Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 The House Appropriations Committee formally unveiled its subcommittee allocations for Fiscal Year 2015 this week, and lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will have a little less funding to work with this year. The committee set the Energy and Water allocation at $34.010 billion, $50 million less […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration has wrapped up negotiations with the Lockheed Martin-run Sandia Corporation on a two-year extension to its management and operating contract to run Sandia National Laboratories, but it hasn’t released any details of the contract. NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha confirmed late last week that the Sandia […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is pressing the National Nuclear Security Administration to not let oversight slip with transition activities to a new contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants ongoing. In an April 30 letter to new NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz, DNFSB Chairman […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Consolidated Nuclear Security this week revealed its plans for changing the benefits packages at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants and said the changes would help reduce costs and help sustain future operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration facilities. The incoming contractor at Y-12 and Pantex posted the plans on […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 The National Nuclear Security Administration is transferring $56.65 million from other programs to an effort to preserve the American Centrifuge technology under a new contract being managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The ORNL subcontract, awarded to USEC, is worth $33.7 million through the end of this fiscal year, and […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 A controversial nuclear cooperation agreement with Vietnam was sent by the Obama Administration to Congress this week for its 90-day review. The agreement has raised questions from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle because it lacks legally binding restrictions on enrichment and reprocessing, known as the ‘gold standard.’ […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Lab Seeking Industry Collaborators for New Supercomputer Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is opening up a recently commissioned supercomputer for industry collaborators to test big data technologies, architectures and applications. A high performance computing cluster dubbed Catalyst—a collaboration between Livermore, Intel and Cray—came on line at Livermore last fall, and the lab’s High […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Jury Awards Business $3.64m in Contract Dispute with Lab An Albuquerque District Court jury has awarded a New Mexico-based business $3.64 million in a case that pitted the company against Los Alamos National Laboratory contractor Los Alamos National Security, LLC, in a dispute over a contract originally awarded five years ago. Orion […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Y-12 Voluntary Layoff Program Expanded Security was off-limits in the initial round of job reductions planned as part of the Voluntary Separation Program at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, but that has changed. Federal and contractor officials confirmed that the VSP has been expanded to include some security personnel at Y-12, although it […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Moving uranium processing operations out of the Y-12 National Security Complex’s 9212 complex by 2025 will be “extraordinarily difficult” without a drastically revised management structure that moves responsibility of the Uranium Processing Facility into the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Programs, a Red Team that examined the project […]

HASC-Strategic Forces Markup Would Accelerate Cruise Missile Warhead, Creation of Pu Capabilities  Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Republicans on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee are objecting to Administration plans to delay the refurbishment of the cruise missile warhead, and they are moving to authorize additional funding to accelerate the program in Fiscal Year […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 While the Department of Energy this week backed off from plans to immediately suspend work on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and released a long-awaited alternatives study, the plant’s supporters in Congress continued to pressure DOE to commit to MOX completion. Though the Department originally said it would begin […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 As a contract that cedes management of the American Centrifuge Project from USEC to Oak Ridge National Laboratory began this week, Senate appropriators are questioning how the program will be funded. This week DOE and USEC’s bankruptcy court approved a $118 million subcontract between ORNL contractor UT-Battelle and USEC to […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 The United States had 4,804 nuclear weapons in its active deployed stockpile as of September of last year, having trimmed 309 weapons from the last time it declassified the size of its nuclear arsenal in 2010. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller made the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, promised to fight proposed funding cuts to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation program during a subcommittee hearing this week, calling the reductions to the program “egregious.” The Administration requested $8.31 billion for the NNSA’s weapons […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Calling the refurbishment of the air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) a “priority” for the nation, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) was critical of the Obama Administration’s decision this year to delay the replacement of the weapon in a speech this week at the Reserve Officers Association. “The Air Force will continue to […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 The United States should scale back its ambitions to restart arms control negotiations with Russia, House Republicans told a pair of State Department officials this week at a joint hearing of House Foreign Affairs Committee panels, citing tensions over Ukraine and Moscow’s alleged violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 A new report from the Government Accountability Office this week said it’s unlikely that the National Nuclear Security Administration will meet its goals to dismantle all nuclear weapons retired prior to Fiscal Year 2009 by FY 2022, but it suggests slowing down the dismantlement work might help address a problematic […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Legislation introduced this week by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and 20 other Senate Republicans designed to respond to Russia’s actions in Ukraine would terminate U.S. cooperation with parts of the New START Treaty and prohibit arms control negotiations with Moscow. In a statement, Corker said the “Russian Aggression Prevention Act […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 It appears that there could be competition for the Brookhaven National Laboratory contract after all. Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) has kept a low profile during the BNL procurement, but industry officials say the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility contractor is strongly considering a bid for the contract. Brookhaven Science […]

NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 New National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz will take his first tour of the weapons complex as the agency’s administrator next week, making stops at the Nevada National Security Site, the agency’s Albuquerque Complex, Sandia National Laboratories, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha said this week. At Sandia, […]

Paul Donahue CEO, G4S Government Solutions Since taking over as CEO of WSI (G4S Government Solutions, Inc.) months before the Y-12 intrusion in July of 2012, it’s no surprise I’ve found it necessary to revisit, refocus and refine core security and oversight practices that did not adequately facilitate at Y-12 independence of thought and effective […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory official Kim Budil is taking over as the University of California’s Vice President for Laboratory Management, University of California President Janet Napolitano said this week. Budil takes over for Glenn Mara, who announced his retirement last year and stepped down April 30. In her new role, […]

NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 Y-12 UNION APPROVES ONE-YEAR EXTENSION Y-12’s union workers approved a one-year extension of the existing collective bargaining agreement on May 1, setting the stage for the transition of contractors at the Oak Ridge plant. “We’re glad to have this behind us,” Jones said. The extension includes a 2.5 percent wage increase and […]

NS&D Monitor 5/2/2014 IN THE DNFSB House lawmakers are looking to lower the maximum number of employees the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board can have by 20 percent. A provision in the House version of the FY 2015 defense authorization bill, which was reported out of subcommittee this week, would limit the number of full-time […]

NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 IN DOE The Department of Energy has amended the Brookhaven National Laboratory Request for Proposals, stripping language that would have required companies to establish a new entity to bid on the contract. The RFP previously required that a new legal entity be created for procurement, but in a pre-proposal conference presentation last […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 The Department of Energy’s directives revision process is “too cumbersome” and creates confusion, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur said in a letter earlier this month to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. In his April 4 letter, which was recently made public, Winokur urged Moniz to review the directives […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 The Department of Energy could potentially save more than $2.3 million over the next three years by increasing efficiency  in acquisition and management of mobile devices such as phones, tablets and air cards, according to a DOE Inspector General report released this week. The IG’s review covered 10 sites in […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 When the actual job reduction targets for voluntary layoff programs at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants were revealed late this week, the proposed numbers weren’t as high as some expected. B&W Y-12 said it planned to eliminate about 140 positions at the Oak Ridge plant, with about 1,100 […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 4/25/2014 With the transition of contractors at Y-12 and Pantex about a third of the way through, Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security President and CEO Jim Haynes has opened up more about plans and impacts and discussed some of the difficulties in what he’s termed the “mother of all transitions.” Haynes noted […]