Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday requested that a federal court hold off on ruling on South Carolina’s motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit over the breach of agreement for disposition of surplus defense plutonium now stored in the state. The U.S. District Court for South Carolina should first rule on the federal government’s […]

Experts, policy makers, and the international community had mixed reactions to a foreign policy speech given by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Wednesday that called for modernization of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal and a rebuilding of the U.S.-Russian relationship based on shared interests. In an address delivered in Washington, D.C., Trump called the […]

The House Armed Services Committee passed its version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the wee hours of Thursday morning by a 60-2 vote. The $610.5 billion defense spending bill would authorize $13.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and includes amendments tying funding restrictions to mandates for periodic […]

Senators left Washington for a weeklong recess Friday without passing their fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, but the chamber’s Republican leader has vowed to try again on May 9, despite no signs that the partisan strife which prevented a floor vote this week will abate. The bill was cruising toward a vote Wednesday […]

The U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program has awarded contracts to two BWX Technologies (BWXT) subsidiaries to manufacture naval nuclear reactor parts and fuel, the company announced Wednesday. The subsidiaries, Nuclear Operations Group and Nuclear Fuel Services, received the contracts with options worth a total of approximately $3.1 billion; the former is responsible for the reactor […]

National Nuclear Security Administration veteran Travis Howerton has been hired to fill a newly created role with Consolidated Nuclear Security, the government’s managing contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons sites. It appears Howerton is being given significant responsibility to make the combined management of two plants 1,000 miles apart work more smoothly and […]

The Department of Energy this week requested dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the state of South Carolina over the federal agency’s failure to meet the term of an agreement on disposition of plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site. The lawsuit stems from missed deadlines at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication […]

Lockheed Martin Corp. announced Tuesday net sales of $11.7 billion and net earnings of $794 million for the first quarter of 2016. Net sales increased from $10.1 billion in the same quarter of last year, while net earnings dropped from $878 million in that same time period. Overall, Lockheed’s first-quarter financials “exceeded all of our […]

Uncertainty about when the current management and operations contract at the Los Alamos National Laboratory will end could soon be resolved, a senior official said this week. “We are discussing with the lab exactly when we may be transitioning their contract,” Kim Davis Lebak, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration Field Office at Los […]

The Obama administration, according to multiple news reports, is buying 32 tons of heavy water from Iran as a follow-on to the historic nuclear accord negotiated last year, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory stands to play a key role in storing and selling the material and using a significant amount of it to boost […]

Some National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites – the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories, along the Nevada National Security Site – have implemented successful nuclear criticality safety programs, while others – the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex, and the Savannah River Site – need to improve their programs, according to […]

The White House on Thursday announced the nomination of nuclear policy and technology consultant Gail Marcus to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Marcus would presumably replace DNFSB Vice Chairman Jessie Hill Roberson, who has been nominated to fill a vacancy on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Senate has yet to take action on Roberson’s […]

The $37.4 billion House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for fiscal 2017 prohibits the use of funds allocated for the Mixed-Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility to place the plant in “cold standby,” a clear departure from the Obama administration’s proposal to terminate the project. The spending legislation in total grants the Department of Energy […]

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee is proposing a requirement for the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility continue unless the secretary of energy reports to Congress on activities meant to address major points of contention on the project. The subcommittee on Thursday […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday erased the $16.5 million sought for Savannah River Site infrastructure upgrades that was included in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget request. The committee approved the bill after the Senate Appropriations Committee last week approved its version of the energy and water spending bill, which sustained SRS infrastructure funding […]

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee on Thursday passed its mark for the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to the full committee with several amendments calling for reports related to comparative U.S. and Russian military capabilities to be submitted to Congress. The mark would also require construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) […]

Another senior official has departed the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as of this week. John Tapia, LANL’s acquisition service management deputy division leader, according to his LinkedIn profile, managed a staff of 150 people with an annual operating budget of $16 million. He is no longer employed by the laboratory after a […]

Valerie Insinna Defense Daily The Air Force will issue a request for proposals (RFP) in a matter of weeks for its next-generation ICBM, known as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), the Pentagon’s acquisition chief said Wednesday. “We are on track,” Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, told lawmakers during a […]

As expected, South Carolina has denied a rural economic group’s request to intervene in the state’s lawsuit against the Department of Energy. The federal agency has failed to pay the state $100 million for a missed milestone at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). The Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance, which […]

BWXT Technologies said Thursday a subsidiary company has received a $241.5 million contract from the National Nuclear Security Administration to downblend 10.4 metric tons of highly enriched uranium to a proliferation-resistant low-enriched form available for use as commercial nuclear reactor fuel. The Nuclear Fuel Services contract is due to last through early 2019, according to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week there was “no measurable exposure” to workers from a large piece of radioactive metal discovered last month during site preparation for the Uranium Processing Facility. There have been varying reports about what was uncovered at the UPF site, although occurrence reports submitted by Y-12 contractor Consolidated Nuclear […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed that it is looking at ways to carry out repairs at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Building 9204-2, also known as Beta-2, which houses the Tennessee site’s nuclear weapons operations with lithium. But there’s still plenty of mystery about the plans for work in the crowded production complex inside […]

Honeywell’s first-quarter 2016 sales totaled $9.5 billion, while its year-over-year earnings per share rose by 9 percent, the company announced Friday. Core organic sales grew 1 percent, and the company raised its earnings per share guidance for the year by 7-10 percent, to $6.55-$6.70. A Honeywell subsidiary, Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, is the managing […]

Senate appropriators on Thursday passed their fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, including funding for the controversial mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. But they have asked the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing about the MOX approach that President Barack Obama nixed in his latest […]

The Senate and House fiscal 2017 energy and water appropriations bills meet President Barack Obama’s budget request to fund the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at $12.9 billion, agreeing on most major funding items with the exception of the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel facility construction project. The House and Senate subcommittees moved their bills to full […]

A onetime employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy on Monday received an 18-month prison sentence for an attempted 2015 “spear-phishing” strike against DOE email accounts located at several National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites, the Department of Justice said. The sentence came just over two months after Charles Harvey Eccleston, 62, pleaded guilty […]

According to occurrence reports filed by Y-12 National Security Complex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security in the last couple years, there have been more than 50 “events” in which radioactive debris has been uncovered during site-preparation activities for the multibillion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility. The radioactive discoveries are considered to be legacies of earlier operations at the […]