Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/11/2015 Department of Energy officials are still in the hot seat with lawmakers over the decision to suspend the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project, and this week they did not provide any specifics on alternatives for plutonium disposition. DOE last month announced that due to rising costs it would immediately […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/11/2015 Responding to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) is planning to soon introduce a bill that would suspend all National Nuclear Security Administration work in Russia. The wide-ranging bill would prohibit the "contact, cooperation or transfer of technology" between the NNSA and the Russian Federal until Energy Secretary […]

Mcmillan Lays out Needs for Pu Strategy With a 2019 deadline to get out of the aged Chemistry and Metallurgy Research facility looming five years from now, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan this week outlined key requirements for the lab’s plutonium strategy. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, McMillan said […]

Security Upgrade Project Wrapped up at Y-12 The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week that a project to upgrade the security infrastructure at the Y-12 National Security Complex was completed ahead of schedule and approximately $20 million less than its initial $72 million budget. The Security Improvements Project (SIP), which the NNSA said cost […]

IN CONGRESS Subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee will mark up their portions of the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Authorization Act April 30 and May 1 before the full committee marks up the bill May 7, committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said this week. The Strategic Forces Subcommittee, which authorizes and sets policy […]

March   19 Meeting: Nevada Site-Specific Advisory Board; Frank H. Rogers Building, Las Vegas, Nev.   26 Hearing: NNSA Governance, House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, co-chairmen of the NNSA Governance Panel, Norm Augustine and Richard Mies, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Time: TBA.   26 Hearing: National Nuclear Security Administration and the Office […]

Former Nevada Site Office Manager Stephen Mellington has joined Longenecker & Associates as a senior associate

Their actions on July 28, 2012, prompted an almost complete security makeover in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and this week, the perpetrators—Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed—received years of prison sentences as a result.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has cancelled an ambitious laser fusion energy program aimed at marketing and commercializing National Ignition Facility technology in the face of Congressional scrutiny and questions about the utility of the program

With acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held signaling a shift in M&O contracting across the weapons complex, industry officials gathered at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit last week suggested just taking aim at the large fees being paid might not be the answer to the agency’s problems.

With the National Nuclear Security Administration considering alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility, project officials are scaling back and restructuring current work on the facility, according to a recent memo from UPF Project Director Carl Strock.

In another sign of apparent management turmoil within the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a group of Board employees tasked with examining morale concerns has found what appears to be a significant divide between staff and senior management.

Signaling a potential major change in the Obama Administration’s surplus plutonium disposition strategy, the National Nuclear Security Administration dispatched a consultant to the Savannah River Site this week to examine options for terminating Shaw AREVA MOX Services’ contract for construction of the MOX plant at the site, either as part of a shutdown of the project or as part of a new contracting strategy, NS&D Monitor has learned