Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Processing Facility is structurally sound enough to withstand potential seismic events, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board found in a recent study of the building.  The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has worked with the Department of Energy on the seismic safety of PF-4 and Los Alamos since […]

Linda Bauer, former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deputy director, will lead a new effort to write a “blueprint” for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production and science & technology infrastructure.  NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby announced the campaign to “keep pace with the dynamic global environment” in an internal email seen by the Exchange Monitor on […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will be not be published on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023 and Friday, Aug. 25, 2023, as part of the Exchange Monitor’s annual August recess.

Consolidated Nuclear Security set up a reliable fire suppression system and procedures at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to a recent assessment by the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. The Bechtel National-led site prime contractor “has established a comprehensive sitewide [fire protection program] and policy to ensure the […]

Construction continues around the clock on the High Explosives Science and Engineering facility at the Pantex Plant in Texas, where the first of three massive concrete slabs were recently poured during an all-night construction binge. Crews recently placed the first of three 2-foot-thick concrete mat slabs at the High Explosives Science and Engineering (HESE) project’s […]

A federal judge will rule on a request from Consolidated Nuclear Security to throw out a suit brought by employees who allege, in a suit that has ground on for three years amid the plaintiffs’ failure to retain a lawyer, that the contractor improperly withheld wages from workers in Tennessee. Judge Katherine Crytzer did not […]

A National Nuclear Security Administration facility in Albuquerque, N.M., received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, a first for any of the agency’s roughly 1,000 buildings. The John A. Gordon Albuquerque Complex Facility, a satellite campus that provides high-performance computing, research and engineering capabilities to nearby Los […]

After almost four years on the job, Philip Strawbridge on Aug. 4 announced he would retire as Centrus Energy Corp.’s chief financial officer by the end of the month. Strawbridge, who was 64 when he took the job, has served as a senior vice president, chief financial officer, chief administrative officer and treasurer of Centrus since […]

Personnal at Ukraine’s besieged Zaphorizhzhia nuclear power plant continued to power down some of the plant’s reactors this week when a water leak was detected from a steam generator and amidst continued threats to the facility’s external power supply. Plant personnel this week began transferring the facility’s unit 4 reactor from hot shutdown to cold […]

Earnings fell at Jacobs, Dallas, in the third quarter of its fiscal 2023 year as the international engineer company continued to move toward a sale of its government contracting business. Net earnings for the quarter ended June 30 were $164 million, or $1.29 a share, down from net earnings of $196 million or $1.52 a […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 automatically shut down for a little less than a day-and-a-half last week because of low steam levels, the authority confirmed this week. The quasi governmental company confirmed the outage to the Exchange Monitor after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday reported that Unit 2, which […]

In a statement Monday from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. “For more than fifty years, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has endured as the foundation of a system built on nuclear restraint,” Miller said. “The challenges we […]

Earnings fell at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor attributed partly to a $34 million charge cost and schedule issues in its Energy Solutions sector. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were $61 million, or $0.35 a share, down from $66 million, or $0.38 a […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the second quarter, but the nuclear services company sees support with the U.S. Navy’s long-term shipbuilding plan, the AUKUS trilateral security agreement between the U.S., U.K. and Australia paying dividends in the future. The company is currently negotiating the next two-year pricing agreement for nuclear naval reactors […]

Earnings were down year-over-year for Centrus Energy in the second quarter of 2023, despite the uranium broker and enrichment-technology developer receiving the go-ahead from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to produce High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium this year.  The Bethesda, Md., company reported $12.7 million in net income, or $0.84 a share, in the second quarter on $98.4 […]

The W87-1 warhead modification program recently moved into development engineering, also called Phase 6.3, following approval from the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Defense and the Nuclear Weapons Council.  During this phase of the nuclear weapons lifecycle process, NNSA will continue to work closely with the Defense Department to conduct experiments, tests and […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., reported lower earnings in the quarter ended June 30 but called out revenue growth in shipbuilding and the Mission Technologies segment, which handles business with the Department of Energy. Net earnings for the quarter ended June 30 were $130 million, or $3.27 a share, down from $178 million or […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security, which operates the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is seeking contractors to undertake a sweeping utilities upgrade at the site. For the Utility Upgrades and Equipment Project (UUEP), Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) wants a contractor to perform site demolition and preparation and installation of new utilities. CNS wants a […]

After doling out $62 million in fiscal year 2022 for establishing a domestic supply of the medical isotope molybdenum-99, the Department of Energy has zeroed out funding for cooperative agreements with companies that can do the work without using highly enriched uranium. At least $62 million was payed out through the program in fiscal year […]

The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, has a new Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board resident inspector as of Monday. Austin Holloway, a former explosives engineer at the Naval Air Warfare (NAVAIR) Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., took over the position with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on July 31.  As a […]

Lawrence Livermore National Security, the contractor that operates Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is now accepting applications for its 2023 Community Gift Program. Established in 2008, the Community Gift Program provides annual awards to support nonprofit organizations addressing science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics education, community service and philanthropic needs in local and surrounding communities. The […]

Just after 8 p.m. on Thursday, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which provides a modest boost to civilian and military nuclear weapons modernization programs.  The Senate’s version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), approved 86-11, authorizes the National Nuclear Security Administration to spend $24 billion or so, up […]

Editor’s note: This story replaces the story “NNSA considers new domestic uranium enrichment technology near Oak Ridge” [Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Vol. 27 No. 29], which contained several errors. The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to establish a pilot program for enriching weapons-grade uranium on American soil by 2030. It’s a sort of back-to-square-one […]

Hensel Phelps, a construction subcontractor working at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, recently completed concrete placements for four warehouses that will provide more than a football field’s worth of additional storage capacity and workspace.  Approximately 5,000 cubic yards of concrete were laid for the foundation on June 15, a milestone the lab announced […]

The Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration would have just three months to begin development of a nuclear sea-launched cruise missile when the Senate passes its 2024 defense policy bill.  Passed in the Senate by an 86-11 vote on Thursday, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would require that within 90 days of final […]

Delays in producing new plutonium pits at two National Nuclear Security Administration sites are “very disturbing,” given the need to modernize nearly every element of the U.S. nuclear arsenal in coming decades, a former NNSA policy director said Wednesday. “During the Cold War, the U.S. produced up to 2,000 warhead pits per year at the […]

International Atomic Energy Agency officials have carried out additional inspections at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant over the past week without finding any heavy military equipment, explosives or mines, but they are still awaiting access to the rooftops of the reactor buildings, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on July 20. During visits to portions […]