Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Alutiiq Logistics & Maintenance Services failed to comply with contractual obligations to provide certain services at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Albuqeruqe complex in New Mexico, the Department of Energy Inspector General said. The Department of Energy’s Inspector General substantiated eight allegations of contractual noncompliance by Alutiiq Logistics & Maintenance Services, the facility and maintenance […]

The Department of Energy could award a contract to operate a small, Centrus Energy-built uranium enrichment cascade at the agency’s Portsmouth site in Ohio this month, the company’s CEO said Wednesday on a quarterly earnings call. “The Department has indicated in a recent industry briefing that a decision could come as early as this month,” […]

In federal elections, stability often prevails in the mostly rural areas that are home to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s major labs, plants and sites. The 2022 midterm elections this week largely continued the trend, with all of one new face among the mostly unaffiliated contingent of lawmakers who represent the states and districts that […]

People placed on leave from the Los Alamos National Laboratory for refusing a COVID-19 vaccinations will get no help from the courts in ongoing arbitration proceedings with the lab, a federal judge in New Mexico said recently. The decision dropped Halloween night in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico, where Judge Kea Riggs told […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the third quarter, which the nuclear contractor attributed during a Monday earnings report to growth throughout its naval, weapons cleanup and commercial power lines. Net earnings for the 2022 third quarter were $61.6 million, or $0.67 a share, up from $60.2 million, or $0.63 a share, in […]

WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration late last week was still preparing to explain to Congress what caused construction of the agency’s next-generation uranium manufacturing hub in Tennessee to fall two years behind schedule, the agency’s head said here. “We’re not ready for public statements” about the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) Jill Hruby, administrator […]

A federal magistrate judge has ruled a scientist fired by a Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories need not litigate his wrongful termination case in U.S. District Court. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephan Vidmar ruled Oct. 20 that National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia has not proven the lawsuit brought by Carlsbad, N.M., -based […]

Critical-decision 2 for a new plutonium pit production plant at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina is now expected in fiscal 2025, a state panel heard last week from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Also, site prime Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has contracted a local affiliate of Toronto-based Aecon to handle […]

Fluor chair and CEO David Constable is happy to see a joint venture led by his company remain as prime at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina for at least four more years, and said Fluor teams will aggressively pursue two big National Nuclear Security Administration contracts. In an earnings call […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Navy and the National Nuclear Security Administration will make their design choices about the W93 submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead next year, an admiral said here at an industry conference Tuesday. “Next year most likely we will do the downselect to understand what are the key military requirements that [U.S. Strategic Command] […]

The Navy plans to buy five Columbia-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines in a block buy after the first two vessels and little margin remains to get the first vessel on patrol by the early 2030s, an admiral said Tuesday. “For long range planning and to signal the industrial base…our plan will be to buy the […]

The Joe Biden Administration will maintain all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad, which need to be modernized to remain relevant, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday. “At least in this current moment, in the current security environment, and again validated all the way up to the President … we needed to retain the […]

Earnings were mixed at Leidos, Reston, Va., in the third quarter, which the government defense and services company said Tuesday was affected by challenges to contract awards by business rivals. Net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $164 million or $1.17 a share, down from $208 million, or $1.43 a share, in the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Boards sent the Department of Energy a reminder about overdue safety reports for several nuclear weapon sites, according to a letter dated Oct. 20. DOE’s delay is “affecting the Board’s safety oversight,” Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) chair Joyce Connery wrote in the letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants to set aside a cell at Pantex where people can practice arms control verification technology, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said at an arms control conference this week. Formally called a user facility, the converted cell will be an “for those ideas that advance beyond the research phase and […]

Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, 68, a Rhodes scholar and theoretical physicist who helmed the Pentagon between 2015 and 2017, died of a heart attack Tuesday  at his home in Boston. At the time of his death, Carter was director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy […]

Garret Harencak will replace Mark Martinez as president of Mission Support and Test Services effective Nov. 1, the Honeywell-led prime contractor for the Nevada National Security Site announced this week. The Exchange Monitor reported on Monday that Martinez would step down. Harencak joins Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) after four years as vice president […]

NNSA report calls for reform of management and ops contracts; says parents cos. of site management teams of little help Future contracts for management of big nuclear-weapon sites should be 10 year deals with five-year base and option periods and should not include annual contractor award fees, which can create conflicts of interest between national […]

A woman who assisted with the attempted sale of classified nuclear-powered attack submarine secrets should get three years in prison, her lawyer said Wednesday. A three year sentence “would be consistent with, and in some cases greater than, sentences imposed for other accomplices, as well as even some principle offenders,” Diana Toebbe’s legal counsel wrote […]

The National Nuclear Security administration will create a new risk management strategy with the Pentagon, mandate more regular infusions of new technology into nuclear-weapons design and manufacture and build new science facilities, according to the Nuclear Posture Review the Joe Biden administration released Thursday. Those are the three pillars of the plan laid out to […]

Mark Martinez planned to retire as president of Mission Support and Test Services, the Honeywell-led prime contractor for the Nevada National Security Site, according to people familiar with Martinez’s plans. A spokesperson for Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) did not reply to a request for comment. Martinez has been president of MSTS since the […]

By Dan Parsons Two contractors were exposed to highly hazardous beryllium, a metal used in nuclear weapons, while performing renovations at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico recently.  On Aug. 30, the subcontractors, working in Building 983 room 122, a conference room, were not wearing proper personal protective equipment, Luke Frank, a spokesman for Sandia […]

The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday denied a protest by a women owned small business seeking to overturn a $53-million award at the Y-12 National Security Complex to Sigma Science. Vector Resources — which lists its headquarters and mailing addresses in a pop-up business space in Erie, Pa., and a strip mall in Engelwood, Fla., […]

The Department of Energy in December plans to start a competition for a long-term contract to purchase energy-dense uranium fuel, with an eye toward awarding a deal in July, the agency told prospective bidders last week. In slides briefed during an Oct. 13 industry day and published online subsequently, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy said […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor for the two main U.S. civilian nuclear-weapons production sites agreed in early October to end a contractual dispute before it escalated to court, according to a recently published decision. According to a notice dated Oct. 6 and published subsequently, attorneys for the Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security […]

Congress should not authorize or fund a nuclear-tipped, lower-yield sea-launched cruise missile or save a megaton-class gravity bomb, the White House said again this week. The message was part of a statement of administration policy about the Senate’s version of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which like the version of the […]

The Department of Energy could be prepared to start transferring control of the Savannah River Site to its semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency in bits and pieces starting around 2023, a spokesperson at Washington headquarters said Monday. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which owns the Aiken, S.C., site now, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), […]