Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

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 […]