Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Two letters sent this week to President Obama and national leaders attending the Nuclear Security Summit underscore the importance of concerted efforts to secure nuclear materials and offer technical areas of opportunity for continued progress following the end of the summit process. In a March 28 letter, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ed […]

Members of the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) said they walked away with more questions than answers Tuesday following a presentation on the downblending method of plutonium disposition. Instead of using the incomplete SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) to convert 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium to nuclear fuel, the Obama […]

Valerie Insinna Defense Daily 4/1/2016 The Navy has named General Dynamics Electric Boat the prime contractor for the Ohio replacement submarine, while Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding will take a secondary role in designing and constructing the new boomers, according to a new strategy released this week. Design and construction work will be split 80-20 between Electric Boat and […]

Global nuclear industry leaders pledged this week to improve nuclear security practices, enhance security culture within the industry, and improve their defenses against cyberattacks to fulfill their role in the global nuclear security architecture. Industry leaders presented Wednesday a joint statement of their commitments to the national leaders participating in the Nuclear Security Summit this […]

Senior U.S. State Department officials said this week that despite Russia’s withdrawal from the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit and political challenges that have prevented the current administration from developing a strategic partnership with the country, a return to negotiations is inevitable and joint nonproliferation work continues. Frank Rose, assistant secretary of state for arms control, […]

About 60 workers, over the past two months, have been laid off at the incomplete Savannah River Site Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in order to keep construction on track, a spokesperson for plant contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services said Thursday. The layoffs are a result of severe restrictions on MOX project dollars, mainly because […]

U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) sent a letter Thursday to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez urging him to postpone the implementation of more than 70 proposed rule changes to the government’s compensation program for sick nuclear workers. The senators said some of the changes to the Energy Employees Occupational Illness and Compensation […]

The White House on Thursday released a specific accounting of U.S. highly enriched uranium holdings as of Sept. 30, 2013. This was the first such release in 15 years, according to a fact sheet issued on the first day of the Obama administration’s fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit. The possibility that terrorists might access […]

The White House on Thursday forcefully dismissed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s suggestion that it might be better to have Japan and South Korea develop nuclear weapons than to continue covering them under the U.S. military umbrella. The “entire premise of American foreign policy, as it relates to nuclear weapons for the last 70 years, […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration and the Euratom Supply Agency on Friday jointly announced to swap nuclear material between the United States and Euratom member states. The deal, announced at the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit, is based on a memorandum of understanding signed in 2014 between the two agencies for highly enriched […]

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz this week to stop shipments of Japanese weapon-usable plutonium, believed to already be en route, from coming to the Savannah River Site. Haley made her demand following news reports that 331 kilograms of plutonium were being loaded onto two British ships in Japan, will travel […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has withdrawn a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on behalf of the Belgian Nuclear Research Center (SCK-CEN) for the export of 134.2 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, contained in 144 kilograms of uranium, according to correspondence shared with NS&D Monitor between the NRC and the […]

Dimitri Kusnezov, chief scientist of the National Nuclear Security Administration, fully subscribes to his agency’s commitment “to maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing,” but he also describes a more nuanced view of the contingent future of nuclear testing in a world that is always changing. “What does it take to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking feedback on draft solicitation documents from potential bidders for the Sandia National Laboratories’ (SNL) management and operations contract, according to a special notice posted Monday. The NNSA is particularly interested in input from small businesses and small business sub-categories, including woman-owned and veteran-owned firms, that may be […]

The United States is suing the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), and Fluor Federal Services, a parent company to the contractor, for allegedly committing fraud by claiming more than $5 million in “unallowable costs” dating to 2008 when SRNS took over the contract. The U.S. is listed as […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, the nation’s designated Uranium Center of Excellence and primary home for bomb-grade uranium, has once again loaded too much U-235 into a shipment. The newly revealed incident took place in-house at the Oak Ridge facility and involved a sample taken from an operation in the 9212 uranium-processing complex […]

In response to questions about use of an old reactor facility on the federal government’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, the Department of Energy confirmed that classified activities associated with nonproliferation have been taking place at the ridge-top site. Claire Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the DOE site office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said, “the […]

The United States and the regulatory China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) have commissioned a new nuclear security Center of Excellence (COE) in China, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week. Officials from the DOE, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and Department of Defense worked with the CAEA to open the center, which is […]

Restoring the U.S.-Russian nonproliferation relationship and sustaining U.S. nuclear security spending levels will be key in addressing security vulnerabilities that could open the door to acts of nuclear terrorism, according to a new report from Harvard University. The report from the university’s Project on Managing the Atom said that despite nuclear security improvements in recent […]

Three unarmed Trident II (D5) submarine-launched ballistic missiles were launched last week as part of a Follow-on Commander’s Evaluation Test (FCET), following two intercontinental ballistic missile launches last month and an air-launched cruise missile nuclear weapon system evaluation program test, the U.S. Strategic Command announced Monday. “These six nominal launches, all within the past 30 […]

Federal agents assigned to transport nuclear weapons, material, and components for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Secure Transportation (OST) are not given a time frame for adjudication of their status when temporarily removed from Human Reliability Program (HRP) responsibilities, the Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General’s Office (IG) found in a report […]

Governments and the nuclear industry worldwide should develop better systems to secure radiological sources and replace the use of certain isotopes with less dangerous alternatives, according to a new report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). Radiological sources such as cesium-137 and cobalt-60, used in hospitals, industry, and research centers, remain vulnerable and at risk […]

Tennessee is the first state to pass the $2 billion milestone for money and medical care received from the Energy Employees Occupational Illness and Compensation Program. According to the latest figures released March 20, Tennessee residents had received $2,097,435,233 in total compensation and medical bills paid. Most of the Tennessee claimants were former workers – […]

A study prepared for the CB&I AREVA MOX Services Board of Governors states that switching from the MOX method of plutonium disposition to a downblending approach could result in a nuclear chain reaction. But the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said a criticality incident cannot result from storing downblended plutonium, and that the study isn’t […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is finalizing a record of decision announcing its intent to prepare 6 metric tons of excess plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, agency chief Frank Klotz said this week. Downblending and shipments of large […]

It’s not clear when, or if, the National Nuclear Security Administration intends to release the fiscal 2015 performance evaluation reports for its contractors. Posting of the reports is already overdue and the NNSA has given mixed signals about its plans. Outside of targeted audits and investigations by the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General […]

Valerie Insinna Defense Daily 03/18/2016 If the Navy is permitted to fund its ballistic missile submarine through a special fund, lawmakers should consider a similar mechanism for modernizing the Air Force’s legs of the nuclear triad, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Wednesday. Over the next decade, the Navy and Air Force are slated […]

Enduring problems with hazard analysis and control at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites require better contractor and federal oversight to improve workforce compliance with procedures, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) determined in a new review of work planning and control at six DOE sites. Of those, EA reviewed operations […]