Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 A series of issues involving bulging drums and related problems have prompted standing orders, corrective actions, and increased scrutiny of some of the storage of hazardous materials at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge. Periodic issues with waste or storage drums are not that uncommon, but it appears […]

Top Officials Say Dilution and Disposal Cheaper, More Practical Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 Future costs and risks to build the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility are significantly greater than those associated with a dilute-and-dispose approach for 34 metric tons of excess U.S. weapon-grade plutonium, according to the executive summary of the second phase of […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2016 passed the Senate this week in a 70-27 vote, moving the bill – identical to the version passed by the House of Representatives last week – to the desk of President Barack Obama, who has said he will veto it. The […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 An agreement has been reached between Pantex Plant contract manager Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) and the union representing site workers, CNS announced over the weekend. More than 1,000 workers at the nuclear-weapon assembly and disassembly plant went on strike after their collective bargaining agreement expired at the end of August, […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 With the strike at the Pantex Plant settled, Consolidated Nuclear Security will now join the Atomic Trades and Labor Council at the negotiating table in an effort to work out a new long-term labor contract for crafts workers at the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility. CNS manages both Y-12 and Pantex […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 Unionized workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Wednesday ratified a new five-year labor contract, which includes pay raises in each of the years and a $1,000 signing bonus. Steve Jones, president of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council, confirmed approval of the contract with UT-Battelle, the Department of Energy’s […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) faces employee morale, recruitment, and retention challenges in the next year, according to a report released earlier this month by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector General’s Office (IG). The board, though, has increased its performance on staff engagement significantly,  the Office of Personnel […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) complied with Department of Energy (DOE) regulations and environmental standards in calendar year 2014, according to the NNSS Environmental Report prepared by site managing contractor National Security Technologies and released on Thursday. The site that conducts high-hazard operations for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 The Department of Energy (DOE) is questioning $1.5 million in “unresolved” subcontract costs with the contractor that managed and operated the Y-12 National Security Complex from 2000 and 2014, according to a DOE Inspector General’s Office (IG) report released this week. Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Y-12 (B&W Y-12) – […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 The Department of Energy (DOE) is questioning $526,562 in “questioned and unresolved” subcontract costs from fiscal 2013 with the company that manages and operates the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), according to a DOE Inspector General’s Office (IG) report released this week. Los Alamos National Security (LANS), which has operated […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 A former Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) employee must pay over $32,000 in restitution as part of her sentence for embezzling money from the Department of Energy. Theresa Romero, a former office administrative assistant at SNL, used a procurement card issued to her as an employee to make unauthorized purchases between […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 Eighteen projects from National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) labs, some of which feature nuclear deterrence and stockpile stewardship applications, have been chosen by an independent panel of judges as finalists for R&D Magazine’s annual R&D 100 Awards, which recognizes “the 100 most innovative technologies and services of the past year,” […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance for decades and a nationally known peace activist, said he got a home visit on Monday from agents who identified themselves as members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and who wanted to question him about photographs he had […]

NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 EM Commits to Competing LANL Cleanup Contract The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Oct. 2 officially announced that it intends to open for competition the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s post-fiscal 2016 nuclear cleanup contract, after Los Alamos National Security’s $309.8 million “bridge” contract will expire sometime between October 2016 […]

NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 NSTec Extends 30 Union Contracts at Nevada Site Contracts for the 30 unions representing personnel at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) have been extended, facility management and operations contractor National Security Technologies (NSTec) announced this week. NSTec said it “successfully completed contract negotiations” that resulted in the extension of 28 contracts […]

NS&D Monitor 10/9/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY BWX Technologies (BWXT) announced this week that Rex Geveden will become the company’s chief operating officer later this month. Starting Oct. 26, Geveden will execute BWXT’s government and commercial nuclear operations in the U.S. and Canada, the contractor said. Geveden most recently served as executive vice president at Teledyne […]

ORNL Reaches Tentative Contract With Unions UT-Battelle has reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract with unions representing about 700 hourly workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Steve Jones, president of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council, an umbrella labor group that negotiated on behalf of 13 unions at ORNL, confirmed […]

Jeremy L. Dillon NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week it has entered into a new cooperative agreement to help finance General Atomics’ molybdenum-99 production technology. The agreement, including a $9.7 million cost-share contribution, marks the fifth such agreement the NNSA has entered into with companies seeking to produce the medical […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 A former employee at the Y-12 National Security Complex filed a legal complaint last Friday against former Y-12 managing contractor BWX Technologies (BWXT) alleging he was unlawfully fired as retaliation for reporting the company’s violations of federal regulations to the Department of Energy (DOE). Michael Doughty, a Y-12 employee since […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The House of Representatives passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2016 yesterday in a 270-156 vote that authorizes President Barack Obama’s total $611.9 billion request for defense discretionary spending. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill next week before sending it to […]

Senate to Vote on Bill Next Week Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 Amid Capitol Hill rumblings of a possible cancellation of the beleaguered Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 passed this week by the House would require Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz to re-baseline project construction and […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 Congress this week passed a continuing resolution (CR) that will fund the federal government through Dec. 11 at fiscal 2015 enacted levels and prevents a government shutdown. The CR, which President Barack Obama signed on Wednesday, provides Congress an additional 10 weeks to work toward a budget solution for fiscal […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 Days after a federal mediator intervened to facilitate labor negotiations between the contractor of the Pantex Plant and unionized workers, negotiations have been temporarily paused. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) announced on Sept. 25 that negotiations were “temporarily recessed . . . to give the parties an opportunity […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to re-evaluate the benefits package at the heart of the strike at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant and calling for special attention toward the facility’s deferred maintenance issues. Unionized workers at the Pantex Plant have […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) said this week it will pay a group of former employees $37.25 million in contract damages to settle a lawsuit in which 130 workers claimed they were unfairly laid off in 2008. The settlement resolves 129 of the claims, while one plaintiff did not […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced last Friday it is inspecting BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) Lynchburg, Va., fuel facility following the discovery of a criticality safety incident. The NRC is investigating “the circumstances surrounding the discovery that workers may have exceeded controls for criticality safety in a production line glovebox,” the […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 A U.S. interagency nonproliferation team that for over two decades did not conduct physical security visits to 11 foreign nuclear sites containing thousands of kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) plans to visit one of the locations in the next six months, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking industry comments on a draft request for proposal for design, integration, construction, communication, and engineering (DICCE2) services in support of the Office of Global Material Security’s Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence (NSDD) Program, according to a notice posted last Friday. DICCE2 services […]