Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 The legislation that created the National Nuclear Security Administration as a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy has been “counter-productive” as it has been implemented, the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise said in an interim report just made public this week. The panel’s […]

NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY George Dials has joined the staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory as a senior executive advisor, NS&D Monitor has learned. Dials previously headed up B&W Conversion Services, LLC, which manages the Department of Energy’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants, from late 2010 until he left Babcock & Wilcox […]

Todd Jacobson and Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 With the House Armed Services Committee rebuffing an attempt to boost authorized funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) hasn’t offered any hints yet as to whether he’ll fight to reinstate the funding […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 U.S. strategic forces conducted a massive nuclear response drill this week dubbed “Global Lightning 14,” but officials say it’s not in response to Russia’s nuclear exercises last week. According to a statement from U.S. Strategic Command, the five-day exercise that was slated to wrap up May 16 included 10 B-52 […]

Waste Shipments Halted Past Two Weeks as DOE Examines Potential Reactions In LANL Drums Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 With shipments suspended for the past two weeks, it could soon be impossible for the Department of Energy to meet a high-profile June 30 commitment to New Mexico to remove aboveground transuranic waste from Los Alamos […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 In a move that could foreshadow its strategy for a new Sandia National Laboratories contract, the National Nuclear Security Administration is upping the fixed fee lab manager Lockheed Martin is guaranteed under the contract in a two-year extension  that took effect May 1. Details of the contract were released for […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 With the Department of Energy looking at plutonium disposition alternatives to the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, the State Department’s top arms control official said late last week that she didn’t expect Russia to object to any changes to U.S. plans. Lawmakers that have opposed the Obama Administration’s decision to […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/16/2014 Fresh off its defeat at Y-12 and Pantex, Babcock & Wilcox is planning to make a push for an increased role at the Savannah River Site, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Ferland said on a conference call with investors this week. B&W is “working hard on positioning for Savannah […]

Roger Snodgrass For NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—New National Security Administration chief Frank Klotz said a recent suggestion by a Uranium Processing Facility Red Team that the agency scale back its plans to modernize its uranium processing activities at the Y-12 National Security Complex is “an approach we ought to consider,” but he was less […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 In a surprising move that raises questions about competition for the new Brookhaven National Laboratory management and operating contract, Southeastern Universities Research Association said late this week that it was taking a pass on bidding for management of the Long Island laboratory. Days after it appeared that SURA was preparing […]

NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 IN THE DNFSB The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is closing a decade-old recommendation on oversight of complex, high-hazard nuclear operations, but it says it will continue to keep tabs on the Department’s progress in strengthening federal safety assurance. The recommendation, originally issued May 21, 2004, helped revitalize the implementation of Integrated […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 A provision in the House Armed Services Committee version of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that would have boosted authorized construction funding for the wobbling Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility was stripped from the bill late in the evening of May 7 with opponents of the project […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 Republicans this week turned away an amendment to the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that would’ve authorized an increase in nuclear weapons dismantlement work. The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) during a markup hearing on the bill, would have […]

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. […]