Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch has been chosen as the second recipient of the John S. Foster Jr. Medal, established last year by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The award honors “innovative and inspirational leadership in providing a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent to ensure international peace and strategic stability,” the lab said […]

Indonesia recently converted its remaining holdings of highly enriched uranium (HEU) into a low-enriched form, becoming the final nation in Southeast Asia to divest itself of the weapon-grade material, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday. The NNSA said it worked with the Indonesian Nuclear Industry LLC, National Nuclear Energy Agency, and the Nuclear Energy Regulatory […]

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is continuing testing of smartphone-sized nuclear material detectors with an eye toward deployment in 2018. The agency’s 2-year-old SIGMA program aims to develop more effective, less expensive devices for detecting even minute amounts of nuclear and radiological materials that might be used in a terrorist attack against the […]

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said Monday he expects Congress to restore funding for the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) when lawmakers return to Washington next week. Members of the House and Senate entered into conference committee in July to hash out details of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA); Wilson, one of the conferees, […]

A senior U.S. State Department official on Monday touted the benefits of President Barack Obama’s plan for a U.N. Security Council resolution against nuclear testing. With the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty still not entered into force, “we call on all states to maintain the moratoria on nuclear explosive tests. Sustaining these moratoria is in […]

The U.S. Air Force said Thursday that its Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) procurement has entered the technology maturation and risk reduction phase following the Aug. 23 approval of the program’s Milestone A. “The milestone approval was granted following a determination by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics that the Air Force’s […]

Less than a week after the award was announced, the National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday canceled the new contract for management and operation of the Nevada National Security Site. That puts the multibillion-dollar deal back in play, though only for the companies that submitted bids in the first go-around; new parties are not being […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Friday it has awarded the contract for management and operation of the Nevada National Security Site to Nevada Site Science Support and Technologies Corp. (NVS3T). NVS3T is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Integrated Technology, and will be supported in the contract by Fluor Federal Services and […]

Local and federal officials were on hand Thursday at the official groundbreaking of the Construction Support Building for the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) project at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. The three-story building will be the project’s first permanent structure and will provide office space, a warehouse, and craft break areas to house […]

Several projects from National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratories have been chosen as finalists for R&D Magazine’s 2016 R&D 100 Awards, which recognize 100 innovative technologies throughout the past year. Some of these projects feature applications for the NNSA’s stockpile stewardship operations, which are intended to ensure the continued operational viability of a safe, secure, […]

There has been no lack of debate over whether the United States should change its policy allowing for first use of nuclear weapons during a conflict in the wake of fresh reports that President Barack Obama is considering doing just that in the waning months of his administration. The question now is whether the chatter will […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) B61-12 life-extension program management faces some issues with scheduling, risk mitigation, quality assurance, and reserve funding, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office (IG) found in a report released Tuesday. The report offered a number of recommendations to address the issues; the NNSA said some have already been resolved, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Major Modernization Programs will extend for six months its contract with TechSource Inc. for technical support services, according to a notice posted Wednesday. TechSource received its current task order in August 2013 with an August 2016 expiration date and a ceiling of $3.58 million. The company’s work under […]

Members of the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board are worried about recent drone sightings over the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina because no one knows who’s flying them or why. As of Thursday, site employees have documented 12 drone sightings above SRS, though the number of drones involved is unclear. The sightings […]

The United Nations’ Open-Ended Working Group on multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations last week adopted a recommendation to begin negotiations in 2017 on a legally binding instrument banning nuclear weapons, an effort the United States continues to oppose. The working group, a forum for cooperative action and supplement to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, adopted with […]

Congress was out and Washington was empty, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during our annual August publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following. GAO Challenges NNSA’s Plutonium Pit Production Plans The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) may have overstated the cost […]

GemTech Nuclear Security Solutions said last week it has won a new professional and technical services contract with Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the management and operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. The company, a joint venture of small businesses GEM Technologies, CS […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has implemented new criticality safety controls at its Plutonium Facility (PF-4) after completing a causal analysis on a nuclear material movement error last month, according to lab spokesman Kevin Roark. A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) site representative report for the week ending July 8 found that workers […]

A new research capability funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is being dedicated this week by the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Washington State University, NNSA announced Thursday. This new Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) is intended to support NNSA’s stockpile stewardship mission in addition to the Department of Defense’s national security […]

Allowing new exports of U.S. highly enriched uranium to Belgium would pose a significant security threat and violate both the letter of the law and the spirit of global efforts to wean nuclear facilities off the weapon-usable material, a University of Texas professor said Thursday in a petition against a license application before the Nuclear […]

Several major defense contractors have confirmed their intention to bid on the requests for proposals the U.S. Air Force released on July 29 for technology maturation and risk reduction operations for the Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) and Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) missile programs, part of the United States’ plan to modernize each leg of the nuclear […]

Having never persuaded Republicans that ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty would be a good idea, President Barack Obama intends to press for a U.N. Security Council resolution urging the permanent global halt to explosive nuclear weapons testing, according to news reports this week. The Washington Post reported Thursday that Obama would seek the […]

Top Air Force officials have in recent days defended current U.S. nuclear posture that avoids officially declaring no-first-use of nuclear weapons, despite calls from lawmakers to President Barack Obama to adopt such a policy during his remaining time in office. Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein, Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear […]

A new thermal neutron source at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in South Carolina began operations at the end of June in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium mission, the lab announced last week. The neutron source, which cost $3.1 million to design and install, was built by Adelphi Technologies and is […]

Like Congress, the ExchangeMonitor is going on recess in August, and Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published during the second and third weeks of the month. We’ll still be in the office, so keep the news tips coming, and look for the next weekly newsletter in your inbox on Friday, Aug. 26.

National Security Technologies (NSTec) is seeking information on the design and suppliers of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). NSTec, the management and operations contractor at the Nevada National Security Site, is particularly interested in heavy-lift fixed-winged vertical operating drone platforms, according to a request for information posted Monday. The contractor is seeking drone designs that meet technical […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it has officially OK’d the production engineering phase of the B61-12 warhead life-extension program, marking the program’s entry into the final phase of development before production. This milestone follows four years of work in the development-engineering phase, the NNSA said, noting that the first production unit is […]