Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 9/5/2014 Senior URS executive Randy Wotring will head up AECOM’s work in the federal marketplace, including in the Department of Energy, once it completes its acquisition of URS, according to information released earlier this week. AECOM and URS outlined the planned management structure of their combined organization in messages to employees. […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 9/5/2014 The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center expects to release a Request for Proposal for new reentry system testing equipment this fall, according to AFNWC spokesperson Kendahl Johnson. The information was released this week as industry gathered at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico for an industry day for the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 9/5/2014 Former Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore Director Mike Anastasio is joining the Boards of Governors of both contractors that run the two national laboratories. Anastasio retired as the director of Los Alamos in 2011 after leading the lab for five years, and he spent three years as Livermore’s director from […]

Lab, Former NIF Director Ed Moses, Part Ways NS&D Monitor 9/5/2014 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former National Ignition Facility Director Ed Moses are officially parting ways, with Moses accepting a job as the president of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization. Moses was the director of NIF through its conception, construction and early operations, serving […]

New Criticality Safety Issues Pop Up at Y-12 NS&D Monitor 9/5/2014 Staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recently identified several new criticality safety concerns at the Y-12 National Security Complex, which is under increased scrutiny because of the age of the plant’s production facilities. Such concerns include casting of slugs of highly enriched […]

MOX Services Looks to Extend NRC Construction Authorization for 10 Years NS&D Monitor 9/5/2014 Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services is awaiting a response to its request for a 10-year extension to its construction authorization from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Currently the NRC’s construction authorization expires on March 30, 2015, but […]

NS&D Monitor 9/5/2014 IN DOE The Congressionally mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories is scheduled to hold its second meeting Sept. 15. The meeting will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Va., and will include a review of previous studies […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 Fiscal Year 2015 is still a month away, but Consolidated Nuclear Security is making preparations for what’s likely to come: a Continuing Resolution. CNS, the managing contractor for the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear production facilities, issued preliminary guidance to employees this week to help get fiscally ready. “CNS expects to […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 The first phase of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new strategy to upgrade its plutonium facilities will cost about $2 billion, according to a new cost estimate approved last week by Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman as part of a Critical Decision-1 approval of the project. Poneman signed off on the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Department of Energy appears to be on the verge of making a decision on whether or not to compete the Kansas City Plant contract, but Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz gave little sense of the path forward in comments here late last week. Speaking on the sidelines of […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 KANSAS CITY, Mo.—National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz said here late last week that he plans to reinvigorate plans to employ the Kansas City governance model more broadly across the weapons complex after efforts to implement the model stalled out in recent years. During a visit to the new […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 Sandia National Laboratories may have trouble meeting neutron generator production requirements in the future, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report released this week. The audit report calls into question Sandia’s ability to ramp up neutron generator production as requirements for the key nuclear weapons component increase 50 […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 After a two-and-a-half-month summer vacation, former acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held returned this week to the Department of Energy. Held’s title will apparently remain the same—associate deputy secretary—but his duties have not been fully defined. “Governance issues have long been my central concern so I hope to […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 An Atlantic Council/Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security issue brief urges NATO to renew its focus on nuclear deterrence, calling nuclear weapons a “’core element of’ the Alliance’s ‘overall strategy.” The piece, published this week, dubs this era “the Second Nuclear Age,” and predicts tensions in Ukraine and the South […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 Construction has been largely completed on the Pantex Plant’s new High Explosives Pressing Facility and Y-12/Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security is expected to take possession of the building next month, NS&D Monitor has learned. The facility isn’t expected to be immediately operational as it will have to go through rigorous […]

Report Initially Blocked From Public Release Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 While the National Nuclear Security Administration’s management of the response program to radiological emergencies is “generally” in a state of readiness, there are issues with aging equipment and potential reliability issues, the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General found in an inspection report […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico will host an industry day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 4 to discuss a Reentry System Field Support Equipment (RFSE) Request for Information and draft Request for Proposals released this week. Topics to be […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 Northrop Grumman has been awarded a sole-source contract modification that will assist the United States SSBN program in becoming New START compliant. The Defense Department Monday announced a $7.6 million addition to a $113-million firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-incentive-fee/cost-plus-fixed-fee contract awarded to Northrop Grumman in December. Part of a larger effort to improve […]

The following interview with Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak, the Air Force Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration (A10), was conducted by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Reporter Brian Bradley. NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 There’s been a lot of attention focused on the cheating scandal in the Air Force missileer ranks and recovering […]

FAS Pushes for Reinstatement of LANL Scientist NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 The Federation of American Scientists is calling on Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to reinstate Los Alamos nonproliferation analyst James Doyle, who was fired earlier this summer in retaliation for a report advocating a world without nuclear weapons. In an Aug. 21 letter to Moniz, FAS […]

NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 Seismic Activity in Oak Ridge Could be More Severe Than Previously Thought New data from the U.S. Geologic Survey suggests that seismic activity in Oak Ridge might be more severe than previously predicted. The information was released this month, updating 2008 data and indicating an increase in potential seismic activity, and an […]

NS&D Monitor 8/29/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY Bechtel executive Kim Cassara is joining Los Alamos National Laboratory as its associate director for Project Management starting Oct. 1, LANL Director Charlie McMillan said in a message to employees earlier this month. Cassara replaces Matt Nuckols, who left Los Alamos earlier this month to work on the Uranium […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/22/2014 KANSAS CITY—Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration and contractor officials formally dedicated the NNSA’s new Kansas City Plant today, unveiling a facility that has helped modernize the nation’s weapons complex but that officials also hope could renew a unique approach in paying for some of the infrastructure needs across […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/22/2014 With Congress raising questions about the Obama Administration’s ‘3+2’ strategy for modernizing the nation’s nuclear arsenal, Strategic Command chief Adm. Cecil Haney last week said he is “very concerned” about the future of the strategy but emphasized its importance. Haney spoke to reporters after a speech at U.S. Strategic Command’s […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/22/2014 LA VISTA, Neb.—Rose Gottemoeller, the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, last week dismissed a call for the United States to withdraw from the New START Treaty in response to alleged Russian Violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as “crazy.” Gottemoeller addressed U.S. Strategic Command’s […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 8/22/2014 After completing in July an Analysis of Alternatives for the ICBM leg of the nuclear triad, the Air Force has reportedly settled on a “hybrid” model, which would incorporate the fundamental design, communication structure and existing launch silos for the Minuteman III while swapping out older rocket motors and antiquated […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/22/2014 LA VISTA, Neb.—Tensions involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have “tamped down” talk of arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation among United States allies at NATO, according to a senior NATO official. Speaking at U.S. Strategic Command’s Deterrence Symposium last week, Fred Frederickson, the director of the Nuclear Policy Division on the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 8/22/2014 With the Administration moving forward on a new plutonium strategy that involves building modular facilities to house plutonium work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a new report from Congressional Research Service nuclear weapons policy specialist Jonathan Medalia raises a host of questions about how much space is available at the […]