Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Dennis Carr, chief operating officer at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, told the Monitor here last week that the team’s parent company Fluor would compete for a follow-on management contract at Savannah River. In late September, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) published a special notice with a draft request for proposal (RFP) […]

According to data gathered by the Associated Press and other media, Donald Trump was reelected president with 277 electoral votes and almost every incumbent lawmaker with a big defense-nuclear constituency won reelection. While Trump and these lawmakers will return to Washington come January, U.S. voters also helped Republicans take back the majority in the Senate […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ strong momentum in 2024 came to a halt in the third quarter due to challenges in shipbuilding and notably delays in an award from the Navy for submarine work. Net income in the quarter slid 32% to $101 million, or $2.56 earnings a share from $148 million or $3.70 a share a […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries Wednesday named Kari Wilkinson, currently president of the company’s Ingalls Shipbuilding segments, as the incoming president of its nuclear shipbuilding operations in Virginia effective Jan. 1, 2025. The Newport News segment is HII’s largest, generating $6.1 billion in sales in 2023. Newport News has more than 26,000 shipbuilders. The business builds and […]

Jason Kemp will take over as resident inspector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board announced Monday. According to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) press release, Kemp’s duties as resident inspector would include advising on safety conditions for the defense nuclear facilities at Los Alamos, […]

The U.S. and the Republic of Korea reached a memorandum of understanding on principles concerning nuclear exports and cooperation on Friday Nov. 1, DOE said Monday. According to an agency press release, the countries as of Monday had yet to complete their final review of the memorandum of understanding (MOU).  According to DOE’s release, the […]

BWX Technologies, a naval-nuclear reactor company that contracts for the National Nuclear Security Administration, announced Thursday that it promoted Robb LeMasters to chief financial officer and executive vice president. “Robb has played a key role in transforming the corporation by supporting organizational development and continuous improvement,” Rex Geveden, chief executive officer, said in a company […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Consolidated Nuclear Security submitted a new rebaseline for the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the facility’s project manager said here. The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages. “There is a new rebaseline that’s been […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s in-house legal advisors this month recommended tweaking the agency’s mission statement to clarify that regulation does not unnecessarily limit beneficial civilian use of nuclear energy. Separately, NRC’s Office of the Executive Director, helmed by the agency’s top civil servant, recommended a slightly different change to the mission statement. NRC’s Office of […]

To avoid delaying construction of a plutonium pit factory in South Carolina and still comply with a judicial order in an antinuclear coalition’s lawsuit, the federal government could cancel a companion pit plant in New Mexico, an antinuclear activist said Wednesday. In September, the National Nuclear Security Administration lost a lawsuit against a group of […]

PanTeXas Deterrence was to take over management for the Pantex Plant on Friday, Nov. 1, completing the transition from Consolidated Nuclear Security as the prime contractor for the lab in Amarillo, Texas. Colby Yeary, the site manager for CNS at the Pantex Plant, confirmed that the transition would be complete this week when he spoke […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told the Monitor here Tuesday that “regardless” of what happens election night Congress needs to get the budget done by Dec. 20. “It’s my hope that we can conference our appropriations bills with the Senate and get a budget passed by Dec. 20,” Fleischmann told the Monitor. “I […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Orano-USA has started the property transfer and licensing process for its planned uranium enrichment plant at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site, the site’s top federal cleanup official said here Wednesday. Orano-USA announced in September that Oak Ridge was its “preferred site” for its uranium enrichment plant that it would build […]

Vehicle mishaps at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory complex continue to worry the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, according to a staff report dated Oct.4 and posted on the board’s website. There were four onsite wrecks during September, including one involving an overturned dump truck, although no one was injured, according to the […]

Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., had a net loss in the third quarter, which the uranium broker and enrichment technology developer attributed in part to costs associated with a Department of Energy uranium contract. Centrus lost about $5 million, or $0.30 a share, in the third quarter, compared with earnings of about $8.2 million or […]

The Department of Energy is on track to start operation of a major new underground ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in 2026, managers for DOE and the disposal site contractor said last week. Construction and integrated system testing is complete for the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) at […]

Dan Brouillette, who served as secretary of energy under President Donald Trump, announced Monday he intends to leave as president and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, the advocacy group for investor-owned utilities in the United States. Brouillette, who was chosen to lead the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) a little more than a year ago, […]

Over the weekend, Israel attacked two Iranian military bases, one of which the International Atomic Energy Agency suspected is linked to Tehran’s nuclear program, media reported. Iran’s Parchin military base southeast of the capital in Tehran was used to test high explosives for use in nuclear weapons, the Washington-based nonprofit Institute for Science and International […]

Community members from Santa Fe, N.M., marched Oct. 25 to protest a project by Los Alamos National Laboratory that would build a power line through the Caja del Rio Plateau, local media reported. Pueblo tribe members and other community members walked through Santa Fe, from the County Administration Building to the National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday said it indefinitely reopened a public comment period on the Department of Energy’s July request to expand the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “A request for an extension to the comment period was received from several stakeholders, most recently at the Agency’s informal public meetings held in […]

State and federal agencies plan a public meeting this week to discuss cleanup plans for a naval prototype reactor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. A cleanup strategy favored by DOE and the other agencies would cost more than $70 million and involve complete removal of the prototype intended to eliminate long-term environmental […]

Third-quarter earnings fell slightly at Honeywell, Charlotte, N.C., the company, which is involved with management of several defense-nuclear sites, reported this week.  Net earnings for the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, were roughly $1.4 billion, or $2.16 a share, down from about $1.5 billion, or $2.27 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Latvia has made “clear improvements” to its nuclear and radiation safety, according to an agency press release last week. The government of Latvia requested that the Integrated Regulatory Review Service, which includes IAEA staff members, review the regulatory framework by the country’s Radiation Safety Centre of State Environmental Service […]

A judge this week gave parties involved in a three-year lawsuit against the Department of Energy another 12 days to reach a compromise over environmental review of the agency’s plutonium pit program, court papers show.  The new due date for a joint proposal by both parties is Nov. 4, according to a filing in the […]

Larry Cutlip, Centrus Energy Corp.’s senior vice president of field operations, last week said he would retire from the company in July, according to a Friday regulatory filing. Cutlip gave his notice on Oct. 16, according to a form 8-K Centrus, Bethesda, Md., filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cutlip “will retire his position […]

A delegation from the National Nuclear Security Administration visited the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization’s Lucas Heights campus in Sydney last week, the Australian agency’s press release said Monday. The visit followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries during the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency’s International Conference on […]

“Funding needs to happen” for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the State Department’s undersecretary for arms control said Tuesday at a think-tank event about nuclear power. “People hear the word energy, I mean nuclear, and they kind of run. A lot of people run for the hills,” Bonnie Jenkins, the undersecretary of state for arms […]