Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Material Management and Minimization returned the final 5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent fuel from a research reactor in Uzbekistan to Russia, the NNSA announced this week. The shipment from the IIN-3M “Foton” research reactor in Tashkent, part of a […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) this week honored former director John Foster with the newly established John S. Foster Jr. Medal at the Center for International and Strategic Studies. The medal will be awarded annually “to honor those who have made significant contributions to nuclear security through individual efforts, […]

LLNL Executive Killed in Accident Kathy Baker, chief financial officer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), was killed last week when an elderly woman drove an SUV into a gym where Baker was participating in a class. Five other people suffered nonfatal injuries in the incident. Baker, 49, had worked at LLNL since 2001 and […]

IN THE NAVY The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program has awarded BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) Nuclear Operations Group an undisclosed number of contracts worth $34.5 million for nuclear reactor component manufacturing for U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers. Work is already under way, the company said this week, and most of it will be done over the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/25/2015 Funding the $100 billion Ohio Replacement (OR) amid an austere federal budget environment is the leading challenge facing new Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, according to House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee Ranking Member Joe Courtney (D-Conn.). Richardson will need to provide “thoughtful and creative solutions” […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week that its repatriation of about 1 kilogram of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from a Jamaican research reactor to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site in South Carolina has made the Caribbean HEU-free. The United States supplied Canada with HEU […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case files required to be shared between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the White House at times lack “pertinent” documentation, the DOE Inspector General‘s Office (IG) found in a report released this week that reviewed samples of FOIA requests from DOE branches including the […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 The Department of Energy (DOE) has called on the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) managing contractor to give greater attention to ensuring the proper execution of corrective actions following misclassification incidents revealed earlier this year, according to an Office of Enforcement letter released this week. The Sept. 18 letter to […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/25/2015 A continuing budget resolution set for three months or longer would likely affect the early acquisition stages for the $62.3 billion Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, even though the program is not a new start, Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick said by email on Monday. Continuing resolutions freeze federal funding at the […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 The Department of Energy (DOE) and other agencies tasked with conducting global nonproliferation operations have not conducted physical security visits to 11 foreign nuclear sites containing over 3,500 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) in more than 20 years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/25/2015 The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management has awarded Los Alamos National Laboratory contractor Los Alamos National Security a one-year cost-plus-award fee “bridge” contract with a maximum value of $309.8 million and two six-month options for legacy cleanup activities at the New Mexico facility. Oversight of LANL legacy waste cleanup […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) should use alternative storage locations at its Plutonium Facility (PF-4) to facilitate nuclear material-at-risk (MAR) minimization and protection from hazards associated with earthquakes or fires, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) letter sent to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/25/2015 Former Energy Secretary and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson this week said he plans to ask political leaders from Idaho and Washington state to join him in pushing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. The MOX plant is to be used to process 34 metric […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 Negotiations have resumed between Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), the managing contractor of the Pantex Plant in Texas, and the Metal Trades Council, the union representing some of its employees, as a strike by a third of the plant’s workforce enters its 29th day. Approximately 1,100 unionized employees went on strike […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 9/25/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged that a July shipment of an excess amount of special nuclear material from the Y-12 site to a commercial facility was uranium, but a spokesman refused to specify the enrichment level or other details of the substance. “We can confirm it was uranium,” […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/18/2015 Consolidated Nuclear Security has implemented or is in the process of implementing six of seven self-identified recommendations, a process that has been observed by Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s site reps after the company’s Y-12 site manager in May recognized potential operational problems at the nuclear weapons site, according to […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The first of 30 operational B-52H bombers has been converted “from a nuclear to a conventional only capability aircraft” at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Air Force Global Strike Command announced yesterday. The conversion process, which “preserves the full conventional capabilities of the B-52,” is intended to ensure U.S. […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 09/18/2015 The Air Force on Sept. 11 issued its second request for information for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, sending the acquisition effort closer to liftoff. The RFI notes the Air Force is seeking a “modular systems architecture, within the constraints of nuclear surety and cybersecurity.” Pentagon acquisition brass are pursuing integration […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The managers of the Navy’s Trident 2 D5 program and the Air Force’s soon-to-start acquisition of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent will by Oct. 17 brief key Defense Department brass on a 2 1/2-month-old study examining commonalities that can be implemented across the two weapon systems. Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 09/18/2015   Y-12 Labor Agreement Extended Again Amid a flurry of labor-related activities in Oak Ridge, Consolidated Nuclear Security has reached an agreement with the Atomic Trades and Labor Council to extend their existing collective bargaining agreement at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant for another 11 weeks. The extension, which again […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The Department of Energy (DOE) is questioning millions of dollars in “unresolved costs” at Sandia Corp. in fiscal 2013 and several years prior, according to a DOE Inspector General’s Office (IG) report released this week. Sandia Corp., a Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMC) subsidiary that has managed and operated Sandia National […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 A federal mediation agency on Wednesday announced it will intervene in the ongoing strike by Pantex Plant workers represented by the Metal Trades Council, which reached its 22nd day today. Neither site contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security nor MTC requested the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) to step in, and […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The Centerra Group started working its protective forces subcontract at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on Wednesday, ending SOC’s 23-year run heading security at the Department of Energy facility. A LANL spokesman said by email that the contract’s base period expires Sept. 30, 2018, but it contains an option for […]

Jeremy L. Dillon NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The Department of Energy will no longer provide funding for Centrus’ American Centrifuge project operations at its Piketon, Ohio facility, the company confirmed late last week. The announcement also noted a one-year extension funding for the American Centrifuge project’s research and development contract with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking feedback on its contract evaluation criteria from potential bidders for management and operation of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), according to a special notice released this week. The announcement requests feedback from “prospective Offerors” by Sept. 21 on several draft documents […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 Air Force Global Strike Command remains on track to by Oct. 1 take in an additional 9,500 personnel and 63 aircraft through absorbing the 377th Air Base Wing, along with the long-range strike bomber and B-1 programs, AFGSC Vice Commander Maj. Gen. Michael Fortney said during a speech in Washington […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is taking steps to address materials-at-risk (MAR) concerns to resume transuranic (TRU) waste receipts at its Area G nuclear waste disposal site, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) site representative report released last week. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management officials […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 9/18/2015 Internal controls for financial management of the State Department’s Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund (NDF), which operates within the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), were “designed and implemented effectively,” according to a newly released third-party audit. However, the review, released on Monday, also found several control areas that need […]