Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Los Alamos National Laboratory management has been put on notice after a series of safety violations two years ago sent red flags all the way up to National Nuclear Security Administration leadership. Triad National Security, led by Battelle Memorial Institute, The Texas A&M University System and the University of California, violated Department of Energy safety […]

The United States has stopped sharing with Russia certain information required under the New START nuclear arms treaty, implementing so-called “countermeasures” to Moscow’s suspension of its participation in the bilateral agreement, according to the State Department. Four specific measures, all of which are reversible, are now in effect to mirror Russia’s refusal to abide by […]

After about two years of bid protests, incumbent Centerra Group recently started its 60-day transition into a new 10-year contract to provide security to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., an agency spokesperson said Thursday. The Notice to Proceed was issued on May 15 and Centerra should start its new decade-long, […]

Robert Moriarty, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for Installations, authorized the support construction phase for the Northrop Grumman’s LGM-35A Sentinel missile. The Department of the Air Force’s 450 missile silos, launch facilities and 45 missile alert facilities “would be updated extensively to completely refurbished condition to meet the requirements of the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Secure Transport, which is responsible for moving nuclear material and weapons between secure sites around the country, is buying two new logistics support trailers to aid federal agents in that mission. Trailer Technologies Holdings, based in Albuquerque, N.M., received a sole-source, firm-fixed-price contract to build the two trailers […]

Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and National Nuclear Security Administration head Jill Hruby are too legit to quit. In mid-May, the pair hosted former rapper and “science enthusiast” MC Hammer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore California.  Hruby included a photo of the three of them, along with Kim Budil, director of […]

Senators from four states have joined forces to form a caucus dedicated to advocating for U.S. national laboratories, including those overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), James Risch (R-Idaho.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced the creation of a new Senate National Labs Caucus on May 25. […]

Meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the first of the only two nuclear weapons deployed in wartime, leaders of the Group of Seven nations reaffirmed a commitment to rid the world of nuclear weapons.  Along with the city of Nagasaki, Hiroshima “offers a reminder of the unprecedented devastation and immense human suffering the people […]

Production of tritium and plutonium pits could prove a significant limiting factor in the introduction of a new nuclear weapons delivery method like a sea-launched cruise missile and other attempts by the U.S. to beef up its nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, according to an official at the National Strategic Research Institute.  Christopher […]

The House Appropriations Committee postponed markups of several fiscal year 2024 spending bills with no rain-check date given, the panel’s chairwoman said Monday.  Citing ongoing negotiations between the administration and House Republican leadership, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who chairs the appropriations committee, said all markups scheduled for the week are now postponed. “Given recent developments […]

At the heart of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is an often-overlooked force of highly-trained, armed couriers who shepherd nuclear materials from one National Nuclear Security Administration site to another.  NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Frank Rose on May 18 praised the most recent class of candidates for that service, graduates of the Office of Secure […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory added SambaNova Systems’ spatial data flow accelerator to the lab’s Livermore Computing Center as part of an effort to see if artificial intelligence can aid the nuclear-weapons program. Livermore will integrate the new hardware to further investigate cognitive simulation approaches combining artificial intelligence (AI) with high-performance computing to learn if deep […]

Russia on Thursday made good on a plan to deploy lower-yield nuclear weapons in Belarus, a move President Vladimir Putin announced in an interview with state television on March 25, Reuters and other news outlets reported.  It is the first deployment of Russian nuclear weapons outside the country’s borders since the fall of the Soviet […]

Some programs to ferret out potential insider threats at the Department of Energy are still not in place eight years after they were established, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. DOE established its Insider Threats Program in 2014 but has “not implemented all required measures” for the program, like ensuring employees are trained to identify […]

Ground was broken last week on a new 13,000-square-foot operational command center at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site to consolidate emergency services into a single building. NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Frank Rose cut the ribbon for the Mercury 2 building on May 11. The new facility is among those to be […]

Another power-generation cycle is underway at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1, one of two reactors in which rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons are irradiated. The plant returned to operation on May 12 after a scheduled shutdown for maintenance […]

State officials signed off last week on a Department of Energy request to delay installation of what’s known as Next Generation Solvent at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a federal advisory board heard Monday. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on May 8 approved […]

Tennessee environmentalists and anti-nukers literally prayed for NRC to prevent a planned license amendment that would let BWX Technologies subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services purify uranium for the National Nuclear Security Administration.  “Dear Chairman Hanson,” reads a postcard sent by multiple activists to NRC Chair Christopher Hanson. “As a fellow person of faith, I believe in […]

The U.S. State Department released aggregate numbers of strategic offensive nuclear weapons on Monday, its obligation under the New START treaty, despite Russia’s refusal to participate further in the bilateral deal.  “As a lawful countermeasure in response to the Russian Federation’s violation of its New START Treaty obligations, the United States did not provide its […]

NAC International’s contract to transport irradiated rods containing tritium from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was renewed without competition in September, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration identified four companies that the agency believes could do the work.  The new five-year follow-on contract is being awarded on […]

The wife of a former Navy civil engineer who attempted to sell nuclear-submarine secrets to a foreign nation is contesting the 22-year sentence she got for her part in the attempted espionage.  Diana Toebbe was convicted of conspiracy to communicate restricted data for being an accomplice to her husband, Jonathan Toebbe, who over several months […]

The Pentagon is accelerating test equipment purchases for initial operational testing and evaluation of the LGM-35A Sentinel to reduce risk and prevent further delays in development of the Northrop Grumman-built intercontinental ballistic missile. Pentagon acquisition chief William LaPlante signed an Acquisition Decision Memo (ADM) regarding the Sentinel program on March 27, the Defense Department said […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to have BWX Technologies process nearly twice as much high-assay low-enriched uranium as recently planned after more than a metric ton of the material was found at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.  A notice of intent filed May 3 on the government’s contracting website outlines NNSA plans […]

The House Armed Services Committee postponed its markup of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act with no rain-check date given, the panel’s chairman said Tuesday.  Without giving a reason for the delay, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) just five days after announcing the markup schedule for the various subcommittees, said the entire process would be pushed […]

Earnings rose for Centrus Energy in the first quarter of 2023, during which the uranium broker and enrichment-technology developer finished building its 16-machine high-assay low-enriched uranium enrichment cascade. The company reported $7.2 million in net income, or $0.49 a share, in the first quarter on $66.9 million in revenue, compared with a net loss of […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, and the company sees fair winds ahead, driven by U.S. Navy and allied nuclear ship propulsion requirements.  Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $61 million or $0.67 per share up from $59.1 million, or $0.64 a share, in the year-ago […]

Employees suing Consolidated Nuclear Security over allegedly withheld wages got new lawyers this week and want more time to answer the company’s motion to dismiss their case, court documents show. The plaintiffs want an extension to the May 9 deadline the court set to proceed with the case or have it thrown out. Consolidated Nuclear […]