Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

No Direction to Project Yet on Shutdown Work Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 In an effort to halt the planned suspension of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, the state of South Carolina this week filed suit against the Department of Energy over its decision to put the project into a “cold standby” mode. In […]

URENCO USA Says Significant Inventory On Hand Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 While the Nuclear Energy Institute is warning lawmakers of the potential impacts of sanctions under consideration on Russian low enriched uranium, URENCO USA says there is significant inventory on hand. The White House is considering including LEU among sanctions against Russia, and this […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 A significant slowdown in warhead dismantlement activities is planned for Fiscal Year 2015, according to budget documents released this week. The documents show a steep reduction in spending for dismantlement, with the money apparently being shifted to other programs in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Directed Stockpile Work. As proposed, […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 Los Alamos National Laboratory is expected to wrap up work in the coming weeks on a troubled project to upgrade security at its Technical Area-55, and though the project has been delayed several months by technical problems, the lab is expecting to remain just under the project’s $244.2 million cost […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is adding award-term incentives to the Brookhaven National Laboratory management and operating contract but is also slightly decreasing the available fee for the contract, according to a Request for Proposals released this week. The RFP includes a five-year base contract and the opportunity […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 Shareholders have been able to convince two major contractors in the Department of Energy marketplace—URS and Babcock & Wilcox—to make changes to their boards of directors. This week, URS announced that it has reached an agreement with shareholder JANA Partners, LLC, which owns slightly less than 10 percent of the […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 A four-year effort to secure vulnerable nuclear material around the world failed to provide effective security for the world’s most at-risk nuclear materials, according to a report released yesterday by Harvard’s Belfer Center. The report, “Advancing Nuclear Security: Evaluating Progress and Setting New Goals,” comes on the eve of next […]

NS&D Monitor 3/31/2014   The following is adapted from Dr. Harvey’s October remarks to the Congressional Advisory Panel on NNSA Governance. Dr. Harvey updated his presentation for NS&D Monitor this week. The draft recommendations from the Panel are expected to be released next week. I am pleased to offer a perspective on the issues facing […]

THIRD AGE DISCRIMINATION TRIAL MOVES FORWARD NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 An age discrimination lawsuit involving ten former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employees is moving forward in a Northern California court. The trial is the third involving a group of 130 employees that were laid off from the lab in 2008, and involves scientists and engineers from […]

Y-12 EMERGENCY OPS CENTER PROPOSED IN BUDGET NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 According to detailed budget documents released this week, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to begin design of a new Emergency Operations Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex, as well as new facilities at Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Labs. There appears to be […]

NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 IN DOE The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has made its 18 selections to a Congressionally mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories, and now it’s up to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to whittle that list down to nine. Moniz has until May 1 to […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 In a twist befitting the National Nuclear Security Administration’s topsy-turvy Y-12/Pantex procurement, the latest protest by B&W-led Nuclear Production Partners (NP2) had the company stressing its weaknesses and the NNSA citing the “significant benefit” of NP2’s proposed cost savings, had the agency picked NP2 instead of Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 As South Carolina considers potential legal action to fight the planned suspension of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, officials are pushing the Obama Administration on how it plans to fulfill its surplus plutonium disposition commitment. Due to cost increases, last week the National Nuclear Security Administration announced that it […]

Response to Sanctions Over Ukraine Would be ‘Serious Development,’ But U.S. Hasn’t Formally Heard Threat Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 Russia has not directly told the United States that it could halt U.S. arms control inspections in response to sanctions over a disagreement about Ukraine, senior Obama Administration officials said this week. According to Russian […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 A pair of Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are accusing Pentagon policy nominee Brian McKeon of providing “misleading” answers to questions about Senate notification of potential Russian violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty during debate on the New START Treaty in 2010. Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 The President’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget released last week proposes terminating $10 million in Department of Energy Office of Science funding for the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has lab officials concerned for the future of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The Lujan Neutron […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 The NNSA’s Red Team investigating alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility spent a whirlwind three and a half days this week at Y-12, getting briefings and an up-close look at the Oak Ridge plant’s uranium operations, and then adjourned to Oak Ridge National Laboratory a few miles away for discussions […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 A senior White House official this week continued to defend the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget request for threat reduction and nonproliferation work, suggesting that the request was adequate to meet President Obama’s nuclear security goals. Requested funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation account dipped in FY […]

Todd Jacobson and Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 With transition underway to new Y-12/Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security, CNS President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Haynes said the company has already completed five key deliverables for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Bechtel-led CNS, which also includes Lockheed Martin, ATK, SOC and subcontractor Booz Allen Hamilton, […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 A National Nuclear Security Administration official last week outlined a host of concerns with the way NNSA and Department of Energy small business contracting is impacting industry, including in the list reverse auctions, restrictive size standards, acquisition strategies and underutilization of contract vehicles. One big concern is the consequence of […]

Jeremy Dillon NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 A Dutch medical isotope company will not meet its goal of shifting to the use of low enriched uranium for the production of molybdenum-99 by the 2015 target date, according to a meeting held this week with White House officials. Mallinckrodt confirmed to White House officials that it would not […]

PAUL HENRY TO SERVE AS ACTING DEPUTY LAB DIRECTOR NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 Paul Henry, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Principal Associate Director for Capital Projects, will serve as the lab’s acting Deputy Director with the sudden departure of Beth Sellers, NS&D Monitor has learned. Sellers, a Bechtel executive, abruptly resigned late last week in the wake […]

WARHEAD PART DROPPED AT Y-12 FACILITY NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration called its “unique” event, but the dropping of a nuclear warhead part during an evaluation procedure in January appeared to be a recurrence of problems that surfaced a few years ago at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. According […]

NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 IN THE NNSA The National Nuclear Security Administration late last week opened a procurement for facilities maintenance services at the Office of Secure Transportation and the agency’s Albuquerque Complex, issuing a draft Request for Proposals. The agency is seeking a small business to perform the work, which will take place in three […]

Resignation Prompted by IG Report of Conflict of Interest Involving Lab Consulting Contract With Her Husband Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 Beth Sellers is resigning as Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Deputy Director in the wake of a scandal involving the award of a laboratory consulting contract to her husband, NS&D Monitor has learned. According to […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 Nearly 14 months since the National Nuclear Security Administration first selected Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security for its Y-12/Pantex consolidated management and operating contract, transition to the new contractor has resumed. However, Babcock & Wilcox-led Nuclear Production Partners—which three times protested the NNSA’s selection—declined comment this week on its plans, leaving […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 Senate lawmakers have begun fighting back against the Obama Administration’s decision to place the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication facility project on cold standby. In a March 6 letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, seven Senators—including both members of South Carolina’s Senate delegation and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the new head […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 The Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget request includes $8.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, and plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear deterrent are beginning to win over one of the staunchest critics of nuclear funding lapses. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee […]