Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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