Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Contractors Battelle and Boeing have signed an agreement to bid as a team for the Sandia National Laboratories’ management and operation contract, Battelle announced Tuesday. Team members include the University of New Mexico (UNM), the Texas A&M University System, and the University of Texas System. The partnership is the first to formally announce its bid […]

A problem with a “1960s-vintage” elevator in the Beta-2 facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex spawned a series of events in late April that created an oily mess and provided yet another example of the challenges resulting from the plant’s aged infrastructure. According to a newly released report by staff of the Defense Nuclear […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has appointed Jay Tilden as associate administrator and Dave Bowman as deputy associate administrator for counterterrorism and counterproliferation, the agency announced Monday. Most recently Tilden served as acting associate administrator following Steve Aoki’s departure from the position late last year, the announcement said. He previously also worked as deputy […]

International cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation improved over the last year, largely due to the Iran nuclear deal, according to a May 17 report by the Council on Foreign Relations. The Council of Councils (CoC) Report Card on International Cooperation evaluates multilateral activities on global challenges by surveying its network of 26 foreign policy institutes worldwide. Its […]

The Energy Department will shed more light next week on the role industry is playing in crafting an updated cost and schedule estimate for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) under construction at the agency’s Savannah River Site, an agency spokesperson said Thursday. The Senate Armed Services Committee requested an update on the latest […]

The Senate confirmed Laura Holgate Thursday to be U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Vienna Office of the United Nations. President Barack Obama nominated Holgate in August, at which time National Security Advisor Susan Rice said Holgate has played a key role in strengthening the global nuclear security architecture. “Laura […]

The Department of Energy will proceed with plans to purchase Iranian heavy water, despite lingering sentiment in some quarters of Capitol Hill that it should not do so, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz assured an audience of journalists and Beltway insiders Wednesday morning. It was a course of action that — despite sometimes strenuous objection in […]

The manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants received the lowest percentage of the available award fee in the agency’s latest performance reviews of its seven site management and operations contractors. Consolidated Nuclear Security’s overall performance score (57 out of 100) and at-risk fee ($11.4 million of a maximum just […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has not yet completed its physical security infrastructure plan, despite a nearly decade-old requirement by Congress for it to do so, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released on May 13. The report said physical security infrastructure, or the protection and accounting of nuclear materials, has […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has awarded Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, the management and operations contractor at the National Security Campus near Kansas City, Mo., an overall rating of “Excellent” for its work in fiscal 2015, according to the performance evaluation report released last Friday. Honeywell FM&T received 94 percent of its award […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), the management and operations contractor for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, 89 percent of its award fee – $20.98 million of the available $23.63 million – for its performance in fiscal 2015. The contractor received an “Excellent” rating on four of […]

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions’ (SRNS) safety pause on all nonessential work last fall had “direct financial and schedule impacts on National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) programs,” the agency said last week in its fiscal 2015 performance evaluation report on the contractor. In November, the NNSA reported that it was awarding SRNS, management and operations contractor for […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has awarded National Security Technologies (NSTec), the management and operations contractor for the Nevada National Security Site, 88 percent of its award fee for fiscal 2015, or $21.84 million of the available $24.72 million. Like other NNSA site M&O contractors, NSTec was rated in six operational areas for the […]

A long-running disagreement between the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy resurfaced last week when DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery forwarded a staff issue report with a transmittal letter warning National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz of unresolved safety problems at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility.  The issues concern […]

South Carolina and the federal government continue to disagree over what constitutes a mandate and what should be considered a goal, as it pertains to the state lawsuit over a missed plutonium disposition milestone at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). In the latest document filed in U.S. District Court for […]

A federal lawsuit filed last year on behalf of retirees at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee is moving forward. In response to a motion filed by Consolidated Nuclear Security – the government’s managing contractor at Y-12 and defendant in the case — U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan refused to dismiss the lawsuit, at […]

In The NNSA: National Security Technologies (NSTec), the contractor that manages and operates the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), purchased two Sandstorm unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for a program at the facility that develops sensor technology for these systems, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada Field Office announced Wednesday. The two small- to medium-sized systems […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday released the request for proposals for the Sandia National Laboratories management and operations contract. The current contract is held by Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sandia Corp. and expires on April 30, 2017. It covers Sandia campuses in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., along with smaller operations in Hawaii, Nevada, […]

Following two days of debate and consideration of scores of amendments, the House of Representatives late Thursday voted 277-147 to approve its National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017. However, that vote count would not be sufficient to override a veto threatened by the White House over various measures in the legislation, including funding for […]

The Department of Energy is headed into overtime in preparing a plan to address emergency response vulnerabilities identified in the Pantex Plant’s ability to respond to the release of radioactive material or other crisis. In a letter to Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Joyce Connery, dated May 3 and posted later to the board’s […]

After a highly troubling performance evaluation last year, the manager of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico received significantly higher marks for its work in fiscal 2015, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration performance evaluation report released on May 13. Nonetheless, Los Alamos National Security’s (LANS) contract will expire in fiscal 2018, several years before the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration shortly before press time Friday released the latest performance evaluation reports and award fee letters for the managers of its eight nuclear security sites. With one exception, the performance periods cover fiscal 2015, from Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2015. Each contractor was rated in six performance areas, which […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 23-3 Thursday to report its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to the full chamber following the panel’s closed markup this week. A summary released Thursday notes that the $602 billion bill, which authorizes funding at the level of President Obama’s budget request, includes $543 billion for […]

Two new facilities for secure radiological material storage have been dedicated at a radioactive waste disposal institution in Tajikistan, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced Thursday. The facilities at the State Institution Radioactive Waste Disposal Site are part of a broader U.S. effort to prevent terrorists from acquiring radiological materials, the agency said. Tajikistan […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week it has migrated all up-to-date data on buildings at its eight sites to the BUILDER system, which it called a “cutting-edge infrastructure management tool” backed by the National Academy of Sciences. In total, more than 225,000 data points covering inventory and condition of NNSA real property buildings […]

President Barack Obama’s trip to Japan later this month will include a stop in the city of Hiroshima, the White House announced Tuesday. This will make him the first serving U.S. president to visit the site of the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bomb strike. Obama “will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime […]

Engineering giant AECOM’s fiscal second-quarter revenue dipped by 3 percent, from $4.51 billion in 2015 to $4.38 billion this year, according to earnings numbers released Tuesday. Earnings per share landed at $0.27, with adjusted earnings per share up by half on a year-over-year basis, from $0.58 to $0.87. Net income for the three-month period ending […]

Another issue has come under scrutiny at Stack 110, a significant emissions point in the 9212 uranium-processing complex at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. According to a March 25 report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a monitoring team with Y-12 contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security noted that enriched […]