Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The U.S. Defense Department is intent on fixing decades of underinvestment in the nation’s nuclear deterrent, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday. The insufficient funding dates to the close of the Cold War, “when the United States believed it would be safe to allow funding for the nuclear enterprise to drop, and drop it did, […]

A federal judge on Monday would not dismiss a South Carolina lawsuit seeking redress for the Energy Department’s failure to remove plutonium from the state, but she did ask the sides whether the dispute should be moved to a different court. In declining to rule on DOE’s claim that South Carolina has no standing to sue […]

Two nuclear watchdog organizations are urging Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to order a new site-wide environmental impact statement for the Y-12 National Security Complex due to changes in a major construction project at the Tennessee nuclear weapons facility. The updated EIS is necessary after the department amended its 2011 record of decision for the new […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation that suspends the bilateral agreement under which his nation and the United States were each to dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. Putin early last month signed a decree suspending the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA), citing hostile U.S. behavior and Washington’s failure to […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) on Thursday reported lower revenue and operating income in the third quarter of 2016, decreases it attributed in part to lower revenues in shipbuilding programs and lower sales volumes in some contracts. Company revenue fell 6.5 percent, to $1.68 billion, from $1.8 billion during the same quarter last year. Quarterly diluted […]

Savannah River Site Watch got the green light from Grammy Award winner Bonnie Raitt to lobby outside of her Oct. 28 concert in North Charleston, where the group collected signatures in opposition to bringing more nuclear materials to South Carolina. “Bonnie follows these nuclear waste issues and she’s very supportive of our work,” said SRS […]

A small cadre of Energy Department Environmental Management personnel based at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Nevada Field Office may soon get their own private office space to insulate them from NNSA personnel at the former nuclear weapons-testing site, according to an internal DOE document. Weapons Complex Monitor obtained a copy of the undated, unsigned draft […]

The United Nations First Committee voted Thursday to begin negotiations next year on a nuclear weapons ban treaty, a major global push toward nuclear disarmament strongly opposed by the five nations that are simultaneously the permanent U.N. Security Council members and the recognized nuclear-weapon states. A total of 123 countries voted in favor of the […]

Russia’s Federal Assembly this week completed its approval of legislation suspending the bilateral agreement with the United States under which each country had committed to disposing of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. The upper house of the country’s legislature, the Council of the Federation, signed off on the bill Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it this week hosted international diplomats at the Nevada National Security Site and the National Atomic Testing Museum to offer demonstrations of nuclear security technologies. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency showcased its Stockpile Stewardship Program, which maintains the U.S. nuclear stockpile without nuclear explosive testing, as well […]

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 […]