Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

NS&D Monitor 2/5/2016  IN THE INDUSTRY National Security Technologies (NSTec), the managing contractor for the Nevada National Security Site, said this week that acting President James Holt would take the position on a permanent basis. Holt has been acting president since November 2015 and previously served in various positions within the company, including as vice […]

NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 IN THE INDUSTRY   Chris Gentile, president of the Honeywell subsidiary that manages and operates the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Security Campus at Kansas City, Mo., will retire on March 18, the site announced this week. As part of his 26-year career at the company, Gentile served as head of Honeywell […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Emergency Operations revamped the agency’s mobile Emergency Communications Network (ECN) systems last year. The size of the ECN systems was cut by about 88 percent and the cost was cut by 60 percent, while communications pathways were increased by 300 percent, the […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The private sector should do more to promote nuclear security by developing voluntary consensus standards to reduce the risk of terrorism and cyberattacks against nuclear power plant facilities, according to a report released Thursday by the Stimson Center. The report said existing international oversight mechanisms cannot adequately protect nuclear facilities […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 Members of an advisory board to the Savannah River Site this week shared their concerns on the site possibly receiving 1 million graphite spheres containing highly enriched uranium from German research reactors. The SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) received an update Tuesday on the potential transfer of the material that […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is preparing to take legal action against the Department of Energy for unkept multimillion-dollar promises made to the state for disposal of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium now stored at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Under a 2003 agreement with the state, DOE was supposed to […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., for a violation involving the improper export of uranium to Jamaica as part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation program. According to the notice of violation, the shipment of low-enriched uranium to Jamaica last […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The United States’ nuclear posture should be updated to reflect the increased danger posed by Russian nuclear weapons threats and modernization, according to a panel of experts that testified Wednesday before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. Keith Payne, president and co-founder of the National Institute for Public Policy, […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The United Nations’ Conference on Disarmament held its first public plenary of the 2016 session this week in Geneva, Switzerland. Kim Won-soo, acting U.N. high representative for disarmament affairs, read a declaration emphasizing the urgency of reducing nuclear stockpiles from the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the year’s opening […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ symbolic Doomsday Clock remains set at three minutes to midnight, representing a lack of progress in preventing global annihilation, the publication’s Science and Security Board announced Tuesday. The clock envisions an apocalyptic scenario as midnight, and since 1947 its minute hand has been adjusted […]

Valerie Insinna Defense Daily 01/29/2016 The head of U.S. Strategic Command last Friday tried to strike a balance between advocacy for the modernization of the United States’ nuclear triad and downplaying the nation’s diminished relationship with Russia. Foreign nations, such as Russia, China and North Korea, are putting a high priority on developing advanced nuclear […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The National Nuclear Security Administration said it is working to address Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board questions and concerns about the Electrorefining Project that is supposed to replace some existing uranium recovery processes at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. However, the Jan. 7 response from NNSA Administrator Frank G. Klotz […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/29/2016 The Sandia National Laboratories increased its year-over-year total spending in fiscal 2015 by about $21 million and its spending on New Mexico businesses by over $19 million, according to an economic impact report released last week. The Department of Energy facility spent approximately $983 million in total on goods and […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 A draft environmental assessment (EA) from the Department of Energy finds minimal risk in a possible, heatedly contested plan for the Savannah River Site to receive and process highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany. The Department of Energy reported Friday that completion of the draft EA does not constitute a decision […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 Congressional advocates of the nation’s MOX program this week denounced one of the alternatives to the project because it includes the use of a facility that has been shut down since 2014 due to safety incidents. On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson (R–S.C.) and Rick Allen (R–Ga.) toured the Mixed […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employee Anthony Rivera on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking $5 million in damages for alleged wrongful termination. Rivera is suing LLNL managing contractor Lawrence Livermore National Security “for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy,” against Department of Energy (DOE) […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 A developer of small modular reactor technology announced this week that its reactors could feasibly be powered by mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. NuScale Power said a study commissioned by the U.K. National Nuclear Laboratory concluded that the company’s small modular reactor technology can effectively be used for plutonium disposition “with minimal […]

Chris Schneidmiller NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday will update the minute hand of its famous Doomsday Clock, alerting the world to a greater, easing, or possibly unchanged threat of global annihilation. Last January, the clock was moved from five minutes to midnight to three minutes, which the Bulletin linked […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 Nuclear weapons play a minimal role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) states’ perceptions on deterring and responding to Russian actions, according to a new report by the nongovernmental James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). Researchers surveyed governmental and nongovernmental perspectives in NATO front-line states – the Czech […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 A huge problem at the Y-12 National Security Complex and other facilities at Oak Ridge, Tenn., has been the deteriorating infrastructure, much of which dates back to the World War II Manhattan Project, and the harsh weather of winter has not been friendly to these old facilities in recent years. […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 Assistant Secretary of State Frank Rose on Tuesday commemorated the re-establishment of a secure communications link between the United States and Ukraine. The Nuclear Risk Reduction Center (NRRC) government-to-government connection is intended to support “certain notification requirements of arms control and confidence building agreements and commitments,” the State Department said.  Originally […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/22/2016 The United States and Japan continue to work together in the areas of nonproliferation, deterrence, and disarmament, U.S. and Japanese officials said last Thursday at the Center for American Progress. Jon Wolfsthal, the National Security Council’s senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, said the U.S.-Japan partnership to counter weapons […]

Y-12 UPF Gets Permanent Federal Project Chief Dale Christenson, who has served as federal project director of the Y-12 site’s Uranium Processing Facility since last spring when John Eschenberg stepped down, has been named to the top position on a permanent basis following a months-long search. Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security […]

IN THE DOE The Department of Energy’s Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS) has been designated a collaborating center for radiological assistance by the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization. REACTS first received the designation in 1980, according to information provided by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the managing contractor. REAC/TS is set up […]

Livermore Scientists Develop Method to Analyze Nuclear Material Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new mathematical method to evaluate nuclear material by analyzing fission chains, the lab announced late last month. Mathematical tools help reveal the “mass and geometric properties” of unknown material by exploiting the neutron and gamma ray […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 Department of Energy (DOE) sites demonstrated effective security performance overall in fiscal 2015 but should improve emergency management systems, contractor oversight, corrective action management, and other issues, according to the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments’ (EA) fiscal 2015 Independent Oversight Activities Overview report to Congress released on Jan. 8. In […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 The state of design competition at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) national security laboratories is not adequate to maintain design and production skills within the nuclear enterprise, according to the co-chairs of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee created by the request of Congress to study […]