Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

NNSA LOOKING TO ACCELERATE RLWTF UPGRADE NS&D Monitor 2/28/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration is looking at options to potentially accelerate the schedule for a project to upgrade Los Alamos National Laboratory’s aging Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility. NNSA and the lab plan to replace the current facility with two new ones—one that would address […]

UPF PROJECT DIRECTOR CONFIRMS DESIGN SLOW DOWN NS&D Monitor 2/28/2014 Uranium Processing Facility Federal Project Director John Eschenberg confirmed this week that work is being scaled back in some areas at the project while potential alternatives are being explored. Eschenberg, in a sideline interview following his Feb. 27 talk at the University of Tennessee’s Institute […]

NS&D Monitor 2/28/2014 IN CONGRESS Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) announced late this week that he will not seek re-election this November. Pastor is a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, among other Congressional roles. “After 23 years in Congress serving the people of Arizona, I have decided that I will not seek […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 Large fees for contractors managing the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons laboratories may be a thing of the past, acting NNSA Administrator Bruce Held said this week at the Sixth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. In response to questions at the sixth annual summit, Held called the “creeping privatization” of […]

NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 Retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch, the former commander of Strategic Air Command and former Air Force Chief of Staff, was awarded this week with the second annual Johnny Foster Award by ExchangeMonitor Publications and Forums. Welch retired from the Air Force 24 years ago, but has been a fixture in the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 Recent surveillance work on the W78 and W88 warheads has revealed that the warheads can be sustained until 2030, allowing the National Nuclear Security Administration to delay work on an interoperable warhead, NNSA weapons program chief Don Cook said this week on the sidelines of the Sixth Annual Nuclear Deterrence […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 As the Air Force considers extending the life of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, it should strongly look at keeping the ICBM in service past 2030 through incremental upgrades, according to a recently released study authored by the RAND Corp. The study, titled “The Future of the U.S. Intercontinental […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 The Air Force is launching a new effort, dubbed the “force improvement program,” in the wake of a cheating scandal involving officers that work with the nation’s ICBMs. The new effort comes as two reviews are underway that were launched by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last month in response to […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 The Department of Energy is dissolving its Office of Health, Safety and Security in a new reorganization officially announced this week that DOE says is intended to better enhance its safety and security functions. As Weapons Complex Morning Briefing first reported, the reorganization will entail the creation of a new […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 While Congress approved a reprogramming request to move $59.2 million to construction activities at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility late last year, those funds have yet to reach the project, NS&D Monitor has learned. The National Nuclear Security Administration originally submitted the reprogramming request to Congress in early August […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 Bill Lingard abruptly resigned from his position as URS President and Chief Operating Officer this week. URS announced Lingard’s resignation along with the release of the company’s preliminary Fiscal Year 2013 financial results, which came in below expectations. The company said its expected 2013 earnings would be $3.20-$3.30 per share, […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 The ‘Red Team’ that’s looking for affordable alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility is expected to have their recommendations to the National Nuclear Security Administration by mid-April, according to Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, who’s heading the team. Mason said those are his “marching orders” from NNSA Acting […]

Acting NNSA Administrator Says Security Did Its Job Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 Bruce Held, the acting administrator of the NNSA, this week confirmed new details of the mid-January incident involving the mishandling of uranium at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Responding to questions following his keynote address at the Sixth Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 President Obama this week signed into law a two-year extension to the United States’ current civil nuclear agree-ment with South Korea, which now will not expire until March 19, 2016. The extension was needed because the Administration and South Korea require more time to work out sensitive issues, including potential […]

NRC FINDS NO VIOLATIONS IN LATEST INSPECTION PERIOD NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission found no violations in its latest round of construction inspections at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. The NRC conducts quarterly inspections of the project’s construction by contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services. “The inspections examined activities conducted under your construction […]

REVIEW FINDS WIDESPREAD CRITICALITY SAFETY ISSUES NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 A review of criticality safety issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory has revealed widespread problems that led to the ongoing shutdown of its Plutonium Facility last summer, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report released last week. The report describes Los Alamos’ Criticality Safety […]

NIF REACHES MILESTONE NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 Scientists at Lawrence Livermore’s National Ignition Facility have reached a major milestone in the quest for ignition, achieving a fuel gain greater than 1 for the first time. The achievement was detailed in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Nature, explaining that the yield performance during a recent […]

NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 IN CONGRESS The nation’s nuclear forces will be the subject of a pair of Senate Armed Services Committee hearings in several weeks. Strategic Command chief Adm. Cecil Haney will appear before the full committee at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 27 alongside Cyber Command chief Gen. Keith Alexander, while the panel’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/07/2014 Acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held met with Y-12 National Security Complex officials this week and held an all-hands meeting at the plant to address a material accountability incident involving uranium oxide. NNSA spokeswoman Keri Fulton confirmed that an incident involving a small amount of U3O8, triuranium octoxide, […]

In Wake of Latest Incident, Hagel Pushes to Strengthen ‘Morale Character and Morale Courage’ Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/07/2014 Navy officials are now dealing with their own nuclear cheating scandal weeks after it was revealed that dozens of Air Force officers cheated on a nuclear proficiency exam. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert and Adm. […]

NS&D Monitor 2/07/2014 A Government Accountability Office hearing on a Babcock & Wilcox-led protest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12/Pantex award stretched into three days this week, NW&M Monitor has learned. The hearing began Feb. 3 after being postponed from last week and wrapped up Feb. 5, and the length of the inquiry surprised […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 6/20/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration took the first tentative steps toward competing its Kansas City Plant contract this week, issuing a Request for Information June 18 that seeks input from companies interested in the contract to run the agency’s main non-nuclear production facility. Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies has been the […]

The following interview with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, who announced this week plans to leave DOE in the fall, was conducted by ExchangeMonitor Publications Editor-in-Chief Mike Nartker. NS&D Monitor 6/20/2014 To start things off, I think one of the things you’ll be remembered for during your time at DOE is the Department’s efforts to […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 6/20/2014 House appropriators are once again expressing concern over how the Department of Energy manages major projects in the Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration. While DOE has made some improvement in its ability to “deliver small projects on schedule and within budget,” the Department “continues to […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 6/20/2014 Both House and Senate appropriators are looking to boost funds for Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility construction funding above the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2015 request and aim to prevent use of the funds to put the project into “cold standby.” Citing rising costs for the project, the Department of […]

This is an idea whose time has come at last: The Department of Energy needs to break out cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other National Nuclear Security Administration sites under separate contracts managed by the Office of Environmental Management. The Department’s national transuranic waste program has been brought to its knees in […]

Bill Hits Snag Over Carbon Emissions Amendment Controversy, Full Committee Markup Postponed Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 6/20/2014 The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared its version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Act this week, zeroing out funding for work on a refurbished nuclear cruise missile warhead and drawing quick criticism […]

Full House Committee Clears FY 2015 E&W Approps Bill, Providing $8.2B to NNSA Weapons Program Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 6/20/2014 The House Appropriations Committee cleared its version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Act this week, endorsing the National Nuclear Security Administration’s shift to what it called a “more realistic” strategy to […]