Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday awarded Nuclear Fuel Services, a subsidiary of naval nuclear reactor manufacturer BWX Technologies, a five-year, $428-million contract to provide purification and conversion services for highly enriched uranium .  Located in Erwin, Tenn., Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) is one of only two category I nuclear facilities licensed by the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s new Plutonium Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will not be up and running until 2032 at the earliest, according to the contractor who manages the site.  Stuart MacVean, president and CEO of Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, said Wednesday that the new Savannah River Plutonium […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has established the Advisory Committee for Nuclear Security to advise senior agency leaders. Formerly known as the Defense Programs Advisory Committee, the new Advisory Committee for Nuclear Security (ACNS) enlists experts with knowledge that spans the full range of the NNSA missions to provide independent advice and recommendations to NNSA […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security is seeking qualified licensed electrical contractors to replace and upgrade various aging electrical systems at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.  The company, contracted to manage both Y-12 and the Pantex Plant in Panhandle, Texas, on behalf of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will hire multiple contractors under […]

Some parallel efforts by the National Nuclear Security Administration and Defense Department to secure nuclear materials around the globe may be redundant if their individual mission goals are not more clearly defined, the Government Accountability Office found in a new report.  The GAO looked into 23 separate NNSA and DoD programs and found that “some […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is hiring for senior acquisition and construction management professionals with imminent application deadlines.  Through Monday, the NNSA is accepting applications for a deputy associate administrator for partnership and acquisition services in Washington. Applications for this and other NNSA positions can be submitted through the federal government’s job site, USAjobs.gov. Last […]

An employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory was blown off a ladder and severely burned in 2015 after spraying cleaning solutions on parts of a power substation that turned out to be electrified, according to a report on the incident published last week. After the resulting arc-flash, nine employees were sent to Los Alamos Medical […]

National Nuclear Security Administration leader Jill Hruby, recently visited a Westinghouse nuclear power plant in Västerås, Sweden. Hruby met with Patrick Fragman, president and chief executive officer of Westinghouse Electric Company, to tour Westinghouse’s Västerås fuel fabrication facility, which both produces energy and serves as a new source of nuclear fuel for legacy Soviet reactors […]

Though the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to dramatically ramp up plutonium pit production around the time a key arms control treaty expires in 2026, there are no plans to test fire any weapons, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said Monday in New Mexico. Hruby sat through two hours of questioning – and occasional haranguing – […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Production Office at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, will have a new manager as of May 21. Jason Armstrong, currently manager of the NNSA’s Savannah River Field Office, will take over as manager of the Pantex manager for the production office beginning May 21st. This does not include leadership of […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments enforcement office is launching an investigation into the amputation of a worker’s finger at the Savannah River Site on Dec. 1, according to a letter sent to site President and CEO Stuart MacVean.  Dated March 23 but posted online on Tuesday, the letter says DoE will investigate […]

The Biden Administration’s desire to cancel a new lower-yield nuclear submarine-launched cruise missile still doesn’t sit well with the leadership of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.  Both subcommittee Chair Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and ranking member Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) support a submarine launched cruise missile tipped with a nuke, called SLCM-N, at […]

A labor shortage initially blamed on COVID-19, but which has outlasted the nationwide response to the pandemic, hamstrung construction of new nuclear weapons factories and forced a construction triage at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency’s administrator told lawmakers Tuesday. The construction or “craft” labor shortages at various sites contributed to several program delays, […]

Centrus plans to introduce uranium hexafluoride into its new high assay, low enriched uranium cascade in Ohio around May 22, according to a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from the company.  The commission published the letter online Tuesday. The missive was dated March 23 and was signed by Mathew Snider, enrichment operations plant manager […]

After several years of planning, the initial discard of uranium solution from the new Accelerated Basin De-inventory program at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., was successfully transferred to the SRS liquid waste program from the H Canyon Chemical Separations Facility, the Department of Energy said last week. The newly implemented Accelerated Basin De-inventory […]

Belgium can use low-enriched uranium to produce a valuable medical isotope instead of the highly-enriched uranium it used to import from the United States for that purpose, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Tuesday. Converting Belgium’s National Institute of Radioelements medical isotope production to low-enriched uranium was marked as a major nuclear non-proliferations milestone. More […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is still looking for a successor to its first executive director of operations, who left in August, the board said in a recent report to Congress. “The board is actively recruiting to fill that vacancy in 2023,” according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s 33rd Annual Report to […]

Lawyers representing employees who accuse Consolidated Nuclear Security, manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge Tenn., of withholding wages have withdrawn from a proposed class action lawsuit against the contractor.  The motion to withdraw as counsel was granted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville on Monday. Justin […]

Australian leaders are concerned about the nuclear waste the country’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet, which the country will buy and then build under the AUKUS deal with the U.S. and U.K.  AUKUS also poses complicated questions of compliance for Australia, which is treaty-bound to neither produce or possess nuclear weapons or materials that could be used […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s longest-serving associate administrator Jeffrey Johnson, the chief of nuclear security, announced his retirement on Monday.  Johnson served eight years at NNSA following a 20-year career in uniform and seven years as a civilian employee with the U.S. Marine Corps, according to a statement from the NNSA. The NNSA did not […]

Citing a national security memorandum that describes a reduced need for the B83 thermonuclear gravity bomb, the National Nuclear Administration proposed cutting funding for the weapon in its 2024 budget request.  The NNSA proposed cutting $28 million from funding for management of the B83 in its fiscal 2024 budget request, owing to “updated program requirements […]

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlined the advantages of boosting High Energy Density (HED) research and identifies key challenges in the field.  The study, undertaken by the Committee on the Assessment of High Energy Density Science, was sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration.  Félicie Albert, deputy director […]

There are at least 500 too few employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which has contributed to a cost increase and schedule slip for the uranium processing facility under construction there, the Secretary of Energy testified in Congress Thursday. In its budget request for fiscal year 2024, the National Nuclear […]

Any deployment by North Korea of a nuclear weapon would mean the fall of the Kim regime, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said this week.  The reclusive nation fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday and later announced it has the capability to mount a nuclear warhead on the launcher.  […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2024 includes a funding boost for plutonium pit production in New Mexico, with the goal of building 80 per year as close to 2030 as possible.  Also in the request, the NNSA provided a new cost and schedule estimate for completing the Uranium Processing Facility […]

Funding for a nuclear warhead carried by an in-development sea-launched cruise missile was written out of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget request, reflecting the Biden administration’s desire to cancel the weapon. The NNSA received $20 million in 2023 to continue development of a lower-yield sea-launched cruise missile variant of the W80-4 […]