Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Pat Host Defense Daily In its unsuccessful bid protest of the Air Force’s B-21 award to Northrop Grumman, Boeing argued the service failed to give proper effect to the solicitation’s technical acceptability, according to a redacted bid protest decision released Tuesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in February denied Boeing’s argument to the solicitation’s technical […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily The Pentagon plans to conduct a high-level review of the Navy’s Ohio-class replacement submarine program in early November, a key service official said Oct. 26. The Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting, overseen by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is expected to scrutinize the program’s progress, formally green-light the effort and […]

Uncertainty and stress may be on the horizon for the Savannah River Site (SRS) workforce if Congress does not provide adequate and timely funding for operations at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina, SRS stakeholders said earlier this week. Congress on Sept. 29 passed a stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) should develop an early warning capability to address dropping quantities of unobligated low-enriched uranium (LEU), a trend that could jeopardize U.S. compliance with international nuclear cooperation agreements, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released Monday. The United States’ nuclear cooperation agreements with other countries feature peaceful use […]

Lockheed Martin Corp. on Tuesday announced net sales of $11.6 billion and net earnings of $1.1 billion for the third quarter of 2016. Net sales increased from $10.1 billion and net earnings from $756 million over the same quarter of 2015. Earnings per share spiked from $2.42 in third-quarter 2015 to $3.61 in the corresponding […]

The Energy Department said Thursday it has marked a major milestone on cleanup of the Double Tracks plutonium dispersal site in Nevada, which after 20 years the agency has cleaned up to U.S. Air Force standards. Double Tracks, located north of DOE’s Nevada National Security Site on the Nevada Test and Training Range, was one […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb life-extension program will cost an estimated $8.25 billion, according to an update issued recently upon the completion of the program’s development engineering phase. The NNSA and the U.S. Air Force in 2010 initiated the program to consolidate four versions of the B61 nuclear bomb into […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this month issued a license for export of weapon-grade uranium to France to refuel a research reactor. The agency is considering several similar license applications from the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Each draws scrutiny from nongovernmental nonproliferation advocates who fear terrorists could obtain the highly enriched […]

Honeywell on Friday reported third-quarter 2016 sales of $9.8 billion, a 2 percent increase from the same quarter last year, and earnings per share of $1.60, up 4 percent year over year. The company raised its earnings per share guidance for the fourth quarter of 2016 by 10-13 percent, to $1.74-$1.78. Earnings per share guidance […]

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, in the last of three debates, on Wednesday repeated their arguments over the nuclear weapon-related dangers of their opponent’s potential presidency, touching on the strategic stability between the United States and Russia. Commenting on the two nations’ strained relationship, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking to establish a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for technical, engineering, and programmatic services across its mission offices, according to a presolicitation notice posted on Oct. 14. Through the blanket purchase agreement, a simplified mechanism for repetitive purchasing, the chosen contractors will provide programmatic support for areas including […]

Northrop Grumman and Boeing are teaming up with “industry partners” on their Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) contract bids, but neither is naming the companies involved. Last week Northrop, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin confirmed their bids for the technology maturation and risk reduction phase of the GBSD contract competition; Lockheed then identified the team of contractors […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said last weekend that efforts are underway to address concerns over lax security measures for some of its radioactive source licensees. In an Oct. 2 letter to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for the regulator to suspend its approval of Category 3 radioactive material licenses in […]

Two senior members of the House of Representatives this week said Russia is in “material breach” of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and that the Obama administration has failed to respond with sufficient strength to the threat. “It has become apparent to us that the situation regarding Russia’s violation has worsened and Russia is […]

The Russian State Duma on Wednesday passed legislation suspending the bilateral agreement with the United States through which each country committed to disposing of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree early this month officially halting his nation’s participation in the deal. Putin signed a decree on Oct. 3 […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Plutonium Facility (PF-4) has returned to full operations following a years-long pause in the facility’s fissile material operations, the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week. Fissile material operations at the nation’s only fully capable plutonium research and processing facility were suspended in June 2013 because of criticality safety […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has concluded that the contractor for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility project in South Carolina committed two violations involving structural welding. A Sept. 28 letter from the NRC to CB&I AREVA MOX Services said the base civil penalty of $35,000 would be waived “to encourage prompt and comprehensive […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday detonated a conventional explosive underground at the Nevada National Security Site, the sixth in a set of experiments meant to enhance U.S. abilities to monitor low-yield nuclear testing and detect underground explosions. The activity, part of the agency’s Source Physics Experiment research, involved the detonation of chemical […]

Lockheed Martin delivered Tuesday its proposal for the technology maturation and risk reduction phase of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) contract competition, and on Thursday identified the team of contractors that will offer technical support if Lockheed wins the award. The team encompasses General Dynamics for support on weapon system command and control; Draper Laboratory […]

Members of Congress have again called on President Barack Obama to adopt a policy of nuclear no-first-use despite the administration’s indication that it will not make such a change during the remainder of the president’s term. The Oct. 13 letter to Obama, signed by 22 members of Congress – including Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Keith Ellison […]

A recent audit found that the Department of Energy has not developed a long-term strategy for operating the Savannah River Site’s H Canyon – a nuclear materials processing facility that is scheduled to remain open through 2024. The audit, conducted by the DOE Inspector General’s Office, was released on Sept. 26, and also says H Canyon […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office (NPO) has signed off on a safety plan for extending the service lives of two key facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. Next up is completion of an Extended Life Program implementation plan for Buildings 9204-2E and 9215 by Nov. 1 of this year, according […]

President Barack Obama announced Thursday his intent to appoint L. Wayne Brasure as director for domestic nuclear detection at the Department of Homeland Security. Brasure has been the deputy director of DHS’ Domestic Nuclear Detection Office since 2014, while also serving as acting director of the office since May 2016, the announcement said. Brasure’s previous […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration and Air Force Global Strike Command earlier this month conducted two joint flight tests of mock B61-7 and B61-11 nuclear gravity bombs. Two B-2A Spirit stealth bombers dropped the joint test assemblies over the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada in the successful test, the NNSA said in a press release. […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s signing Monday of a decree halting his nation’s participation in a bilateral agreement with the United States through which each country would dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium may represent the highest-profile casualty of the U.S. domestic battle over a costly facility under construction in South Carolina. The Kremlin […]

The Russian government on Wednesday suspended agreements for cooperation with the United States on nuclear- and energy-related scientific research and development and the conversion of Russian research reactors from highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium fuel. The move follows the Kremlin’s withdrawal from a bilateral plutonium disposition agreement earlier this week. The R&D agreement, signed in September […]

The United States and Russia largely continue to reduce their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons in line with the mandates of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), with the exception of an increase in Russia’s deployed strategic warheads, according to the latest aggregate data released over the weekend on treaty activity. The bilateral […]