Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Still deadlocked over whether to spend the maximum allowed by a law passed this spring, Congress on Friday still had not passed a bill to keep federal agencies open in the new government fiscal year that begins Sunday. On Friday, even before it failed by a 198-232 vote to pass in the chamber in which […]

Deliveries of the B61-12 nuclear bomb that eventually will be carried by the Air Force F-35A Joint Strike Fighter are underway, the National Nuclear Security Administration told Exchange Monitor. The Nuclear Weapons Council authorized B61-12 Life Extension Program entry into Phase 6.6, which marks full rate production, in June 2022, an NNSA spokesperson said in […]

Owing to a renewed emphasis on producing plutonium pits for use in refurbished nuclear weapons, management of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will revert to the National Nuclear Security Administration in October 2024. The now-310-square-mile facility near Aiken, South Carolina, was the locus of plutonium and tritium production for the primary stages of […]

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Monday announced plans to create a commercial nuclear fusion facility within 10 years, The Associated Press reports.  The Biden administration sees fusion as a carbon-free energy source for powering homes and businesses. The Lawrence Livermore National Lab scientist in charge of nuclear weapon design and physics, whose team frequently uses […]

The wife of a former Navy employee who attempted to sell nuclear-submarine secrets to a foreign nation argues that the 22-year sentence she got for her part in the attempted espionage violates her constitutional right to due process. During a half-hour of oral arguments before the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 19, […]

National Technology and Engineering Solutions has established adequate safety systems management programs at Sandia National Laboratories, but a new watchdog report questions whether those programs can ensure safe nuclear operations at the lab’s New Mexico research reactor.  The Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments inspected the safety system management practices at Sandia’s New Mexico campus, […]

Naval nuclear reactor manufacturer BWX Technologies has teamed with shipping company Crowley to develop a nuclear-powered concept ship for defense and disaster relief the company announced Sept. 20 on its website. Crowley signed a memorandum of understanding with BWX’s Advanced Technologies subsidiary that will allow both companies to jointly develop new shallow-draft-hull ships that can […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Enterprise Assessments is investigating an incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex in which a machine used to shape uranium was dismantled without proper criticality controls in place. In a letter dated Aug. 3, Anthony Pierpoint, director of the NNSA’s office of enforcement, notified Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) […]

A federal employee at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s W88 Alteration 370 Federal Program Office, whose computer access was restricted, used a subcontractor’s email for five years to bypass those restrictions, according to a new watchdog report.  The employee’s National Nuclear Security Administration building access also was restricted “due to a formal inquiry by a […]

With no stopgap funding plan imminent and a Sept. 30 deadline looming, the Department of Energy and other feds are reacquainting themselves with contingency plans to carry out in case of a government shutdown. At the Exchange Monitor deadline, House Republicans, still arguing amongst themselves over what should go into a continuing budget resolution to […]

Lockheed Martin wants to build solid rocket motors to compete with the military’s two current main suppliers,  Northrop Grumman’s Orbital ATK and L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne. “We are endeavoring as a defense company to create another supplier,” James Taiclet, the president of Lockheed Martin, testified at a Sept. 20 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s […]

The Air Force expects to certify the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to carry nuclear weapons in January, once sufficient numbers of pilots and ground crew are trained to carry out the mission. But it may not have the jets, equipped with the proper avionics and mission systems, needed to perform the nuclear mission until several […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security moved a meeting for potential bidders on a construction contract for the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, to a nearby college from the nuclear-weapons maintenance site, the contractor wrote in an online notice. “[D]ue to the number of requests we have moved the venue off site to prevent issues with badging,” the […]

The Defense Department extended an existing contract with X-energy Reactor Company under the military’s Project Pele initiative to develop a transportable, cost-effective advanced nuclear microreactor prototype for use in remote military locations.  X-energy expects to advance the design of its prototype – which could ultimately be used for commercial or industrial use in civilian applications […]

Jacobs Solutions, Huntington Ingalls, BWX Technologies and others are among those seeking the National Nuclear Security Administration’s decade-spanning, $30-billion contract to manage the agency’s nuclear-weapons service center in Texas. Pantex and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., are currently managed for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) by Consolidated Nuclear Security, a […]

The Department of Energy’s enforcement arm has told two contractors it will investigate a fatal tree clearing accident in August near the Central Training Facility at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. In a pair of Sept. 8 letters, the Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments informed East Tennessee Mechanical Contractors and […]

The annual must-pass defense policy bill that sets spending limits for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs is headed for its final debate in Congress after the House on Tuesday voted for a conference with the Senate. At a high level, the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate this year crafted wildly different versions of […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration fixed some inconsistencies with the process it uses to keep track of changes to the way the agency surveys the nuclear-weapon stockpile, the Department of Energy’s inspector general wrote in a report published recently and dated Aug. 31. The Inspector General studied the agency’s Universal Change Control process for about […]

ARLINGTON, VA —Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) Tuesday prodded hundreds of people here for the National Cleanup Workshop to urge their congressional representatives to avoid a federal government shutdown but stopped short of predicting a stopgap agreement before fiscal 2023 ends Sept. 30. “Reach out to your member of congress,” said Fleischmann, who chairs the House […]

Two decades after planning began, the fire department for the Y-12 National Security Complex has moved into its brand-new station, site officials said in a recent statement. Construction began in the spring of 2021 after 20 years of discussion and planning, according to a post on the site’s blog. When visiting the new Y-12 Fire […]

The U.S.-Japan Nuclear Security Working Group convened for its 12th meeting at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee earlier this month for a wide-ranging discussion on nuclear non-proliferation issues. Corey Hinderstein, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, and Ambassador Mitsuko Hayashi, deputy director general of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign […]

The U.S. and Philippine governments are in the home stretch of signing a 123 agreement to boost cooperation on both civil energy projects and nuclear non-proliferation efforts. Quoting Philippine Energy Undersecretary Sharon Garin, the Manila Bulletin — that nation’s largest English language newspaper — said the two countries are on the brink of signing the […]

ARLINGTON, VA —Planned plutonium pit production for nuclear defense purposes at two Department of Energy sites depends on the ability to dispose of resulting transuranic waste, a National Nuclear Security Administration executive said here Wednesday. “A single bad waste drum is likely to have a bigger impact on our mission” than any bad pit, James […]

Federal officials did not inappropriately block contractors from investigating concerns about a program to refurbish one of the Navy’s two nuclear weapons, the Department of Energy’s inspector general wrote in a recent report. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is upgrading the W88, which tips submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and entered service in 1988, for […]

Teams vying to take over the Pantex Plant from its Bechtel-led incumbent will get another two weeks to turn in their final bids, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Friday. The agency extended the deadline for bids on the potentially 20-year contract by two weeks to Sept. 28, according to a procurement notice posted online. The […]

In what would be a major milestone for a technology eyed as a possible cornerstone for nuclear-weapon sustainment in the latter half of this century, Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., said this week it will begin enriching energy-dense uranium fuel in October. Centrus is in the prove-it phase of a Department of Energy contract, awarded […]

With less than a month left until fiscal year 2024 begins, the White House has asked Congress for a short-term continuing resolution to freeze federal budgets at 2023 levels. Media reported last week that leaders in the House and Senate have remained open to the requested stopgap bill. Fiscal year 2024 begins Oct. 1.  The […]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Boston Government Services, has hired Doug Freund in the newly-created post of chief operating officer, the Department of Energy contractor said this week. Freund was most recently senior vice president for Kiewit Nuclear Solutions, where he was responsible for markets and strategy, Boston Government Services said in a press release. In addition, […]