Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 Consolidated Nuclear Security, the incoming contractor at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons facilities, continues to gradually introduce its leadership team and its management plans through a series of messages to employees at the sites. Last weekend, CNS—a partnership led by Bechtel and including Lockheed Martin, ATK Launch Systems and […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Red Team has reached a “strong consensus” on an alternative plan to the Uranium Processing Facility, according to Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, the team leader. Mason said the Red Team made its second on-site visit to the Y-12 National Security Complex last […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 Over the last six months, the United States has reduced the size of its strategic deployed nuclear stockpile by 103 warheads, while Russia has increased the size of its stockpile, according to the latest New START Treaty data released by the State Department this week. The April 1 declaration reveals […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stoked tensions between Washington and Moscow, and the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee said this week that it raised serious questions about Ukraine’s 20-year-old decision to give up its nuclear weapons as well. “The Ukraine was the third […]

Positions Created as Part of Reorg. Of Safety, Security Functions Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The Department of Energy has moved to fill a set of new Chief Security Officer positions created as part of reorganization of the Department’s health, safety and security functions, according to a message sent to employees late last week. Michael Lempke […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The Department of Energy is looking to make changes to its human capital and IT services that could result in a greater consolidation from the field to DOE headquarters. Among the proposals under consideration, according to officials familiar with the discussions, is the shift of some human capital functions from […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 Operations at a Sandia National Laboratories explosives testing facility remain shut down after a worker was burned in December when an experiment malfunctioned, a lab spokesman said late last week. The Dec. 11 incident at the lab’s Site 9920 left a worker with burns to his hand when a detonator […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration hasn’t adequately maintained design information for the warheads and nuclear components in its nuclear stockpile, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report released this week that suggests the missing information raises questions about the credibility of the nation’s nuclear deterrent. “CM [Configuration management] […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration is monitoring changes to Los Alamos National Laboratory’s ethics review process in the wake of a DOE Inspector General report that led to the resignation last month of Deputy Director Beth Sellers, and the agency hasn’t made a decision whether or not to take further […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The recent Nuclear Security Summit took important steps toward strengthening a regime beyond the summit process for protecting vulnerable material, though more work needs to be done to ensure progress in the future, nuclear security watchers said this week. A key achievement of the Summit held in the Hague was […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week closed a 2005 recommendation that called for stricter nuclear material packaging requirements, but the Board is asking for an updated schedule for the Department of Energy’s improvements. The original recommendation called for technical criteria for nuclear material packaging and prioritization of packaging […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The Department of Energy is proposing a new regulation that would allow it to withhold payments if a contractor’s business systems have “significant deficiencies.” That includes the accounting, estimating, purchasing, earned value management and property management systems. “DOE proposes to implement compliance enforcement mechanisms in the form of a business […]

WORK ON NMSSUP FORMALLY COMPLETED JUST UNDER CAP NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 Work on a troubled project to upgrade security at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Technical Area-55 was formally wrapped up this week as the National Nuclear Security Administration signed off on the project’s completion, which came in just under the project’s $244.2 million cost cap. […]

UPF PROJECT TEAM SCALING BACK WORKFORCE NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 As the Uranium Processing Facility project team scales down work in some design areas pending results of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s review of UPF alternatives, a spokeswoman confirmed that more than 100 members of the project team have been released over the past month. Ellen […]

NRC GIVES MOX CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH IN 2013 NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not identify any areas needing improvement in Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility construction in 2013, contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services announced last week. The annual review conducted by NRC’s resident inspectors aims to identify potential construction and procedure […]

NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 IN THE NNSA A University of Michigan-led consortium has been awarded a $25 million grant by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development for research and development in nuclear arms control verification technologies. The grant is expected to provide the consortium $5 million per year over […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Major changes are in the works for B&W’s Technical Services Group, with President George Dudich leaving the company, NS&D Monitor has learned. B&W is also moving to combine its Technical Services Group with the company’s Nuclear Operations Group to create a new Government Operations division that will be headed by […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 The Congressionally appointed panel on National Nuclear Security Administration governance hasn’t come up with any recommendations yet, but the co-chairmen of the committee made it clear this week at a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing that the current governance structure for the agency is not working. The panel’s […]

NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 James Schlesinger, who served as the first Secretary of Energy, passed away this week at the age of 85. According to reports, Schlesinger died due to complications of pneumonia. Schlesinger was named in 1971 to chair the Atomic Energy Commission, and was tapped by President Jimmy Carter to serve as the first […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 The Department of Energy has begun discussions with the companies that run Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories about reducing the fee they can receive, acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held confirmed this week. Speaking on the sidelines of a March 26 Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Thirty-five nations at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Netherlands this week agreed to an initiative that would strengthen the international nuclear security architecture, highlighting the third gathering of international leaders to deal with strengthening nuclear security around the world. In all, leaders from 58 countries assembled in The Hague, […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Plans to send a significant amount of plutonium and highly enriched uranium from Japan to the United States are raising questions for officials near the material’s likely home at the Savannah River Site. Citing concerns over plutonium already in the state, South Carolina this month filed suit against the Obama […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has turned to a familiar face in its search for a new leader, tapping longtime lab official Bill Goldstein this week as the lab’s 12th director. Goldstein, 57, a 29-year lab veteran who rose through the institution’s ranks after starting as a theoretical physicist during the […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Not surprisingly, the most frequently asked questions being asked these days at Y-12 and Pantex have to do with jobs and benefits, as the two plants in Tennessee and Texas are transitioning to a new contractor. However, the new contractor, Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, isn’t ready to make job offers—there […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Budgetary pressure and technical considerations are likely to doom the Obama Administration’s “3+2” strategy for modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile, former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Parney Albright said this week. Speaking at George Washington University, Albright said he supported the strategy, which would modernize and consolidate the nation’s nuclear […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Nine Air Force leaders have been removed from command and the commander of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base has resigned as a result of an investigation into widespread cheating among the ICBM force at Malmstrom. Air Force leaders unveiled the results of an Office of Special […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Frustrated with the Obama Administration’s reaction to possible Russian violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, House and Senate Republicans introduced legislation this week designed to hold Moscow accountable for the potential cheating. GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced companion resolutions that would declare that Russia “violated and […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Planned shipments of liquid highly enriched uranium from Canada to the Savannah River Site for processing have been delayed again, and now appear to be slated for September 2015. Officials said in late 2012 that the processing of the material could start in 2013 and end in 2016, but officials […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 The Department of Energy has dropped from its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request a laser-based protective force training system it had planned on providing to Russia due to concerns about the U.S. relationship with Moscow. The March 26 announcement from DOE Press Secretary Bill Gibbons came two days after 18 […]