Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office Manager Steve Erhart isn’t denying rumors that he could be leaving his post as the top federal official overseeing the Y-12 and Pantex plants, but he didn’t confirm anything either in a message to NPO employees last week. Erhart called the rumors “unsettling and […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 Like the Navy, the Air Force has a large nuclear modernization bill looming, and the idea of a separate deterrence fund for upgrading the air legs of the nuclear triad is gaining traction, according to Global Strike Command chief Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson. The Navy has proposed a sea-based deterrence […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 The Congressional Long-Range Strike Caucus gathered on Capitol Hill on Jan. 27 to rally support for modernization of the B-52, B-2, and B-1 bombers, and for manufacturing the Long-Range Strike Bomber as Air Force experts have recently suggested that the Future Years Defense Plan indicates the LRSB is reaching the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 The United States should deploy nuclear weapons in eastern Europe as a response to increasing Russian aggression in Ukraine, two senior Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee said late last week in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry. Calling Russian suggestions that […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 The U.S. should take a firm stance in insisting Russia comply with the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Budapest Memorandum, former State Department and U.S. military officials said at separate Senate Armed Services Committee hearings exploring general U.S. national security strategy this week. The U.S. has formally accused […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 In separate meetings regarding their companies’ planned merger on Jan. 27, Orbital stockholders voted to approve the merger while 97 percent of ATK stockholders voted in favor of issuing shares worth $0.01 each, to Orbital stockholders, ATK announced on Jan. 27. ATK is issuing approximately 77 percent of the total […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 Oak Ridge National Laboratory has extended its American Centrifuge Technology Demonstration and Operations contract with Centrus Energy Corp. through Sept. 30. The $41.7 million deal was expected after the Fiscal Year 2015 omnibus spending bill included $97.2 million for domestic uranium enrichment research, development and demonstration. Under the agreement, Oak […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 After repairs, all 17 work cages at Malmstrom AFB required for almost every maintenance task in Minuteman 3 facilities’ launch tubes became operational on Jan. 14, according to a Jan. 26 announcement by Malmstrom. Recently, a diminishing supply of replacement parts for the work cages—called guided missile maintenance platforms (GMMP)—and […]

Erhart: Moniz On Board With UPF Path Forward NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 The revamped plan for designing and constructing the Uranium Processing Facility apparently has met with the approval of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. In a Jan. 21 message to employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office and contractors, NPO Manager Steve Erhart indicated […]

NS&D Monitor 1/30/2015 IN CONGRESS There will be a major shakeup on the staff of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee with two of the top staffers on the panel leaving Capitol Hill for lobbying jobs. NS&D  Monitor has learned that Senate Majority Clerk Tom Craig and Senate Minority Staffer Leland Cogliani are leaving […]

Army Corps of Engineers Prepping for UPF Site Infrastructure and Services Work NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Army Corps of Engineers began gearing up for the next phase of the Uranium Processing Facility project this week, releasing a presolicitation notice this week for site infrastructure and services on the multi-billion-dollar effort. The work, which would be […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project will not be impacted by the recent Russian decision to suspend cooperation with the United States on nuclear security work, National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Derrick Robinson said this week. Russia informed the United States in December that it was cancelling all nuclear […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 While five national lawmakers from the Dakotas reacted positively to the Air Force’s Jan. 16 approval of nearly quadrupling the size of the Powder River Training Complex (PRTC) used as a training area for B-52s housed at Minot AFB, N.D., and B-1s stationed at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., Sens. Jon Tester […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Department of Justice is investigating whether officials with Sandia National Laboratories improperly used government funds to lobby for an extension to the Lockheed Martin-run contractor’s management and operating contract. The mention of the investigation was buried in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 Performance Evaluation Review, released […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 If the estimated $100 billion Ohio-Class nuclear submarine replacement program does not receive the funding it requires, the ship’s stealth capability could be among the first elements to get chopped from the program, according to Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow on the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment’s Strategic Studies team. […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 New House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said this week that he is opposed to one of the biggest recommendations made by the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Enterprise: moving the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration back under the Department of Energy. “I […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Congressional Budget Office on Jan. 22 released its 10-year future nuclear weapons cost estimate, which projects the Obama Administration’s plans for nuclear forces would cost $348 billion from 2015 to 2024, down $7 billion from an estimate released a year ago. “Although the two estimates are close, notable changes […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 National Nuclear Security Administration officials were highly critical of Los Alamos National Laboratory management in the lab’s recently released Fiscal Year 2014 Performance Evaluation Review, but had plenty of praise for the managers of the agency’s other physics laboratory, lauding Lawrence Livermore management for turning things around during the year. […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists this week moved the minute hand of its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” two ticks closer to midnight, citing unchecked climate change and global nuclear weapons modernization. The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board announced Jan. 22 that it was moving the clock from 5 minutes to 3 […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The U.S. should pay attention to its nuclear structure and nuclear relations with Russia, because “we do not want, above all, a nuclear war to erupt,” during a period which has seen Russian President Vladimir Putin invoke the threat of nuclear weapons while invading eastern Ukraine, former national security advisor […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor  1/23/2015 In a move that could lead to financial penalties, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enforcement is planning to investigate an incident at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that left seven workers exposed to radiation while working on a project for the Y-12 National Security Complex. In a Jan. 16 letter […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The Department of Energy’s Inspector General has temporarily yanked an already-released review of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Secure Transportation from its website over concerns about the accuracy of the report. The IG only released a summary of the “Official Use Only” report in November, but it said […]

Kaptur Named as Ranking Member of House E&W Panel Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 Senate Republicans officially named Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) this week to serve as chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration work. Alexander had been expected to assume the top […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 The first of three Conference on Disarmament (CD) sessions scheduled for this year convened on Jan. 19 in Geneva with renewed optimism—though no concrete signs—that the international negotiating body can break a longstanding deadlock and move any disarmament discussions forward. Speaking at the CD on Jan. 20, Amb. Robert Wood, […]

CNS, Metal Trades Council Begin Negotiations on New Bargaining Agreement NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 Y-12/Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security began negotiating a new labor agreement this week with the Metal Trades Council, the union representing Pantex Plant workers. George Rangel, a spokesman for Consolidated Nuclear Security, said the contractor won’t discuss pending issues that will come […]

NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 IN CONGRESS Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Jan. 22 that Defense Secretary nominee Ash Carter will appear before his committee for his confirmation hearing Feb. 4, then will return a month later to testify about the next defense spending plan. McCain was cited in a DefenseNews […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 James Doyle, the Los Alamos National Laboratory nonproliferation analyst who claimed he was let go by the lab after writing a paper advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons, has had his second whistleblower claim accepted by the National Nuclear Security Administration and began mediation with the lab this week. […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 During what is expected to be his last official visit to a U.S. nuclear enterprise base as Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel on Jan. 13 told B-2 airmen serving at Whiteman AFB that the Air Force cannot afford to fall behind in nuclear modernization efforts and said work on the long-range […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 The head of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry this week said Russia could revise its commitment to bilateral nonproliferation and disarmament, including the New START Treaty, the main agreement governing U.S.-Russian bilateral nuclear arms reductions, because of what Russia deems “unfriendly” U.S. actions, […]