Energy Department will remain funded at fiscal 2016 levels through at least the first two months of President-elect Donald Trump’s term, Republican congressional leaders decided this week. “To this end, my Committee will begin working immediately on a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the current rate of funding to extend the operations […]