Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 Russia will not participate in the upcoming and final Nuclear Security Summit due to the event’s “drastically altered” concept of international nuclear security cooperation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this week. The summit, to be held in Washington, D.C., on March 31, will bring together international partners to discuss […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 Global progress on nuclear security has slowed in recent years, according to a new report that assesses the status of nuclear material security worldwide and the threat of nuclear terrorism. The Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative’s (NTI) 2016 Nuclear Security Index found highly enriched uranium and plutonium security measures have not […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 Jim Haynes, the president and CEO of Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), is leaving his position to return to Bechtel, CNS announced yesterday. Haynes will head the corporate human relations team for Bechtel Corp., Bechtel National’s parent company that employs 58,000 people in 38 countries. Morgan Smith, chief operating officer of […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 Congress may soon have to decide if it will appropriate money to enable the Department of Energy to pay a multi-million dollar fine to the state of South Carolina for missing a key deadline at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). The facility, which would convert […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 The United States and Jordan signed an agreement Monday to work together to combat nuclear terrorism, the State Department announced. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh signed the Joint Action Plan “to improve efforts against nuclear and radiological smuggling,” the State Department […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/15/2015 The Alliance of Nuclear Worker Advocacy Groups is urging U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to extend the comment period on proposed rules changes for the government’s compensation program for sick nuclear weapons workers. The comment period is scheduled to end Jan. 19, but worker advocates are upset because the Labor […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/15/2015 The managers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory lost their $2 billion a year contact by the narrowest of margins, leaving $20 billion or so on the table. First came the news on Dec. 17 that the management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory would expire at the end […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) expressed concern over the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) progress in improving its emergency preparedness and response programs in a Jan. 7 letter from DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery to the Department of Energy (DOE). Connery said the DNFSB is “concerned with the pace […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016  Some of the World War II-era facilities at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., are on the verge of falling down, but the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office (NPO) – which oversees Y-12 and its sister plant, Pantex – doesn’t have a structural engineer on its […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/15/2016 A former counterintelligence officer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been indicted on second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter charges in the death of his son-in-law last August in North Carolina. Thomas Martens, a retired FBI agent, was indicted by the Davidson County (N.C.) Grand Jury, along with his daughter, […]

DOE Releases Draft Enviro Assessment on Material Shipment from Germany The Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday released a draft environmental assessment on the potential impact of accepting, processing, and disposing of irradiated graphite pebble fuel elements from Germany containing thorium and U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) at the Savannah River Site. The DOE will […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/8/2016 The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) work planning and control processes and biosafety programs are largely effective, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said in a review released late last month. The review found that LANL managing contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) “has established the […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/8/2016 A decision on potential layoffs at the American Centrifuge Project (ACP) plant in Piketon, Ohio, is expected next week in the event that the Department of Energy (DOE) maintains its choice to defund the facility, a source familiar with the situation said Thursday. Approximately 60-70 employees at the plant received […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 1/8/2016 Plans are under way to remove weapon-usable plutonium from the Savannah River Site even as a separate project would bring more foreign plutonium to the South Carolina facility, according to recent and past Department of Energy documents. Both efforts are intended to ensure plutonium that can be used to make […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/8/2016 The United States will host a Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) meeting this month in Washington, D.C., to “examine changes in the proliferation and interdiction landscape” and “identify specific areas where PSI states can further focus their efforts,” according to the Department of State. The Jan. 27 conference, to be hosted […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/8/2016 The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) touted its progress on infrastructure modernization projects, international nonproliferation activities, and other technical and administrative work in a report released last week on the agency’s major achievements during 2015. The agency highlighted its completion of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) site readiness subproject at […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 1/8/2016 An information technology initiative intended to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with network security, identity management, cloud-based computing, and collaboration capabilities is years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office (IG) found in an audit released last month. The NNSA began implementing […]

Congress was out and Washington was empty, but that didn’t stop news from breaking during our annual publication break. As chronicled in the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, here are a few stories that we’ve been following.   LANS Contract Will Expire at Los Alamos Los Alamos National Security LLC, the partnership that has operated and […]

IN THE NNSA The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said late last month that its Asset Management Program (AMP) completed a pilot to replace and repair infrastructure at the Core Library and Data Center at Mercury, Nev. The $520,000 pilot replaced the roof and heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system at the library, a “repository for […]

The NS&D Monitor is beginning its annual holiday break and will return to your inboxes on Friday, Jan. 8. The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published Monday through Wednesday next week, and we will publish special bulletins should any major news break in the interim.

Valerie Insinna Defense Daily 12/18/2015 A group of seven Democratic senators on Tuesday called on the president to cancel the Air Force’s nuclear air-launched cruise missile program, the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) weapon. In a Dec. 14 letter, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 12/18/2015 The state of South Carolina threatened to sue the federal government if the Department of Energy doesn’t pay $1 million a day to the state for missing a key deadline at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). The facility is a critical part of the nation’s […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 12/18/2015 South Carolina’s senators this week praised the new fiscal 2016 omnibus budget that calls for $340 million to continue construction of the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). The facility is a key component of the MOX mission to convert 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium into commercial […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 12/18/2015 While Consolidated Nuclear Security received a low performance score in its first 15 months on the job – 57 percent out of 100 – the operator of the Y-12 and Pantex plants earned $42.6 million in fees. CNS President and CEO Jim Haynes said the company wasn’t pleased with the performance […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/18/2015 The $1.1 trillion federal omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2016 passed today in the House and the Senate provides $12.5 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a $1.1 billion increase from the fiscal 2015 level, including $8.8 billion for weapons activities, a $660 million increase from fiscal 2015. […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/18/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has reorganized its Office of Emergency Operations (NA-40) and its Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation (NA-80) in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) new preparedness approach for emergencies such as adverse weather, accidents, or terrorism. NA-40 will “focus its efforts primarily on building […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 12/18/2015  Two men connected to work at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) were indicted for allegedly stealing more than $4 million from the federal government. Bill Nettles, U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, announced Wednesday the indictment of Aaron Vennefron of Hamilton, Ohio, and Phillip Thompson of […]