Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Centrus Energy Corp. said it made its first delivery of high-assay low-enriched uranium to the U.S. Department of Energy, fulfilling its initial obligation under a contract to make the material for a new generation of  nuclear reactors.  The company made it under the wire of the first phase of its current contract, which covered a […]

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday decried Russia’s withdrawal from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Moscow’s revocation of its ratification of the treaty “represents a significant step in the wrong direction, taking us further from, not closer to, entry into force,” Blinken said in a statement.  President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a […]

A Fluor team has submitted a bid package to operate the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Texas, Chief Executive David Constable said Nov. 3.  The opportunity, available now that NNSA is splitting the maintenance and operations contracts for Pantex and Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is valued at up to $30 billion over […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Radiological Security and Jordan’s Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission have eliminated the Middle Eastern nation’s reliance on radioactive materials for human blood research and testing.  With the NNSA’s help, Jordan has now replaced all high-activity cesium-137 irradiators with X-ray technology, the agency said in an Oct. 30 statement. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, currently lacking a quorum, said Wednesday it has filled one of three big staff vacancies by hiring a U.S. Export Import Bank manager as its new executive director of operations. Mary Jean Buhler, chief financial officer at the Export Import Bank, will become the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board […]

The U.S. military will develop a new, higher-yield variant of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb designed for delivery by modern aircraft, the Pentagon announced on Oct. 27. Designated the B61-13, the new bomb will be suited for use against hardened and large-area military targets, the Defense Department said in a statement. Congressional approval and funding […]

The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah has awarded Lockheed Martin a $996 million, 16-year contract for the Mark 21A reentry vehicle, which will carry nuclear weapons on the planned LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. The contract “provides for conducting engineering, manufacturing, and design to provide a low technical […]

The NNSA’s preferred option for continuing operations at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory involves building more than three million square feet of new facilities at various sites in California through 2035.  Two options for future operations at the lab, and their potential environmental impacts, are laid out in a new site-wide environmental impact statement covering the […]

The wife and accomplice of a former Navy employee who attempted to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign nation is stuck with a 22-year prison sentence after a federal appeals court said she is bound by the agreement she made with prosecutors.  Diana Toebbe’s trial court, the U.S. District Court for Northern West Virginia, […]

Earnings rose at BWXT Technologies,  Lynchburg, Va., in the third quarter, which the naval reactor manufacturer attributed mostly to its commercial business, offset by staffing up its government business in preparation for future work and an increase in corporate expenses.  BWX Technologies Chief Executive Rex Gevenden said the company’s quarterly performance was “slightly ahead of […]

Design of a glovebox facility for the planned Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility in South Carolina is 90% complete and should be done by next spring, an official with the site landlord contractor said this week. “Glovebox design is going to be at 90 percent around spring of next year, and that’s just all of […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee in a voice vote Thursday advanced the White House’s nomination of Patricia Lee to be a member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a panel designed for five people that’s currently down to two.  The nomination of Lee, a manager at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory […]

Navy officials on Wednesday told a House panel that several legislative proposals are needed to prevent delays in the tripartite AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the U.S., U.K. and Australia.  In a joint statement, Under Secretary of the Navy Erik Raven, Commander of Naval Submarine Forces Vice Adm. William Houston, and Program Executive Officer for […]

Another nuclear power plant in Ukraine is now at risk because of nearby combat, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. Explosions blew out window glass and shook the foundations of the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant (KhNPP) in western Ukraine overnight on Oct. 24, shattering windows at the site and temporarily cutting power to some off-site […]

BWX Technologies on Tuesday took home another $300 million contract from the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program to manufacture nuclear reactor fuel for the Navy’s nuclear-powers submarines and aircraft carriers.  Under the new deal, BWXT subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services of Erwin, Tenn., will manufacture and deliver fuel for the Naval Reactors Program, which supplies propulsion […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the small agency created to provide independent safety advice to the Department of Energy, no longer has a quorum following retirement of longtime member Jessie Hill Roberson, Congress was officially told last week. Federal standards allow Chair Joyce Connery, with an assist from Vice Chair Thomas Summers, to keep […]

The race to build 80 nuclear weapon cores per year is stretching the U.S. supply of gloveboxes used to keep engineers radiation-free while manipulating plutonium and other hazardous materials.  The equipment is becoming difficult to source, Michael Robinson, vice president of project management for Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) earlier this month said at the Energy […]

Last week, a team of engineers at the Nevada National Security Site detonated an explosive device underground in hopes of improving the U.S. ability to detect lower-yield nuclear explosions elsewhere in the world.  A National Nuclear Security Administration-led team conducted what the agency called a “subsurface chemical explosion” in the P tunnel in Area 12 […]

On Thursday, after a two-week squabble about who to elect as speaker, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund defense and civilian nuclear programs for the rest of fiscal year 2024. Civilian nuclear programs at the Department of Energy and elsewhere would essentially remain flat under the House’s bill. Active nuclear weapons programs […]

Future arms control agreements will be non-treaty accords that begin with “stealthy” conversations between diplomats willing to buck the status quo, a retired State Department official said in Washington at a government-sponsored forum named for him. Even before China began expanding its nuclear arsenal and Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time this century, it […]

With long-timer Jessie Hill Roberson’s Wednesday retirement from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the federal government’s independent safety watchdog for nuclear-weapon sites is down to two members. Chair Joyce Connery and Vice Chair Thomas Summers are the only two active members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), leaving the nominally five-member panel […]

Two businessmen with companies doing work for the Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus allegedly carried out a kickback scheme involving nuclear weapons parts, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Michael Clinesmith, 67, of Kansas, allegedly sought and received kickbacks and bribes over at least a decade from Richard Mueller, 63, of Missouri, […]

Despite worries within the nuclear security enterprise of “massive uncertainties” in its delivery date, the Scorpius x-ray imager might actually be ready later this decade, a spokesperson for the Sandia National Laboratories said last week. “The deterministic date…is to have Scorpius operational before the end of calendar 2027, with subcritical experiments to start in calendar […]

A bipartisan group of senators this week went public with a request that President Joe Biden (D) compel the Navy to release a study they say is critical to oversight of a trilateral agreement to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines. “We understand that a Submarine Industrial Base 2025 (SIB-25) study from the U.S. Navy […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s drive to make new nuclear-weapon cores has delayed disposal of old ones, according to an agency statement emailed to the Exchange Monitor on Tuesday. Amid the expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility and early work on South Carolina’s planned Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, which combined are supposed […]

In a hearing Thursday, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee lauded a new report that recommends expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal to counter Russian and Chinese nuclear weapons. The testimony of the leaders of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States was “very compelling,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said during […]