Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Departing officers of an advisory board for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said this week they are feeling less anxious about the National Nuclear Security Administration taking over the 310-square-mile property on Oct. 1. That’s when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) , a semi-autonomous branch of DOE, is scheduled […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission found BWX Technologies violated safety protocols in the runup to a fatal 2020 flash fire sparked by exposed wires and alcohol-soaked rags. However, the commission will not fine the company, which has already paid a separate penalty to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an NRC spokesperson […]

The prime contractor of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is being investigated for an April incident in which radioactive contamination from the nuclear weapons lab was found on and off-site. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Enterprise Assessments announced its intent to investigate Lawrence Livermore National Security on Jan. 26. Anthony Pierpoint, director […]

WASHINGTON — The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plan to produce 30 nuclear weapon cores annually by 2028 satisfies current military needs, the head of U.S. Strategic Command said here Friday. That date, given earlier in the summit by the head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, “meets my needs in that regard for W87-1” Gen. […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration will extend the Bechtel National-led prime contractor at Y-12 National Security Complex that builds nuclear weapon secondary stages in Tennessee through September 2027, the head of the agency said here Thursday. The agency also plans to extend Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies at the Kansas City National Security […]

WASHINGTON — A three-year slip for a new x-ray imager will not necessarily result in a bigger, more massive W93 nuclear warhead, senior officials from Los Alamos National Laboratory said here Thursday. That was a slight change in tune compared with an appraisal one of these people made last year. For the last three years, […]

About two years after it released a draft of the document, the National Nuclear Security Administration published a final environmental review of its plant to dispose of dozens of tons of surplus, weapon-usable plutonium. The nuclear weapons agency published its final Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program (SPDP) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the Federal Register on […]

The annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, hosted by the Exchange Monitor, kicks off in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday with more than 60 speakers from the top ranks of the U.S.  nuclear security enterprise.  Expect much discussion of the National Nuclear Security Administration striving to produce at least 80 plutonium pits for use in modernizing nuclear weapons […]

Russia has reportedly developed a nuclear war simulator, including blast and mushroom cloud effects, to train troops for fighting after an exchange of nuclear weapons with an adversary. The report comes from state-controlled media outlet Tass and was repeated in U.S. publications including Stars and Stripes. The Tass report comes on the heels of the […]

Senators call out Sentinel delays, overruns in WSJ op-edTwo Republican Senators, both senior members of influential defense committees, on Friday published an op-ed airing concerns that U.S. nuclear modernization is lagging behind its adversaries, particularly the LGM-35 Sentinel. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), and Deb Fischer […]

The Air Force is examining how to reduce the massive civil works project costs that make up a significant part of the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM program, service officials said Wednesday. The service last week informed Congress of a 37% unit cost Nunn-McCurdy program breach — an increase in unit cost per missile […]

The Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri, which manufactures most of the non-nuclear components of U.S. nuclear weapons celebrates its diamond anniversary next month. Initially dedicated by then-Senator Harry Truman in 1942, what began as a Pratt & Whitney plant building Double Wasp radial engines for a variety of World War II aircraft, the […]

There remains a “very real potential for a major nuclear accident at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant after two years of almost non-stop combat near the facility, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday. Addressing the council for the sixth time since the war began […]

National Nuclear Security Administration program offices do not consistently monitor performance of minor construction projects of fewer than $30 million in total cost, the Government Accountability Office found in a recent audit. From fiscal year 2019 through July 2023, NNSA offices undertook 414 minor construction projects that cost an estimated total of about $3 billion, […]

Through a partnership with Washington State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are developing new ways to make its Operational Technology Assurance course, sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration, more realistic for attendees. The partnership resulted in development of a mock vintage-style glovebox, used daily by NNSA scientists to manipulate hazardous radioactive material, that students […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Friday signed a spending bill to keep agencies including the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration open until March 1. The Senate passed the bill 77-to-18 on Tuesday afternoon. The House followed quickly after, approving the month-and-a-half stopgap budget 314-to-108.  The measure will keep DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory […]

The Department of Energy prime for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is shopping around for subcontractors interested in building a new emergency operations center. The request for information and expressions of interest by Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions was published online Wednesday.   Responses are due by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Feb. 5 […]

After more than a year of trying, International Atomic Energy Agency teams experts on Monday were granted access to the sixth and final reactor hall at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. Situated on the frontlines of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the plant has been under Russian occupation almost since the beginning of Moscow’s February 2022 […]

Michael Lempke is now leading Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Australia business, where he will shepherd the shipbuilder and nuclear-site manager’s portion of the tripartite AUKUS agreement between the U.S., U.K. and Australia. Lempke, most recently president of the company’s Nuclear and Environmental Services group, took the post on Jan.1, Huntington Ingalls (HII) said in a statement […]

Below is Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s annual digest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) performance evaluation summaries: the agency’s report cards for its big contracts, which explain how much management and operations entities earned for their performance. The Monitor has provided links to NNSA source documents. Kansas City National Security Campus, Kansas City, […]

Northrop Grumman has conducted a live, static-fire test of a stage-two solid rocket motor for the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile at the Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma, Tenn., the company announced Jan. 16. Northrop is the Air Force’s Sentinel prime contractor and is responsible for building the solid rocket motor for […]

There were at least six separate contamination incidents at Los Alamos National Laboratory between December and January, according to a series of safety watchdog reports.  Most recently, two incidents occurred within a week in early January in Technical Area 55, according to summaries by the lab. Just before 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 4 an employee […]

Nuclear naval reactor builder BWX Technologies has named former Boeing executive Nicole Piasecki to its board of directors effective January 2, 2024. Piasecki spent 25 years with Boeing in various senior leadership positions, including vice president and general manager of the Propulsion Systems Division for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. She currently serves on the boards of […]

“Oppenheimer,” the 2023 movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer, first director of what is now the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was honored as the year’s best movie drama on Jan. 7 at the Golden Globe awards ceremony. Cillian Murphy, the actor who portrayed the scientist, was named best actor for his performance and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is extending the public comment period regarding a new 14-mile electric power transmission line serving the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Public comment on the Los Alamos National Laboratory Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project Draft Environmental Assessment opened on Dec. 19 and will be extended for another month […]

More than six months after his nomination, and just shy of a month after his Senate confirmation, Adm. Bill Houston on Thursday took over as director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program that develops reactors for Navy warships and submarines. Houston took over for Adm. Frank Caldwell, who became director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion […]

An agreement that gives Qatar ownership of all intellectual property generated by a Texas A&M University campus there drew criticism recently when the latest contract outlining the deal was published online. In a lengthy expose on the arrangement between the university and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, the Free Press, an outlet […]