Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

A New Mexico resident is suing the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories for slander, defamation, violation of the Freedom of Information Act and — causing the breakup of his 28-year marriage. William Gardner, who is representing himself, filed the action against DOE and Sandia last month. Gardner claims DOE falsely accused him of criminal […]

Tennessee-based Boston Government Services said this week it hired a Leidos executive, Darrell Graddy, as chief strategy officer. Graddy spent eight years in Leidos involved in business development and project management and also spent 30 years in management roles at Lockheed Martin, Boston Government Services said in the press release. According to the release, Graddy is […]

In a Tuesday hearing, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) requested, but did not get, a promise from the Secretary of Energy that President Joe Biden (D) would follow rules in a House-passed bill if his administration bans imports of Russian uranium. “If the administration does impose its own ban on Russian uranium imports, will you commit […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration seeks $70 million for a sea-launched cruise missile warhead for fiscal year 2025 as part of the agency’s list of unfunded priorities, a lawmaker said Wednesday. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm acknowledged at the start of a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the weapon was among the […]

A U.S. Senator asked Tuesday if a planned manufacturing plant in Kansas poses a threat to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nearby factory in Missouri for non-nuclear nuclear-weapon components. The conservative publication Daily Caller in December reported that Cnano Technology USA Inc., a company the publication said has ties to Chinese businesses, planned to build […]

The Missouri House of Representatives this week passed bills that would give tax breaks for the planned expansion of the Kansas City Nuclear Security Campus in Missouri. The state’s 163-member House of Representatives passed the bills Thursday, sending them on to the Senate, which had not scheduled a vote as of deadline for Nuclear Security […]

Drones last week attacked parts of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed this week. “On Sunday, the International Support and Assistance Mission to ZNPP (ISAMZ) confirmed the first attacks since November 2022 to directly target Zaporizhzhya NPP,” Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) director general […]

The centerpiece of a federal neutron research complex in Maryland will use highly enriched uranium fuel until at least 2030, according to a recent regulatory filing. That’s because the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration have yet to develop a fuel the National Bureau of Standards Reactor (NBSR) can use, according […]

The Air Force risks not meeting the 2036 fielding date for the next generation nuclear-tipped missile to replace the Minuteman III, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said in a hearing this week.  “Quite frankly, we’re running against, from my perspective, some real time issues if we’re gonna get these replaced at the three [intercontinental ballistic missile] […]

The Department of Energy’s inspector general questioned $34,796 in unallowable costs paid for 330.5 overtime hours at the Sandia National Laboratories’ badge office in Albuquerque, N.M., according to a report dated April 1 and published this week. The report detailed the results of an investigation into time card irregularities, which the Inspector General’s office conducted […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration planned in June to award a one-year contract to study a pilot defense-uranium enrichment plant based on technology developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the agency said Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency narrowed the timeline for the award in a question-and-answer document published on a […]

The Department of Energy plans to use Aptim, one of nine companies selected in a national solicitation in 2020, as its decommissioning and demolition contractor for Building 281 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. DOE published a justification for not doing additional competitive bidding for the work, worth up to $22.1 million, in […]

The Department of Energy is giving bidders on the $2.9-billion Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Operations and Site Mission Support contract until April 17 to tweak their proposals, sources tell Exchange Monitor. The contract will mostly cover cleanup of Cold War-era uranium hexafluoride in Ohio and Kentucky, but it will also include production of depleted […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments will investigate the prime contractor of the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., for allowing “an unauthorized bluetooth-enabled electronic device” into an area where such devices are prohibited, according to a letter dated March 22 and published this week on the DOE’s website. The incident occurred in […]

Site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security planned a fundraiser Thursday to help cover some of the damages caused by recent wildfires near the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, the joint venture said in a press release. The fires, which drew the attention of major news outlets, forced Pantex, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear-weapons service center, to briefly shut […]

April 15 is the new deadline for potential developers of carbon-free energy projects to respond to a request for qualifications at the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site. Sunday March 31 was the prior deadline for responses to the request for qualifications (RFQ) announced March 1 for clean power projects of 200 MW or more […]

Claudia Jaramillo, Jacobs Solutions’ chief financial officer, will leave the Dallas-based company effective April 15 after less than a year in the job, the company announced Monday in a regulatory filing. Jaramillo “is departing the Company to pursue other opportunities,” Jacobs wrote in a press release distributed Monday. She became Jacobs’ chief financial officer on Aug. […]

The separation of the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee took a baby step forward this week with the opening of separate federal field offices for the nuclear-weapons production sites. Consolidated Nuclear Security, still the joint operations contractor for the two sites, announced the split on Tuesday in a […]

Environmentalists suing the federal government got two more weeks to file briefs in their case about a planned South Carolina plutonium pit factory, according to an order filed late last week. The case, involving the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plans to make nuclear weapon first-stage cores in South Carolina and New Mexico, has been […]

During 2023, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board advised the Department of Energy on issues ranging from on-site transportation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to overseeing aging nuclear infrastructure across the weapons complex. Those are some highlights of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB)’s 34th Annual Report to Congress published March 18. DOE […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Tuesday officially announced Michael Mikolanis as its new top federal official at the agency’s Savannah River Site field office near Aiken, S.C. The Exchange Monitor reported in December that Mikolanis would make the move to the Savannah River Site from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The NNSA announced Mikolanis’ […]

President Joe Biden requested $47.2 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board for the 2025 fiscal year starting Oct, 1, or $5.2 million than the $42 million recently appropriated by congress for the small watchdog agency in fiscal 2024. The White House requested the $47.2 million and the equivalent of 128 full-time staff positions, […]

Although congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a major fiscal 2024 appropriations bill over the weekend, it did not include an extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), said via social media. “Total failure,” Hawley said last on the website X after learning the radiation compensation extension would not make it into […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Saturday signed a package of appropriations bills that fund the Department of Defense and other agencies through Sept. 30 and extended a key federal nuclear indemnity program. The bill extended Price-Anderson protections for Department of Energy contractors and commercial nuclear companies to Dec. 31, 2065 from Dec. 31, 2025 and […]

Settlement talks collapsed weeks ago between the Department of Energy and environmental groups who sued the agency over its plan to produce nuclear-weapons cores in South Carolina, a Tuesday court filing shows. “Both parties were hopeful that the nearly two-month mediation process would bear fruit and focused their attention on those settlement efforts,” Todd Kim, […]

Speed cameras will soon be installed to help curb speeding and aggressive driving along the truck route at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s top local fed told county officials last week. The laboratory is “finding ways to try and better manage traffic flow,” National Nuclear Security Administration […]