Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Uranium broker and enrichment-technology developer Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., took a hit on the bottom line for 2022, though its core operations reported good health and revenue was nearly level year-over-year. Centrus’ net income fell 70% to about $52 million for 2022, according to the company’s Wednesday 10-K filing with the Securities & Exchange […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the fourth quarter and 2022 as a whole, which the nuclear services company in a Thursday press release and conference call attributed partly to a tight labor market. The company also rattled off a list of big Department of Energy contracts it is pursuing.  Net earnings for […]

Editor’s note The Exchange Monitor this week hosted its annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit. The unclassified gathering draws government officials and industry executives from across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear-weapons enterprise. The three-day summit is a professional conference for people in the nuclear-weapons business, which is a serious business.  Even so, there were a […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will serve as a test-bed for some of the changes the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to make to the big site-management contracts of the future, an agency official said here. At “the Livermore Field Office … we are actually right now executing what’s called a model […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — With delays piling up for its two planned plutonium pit factories, the National Nuclear Security Administration already believes it will have to exceed the military’s minimum annual order for the nuclear weapon cores, the head of the agency said here Tuesday. “We anticipate that due to all the different things going on […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The National Nuclear Security Administration could solicit bids for a new 10-year management contract for its uranium hub in Tennessee by spring of 2024, the head of the agency said here Tuesday. “The notional schedule is Y-12 is one year behind Pantex,” Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The Los Alamos National Laboratory might still be able to make 30 nuclear-weapon cores before 2030, even though the equipment needed to do it is not supposed to be ready until then, the lab’s director said here Tuesday. In January, the lab’s owner, the Department of Energy, approved a formal cost and […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was set to fire the first test in its Nimble series of subcritical experiments in the late summer, a senior lab official said here Wednesday. “The first one [called Nob Hill] is scheduled for August of this year, the next one [Twin Peaks] will be hopefully a […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The National Nuclear Security Administration changed the design for the nuclear core of a planned intercontinental ballistic missile warhead late last year, a senior agency official said here Tuesday. Altering the design of the W87-1 plutonium pit, being developed by the agency’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the Air Force’s […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Upgrades to a nuclear-weapon test facility in Nevada are falling further behind schedule, government officials and weapon-site managers said here Wednesday. Officially called Enhanced Capability for Subcritical Experiments (ECSE), the upgrades involve expanding the Nevada National Security Site’s U1a underground complex and installing a sophisticated new x-ray camera to measure explosive plutonium […]

Alpha Safety Group on Friday said it entered into an agreement to acquire Pajarito Scientific Corp., Santa Fe, N.M., and merge the nuclear-waste-analysis company with its Golden, Co.-based NucFil LLC subsidiary.  Alpha Safety shared the announcement with the Exchange Monitor in a statement. In the statement, the company did not disclose the financial terms of […]

Two long standing government bosses, Jeffrey Allison and Randall Hendrickson, lead a joint team working out details of transferring responsibility for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the agency’s nuclear weapons branch from the nuclear cleanup office, feds said last week in Aiken, S.C. The group led by Allison, deputy […]

Congressional leaders asked the Department of Energy to turn over by Feb. 16 its communications with three national labs reportedly targeted in January by Russian hackers. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California was among the labs the hackers targeted by, among other things, creating fake login pages and asking authorized users of the lab’s […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday published a draft solicitation for an indefinite-award, indefinite-quantity Counter Nuclear Smuggling System Deployment contract with an order ceiling of $800 million. “Contractors will be responsible for providing design, integration, construction, communications, logistics, training, and equipment procurement to support the deployment of counter nuclear smuggling systems,” the semiautonomous Department […]

Dallas-based Jacobs, a Department of Energy contractor, had earnings from continuing operations of $136 million or $2 million more than the $134 million recorded a year ago, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. Earnings per diluted share were $1.07, up 4 cents per share from the year-ago number of $1.03 per share, according to […]

Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) will continue as the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee in the 118th Congress, the committee announced this week. Among the subcommittee rank-and-file, there were only two changes. Democrats effectively expanded their Senate majority by one after November’s midterm elections, so […]

Another small business protested the Department of Energy’s award of a new contract to manage the agency’s National Training Center in Albuquerque. Chenega Reliable Services, a San Antonio, Texas-based small business subsidiary of Chenega Corp., Anchorage, Alaska, lodged the protest with the Government Accountability Office on Feb. 3. Chenega is the second of two losing […]

A group of four Democratic U.S. lawmakers want the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Navy for a report about using low-enriched uranium to fuel U.S. submarines. The three U.S. Representatives and one U.S. Senator made the request in a Jan. 27 letter to Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and […]

Centrus Energy Corp. on Thursday said it can finish building an enrichment plant at a Department of Energy’s site in Ohio in time to make a test batch of energy-dense uranium fuel by December. In a press release, Centrus said it has built and tested a 16-centrifuge enrichment cascade at DOE’s Portsmouth Site near Piketon, […]

The U.S. believes Russia violated the New START nuclear-arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow by blocking inspections in August, the Wall Street Journal reported this week, citing a State Department report to Congress delivered Jan. 24. “Two years ago, the Biden Administration naively agreed to an unconditional five-year extension of the New START Treaty […]

A Colorado Republican will chair the House Armed Services subcommittee in charge of Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs, the full committee’s new chairman announced recently. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) will lead the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, which aside from setting policy and spending limits for the entire National Nuclear Security Administration every […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory will install by 2030 the equipment needed to make at least 30 plutonium pits annually, according to a Jan. 19 memo from the deputy secretary of energy. Formally known as the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project 30 Base Equipment Installation subproject, the installation will provide the lab with “the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration stonewalled some requests for classified information by Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the board said in a congressionally mandated report. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) made a pair of classified-information requests with a Nov. 18 delivery date, but as of Jan. 19, “the board has not yet received […]

An entity called SRS Critical Infrastructure Security, which appeared to have the business in hand two years ago, filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Department of Energy’s award of a new Savannah River Site security contract for incumbent Centerra. The award was announced earlier in January, and the bid protest […]

There will be some churn in the 118th Congress among staff on the House Armed Services Committee, which sets policy and spending limits for Department of Energy nuclear-weapons programs, according to documents the committee published Wednesday. Christopher Vieson will be the top committee hand at Armed Services for the new Republican majority, according to a […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration submitted a plan to Congress detailing the agency’s needs over the next decade for new experimental capabilities to test nuclear weapons and materials, a scientist from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said Wednesday. Lasers, used at the Livermore’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the University of Rochester’s Omega Laser Facility, […]