Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

While nearly two years have passed since Consolidated Nuclear Security took over operation of the Y-12 and Pantex plants as part of an unprecedented contract that combined the management of two nuclear weapons production facilities, the National Nuclear Security Administration still hasn’t decided whether to exercise its option to make it a three-way deal. Steven […]

The Senate on Tuesday passed its fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a vote of 85-13, following an agreement on June 10 to end debate on the bill. The upper chamber left the legislation largely the same as the version passed forward by the Senate Armed Services Committee, approving a handful of amendments […]

Congress is reviewing a proposed agreement for cooperation between the United States and Norway on peaceful uses of nuclear energy that President Barack Obama approved last week in a presidential memorandum. The U.S. has signed nuclear cooperation deals – or 123 agreements – with a number of countries for technical exchanges, research, and other activities, […]

More than 120 delegations met this week at a ministerial meeting to call for global ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), a treaty that several key countries – notably the United States – have yet to ratify, even while calling for others to do so. Despite the “domestic political obstacles” hindering U.S. ratification of […]

The Department of Energy will host a public meeting June 28-30 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to discuss recommendations for improving its Human Reliability Program, according to a notice published this week in the Federal Register. The Human Reliability Program involves physical and mental suitability standards for DOE workers with access to sensitive materials, nuclear explosive […]

A U.S. District Court Judge will consider several motions issued by parties in the lawsuit over plutonium processing at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina during a June 30 hearing in Columbia, S.C. The U.S. Justice Department’s confirmation of the hearing date also signals that Judge J. Michelle Childs will likely deny or ignore the […]

General Mark Welsh, outgoing Air Force chief of staff, said Wednesday that each leg of the U.S. nuclear triad will remain critical for strategic deterrence regardless of budget pressures, and that a separate account to fund the nuclear forces modernization for all three legs is worth considering. “I’m a believer in the triad,” Welsh, who […]

Dan Parsons Defense Daily The nominee to become the next Air Force chief of staff announced imminent program milestone decisions for two of the service’s nuclear modernization programs during a confirmation before a Senate panel on Thursday. Gen. David Goldfein told the Senate Armed Service Committee (SASC) that the Air Force should reach a decision […]

Officials from the United States and Armenia on Monday conducted a review of the nations’ bilateral Joint Action Plan on Combatting Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said in a statement. The Joint Action Plan was signed in 2008 through the U.S. State Department’s Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative, which has […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security, the government’s managing contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons site in Tennessee, has apparently come up with some new fixes to help address problems with Stack 110 – a key ventilation area for the old 9212 uranium-processing complex. Earlier this year, a number of issues were identified, including an accumulation of water […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to extend for 26 months a contract to BWX Technologies’ Nuclear Operations Group to process enriched uranium scrap for the NNSA Production Office at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, according to a notice posted Wednesday. The agency determined that BWXT is the “only known non-governmental U.S. […]

The Senate at press time Friday had not voted on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2017 but voted 68-23 during its morning session to end debate on the bill. Consideration has been slowed by disagreements over amendments, over 600 of which have been filed. The $602 billion Senate bill […]

A top adviser to President Barack Obama on Monday cited a lack of Russian engagement as a major obstacle in fulfilling the administration’s nonproliferation and arms control initiatives. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said at the Arms Control Association’s annual meeting that the administration fell short of the goals outlined […]

The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday approved legislation requiring the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) to prepare documentation laying out the rationale for its research and development spending. The DHS branch is tasked with working with domestic and international partners to strengthen global capacities to detect, prevent, respond to, and identify the culprits […]

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on Tuesday dismissed GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s readiness to command the U.S. nuclear arsenal in pulling his support for the billionaire businessman. “It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week received a new license application for export of U.S. highly enriched uranium to a research reactor in Belgium. A copy of the June 3 document has been posted online. It cites the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee as the supplier of just over 134 […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hired 80 new operators in April in an effort to address workforce concerns as the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor. The operator position involves assisting in the operation of a process or equipment within a nuclear facility at SRS and can include nuclear material handling and monitoring. SRNS […]

An essential part of the scaled-down plans for the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant’s Uranium Processing Facility is to extend the life of some existing production facilities at the Tennessee complex in order to reduce the costs of new construction and keep the project’s overall price tag at or below $6.5 billion. The focus of those […]

Nuclear material from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s Fast Critical Assembly reactor has arrived to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Savannah River Site (SRS) and Y-12 National Security Complex, the NNSA announced Monday. The shipment from Japan included highly enriched uranium that was sent to Y-12 in Tennessee to be eventually converted into low-enriched […]

A draft resolution opposing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) proposal to receive U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany for processing and disposition in Environmental Management facilities at the Savannah River Site (SRS) drew several public comments of support Tuesday during a SRS Citizens Advisory Board committee meeting. The proposal from the board’s Nuclear Materials […]

A problem with the criticality alarm system at the nation’s primary storehouse for weapon-grade uranium brought a manager to the scene on a weekend in late April. The situation turned out to be concerning but not threatening. The incident was revealed in a recently released activity report by Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff assigned […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday issued a proposal to amend regulations for its Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program, which covers DOE and contractor employees who have been exposed to beryllium while working at DOE sites. Beryllium metal is used in nuclear reactors at various DOE facilities, including the Y-12 National Security Complex in […]

House Republicans on Thursday released a policy paper recommending an approach to U.S. foreign policy that prioritizes the nation’s nuclear deterrent, greater efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and a robust U.S.-NATO alliance. The policy agenda offers Congress and the president 67 recommendations developed by the Task Force on National […]

It remained unclear at press time Friday whether the Department of Energy had delivered by its Monday deadline new details about the agency’s cost and schedule estimates for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility to the Senate Armed Services Committee. In early May, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) requested more details […]

Interoperability requirements for the core of nuclear warheads under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) “3+2” modernization strategy may lead to trade-offs and complications for the U.S. nuclear stockpile, according to a report by the independent science advisory group JASON. The NNSA publicly released the executive summary of the January 2015 report this week. The […]

Despite President Barack Obama’s efforts to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. security policy, the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile reductions and warhead dismantlements have slowed under his administration, according to updated stockpile numbers declassified last week by the Department of Defense. The U.S. stockpile consisted of 4,571 active and reserve nuclear weapons at […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said last week it in May hosted at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) an on-site inspection activity for Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) inspection experts. CTBT experts from over 30 countries visited NNSS for three days to study nuclear explosive test indicators and other field experimental operations at […]