Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration could do a better job tracking the performance of some $300 million worth of research and development activities in its Advanced Manufacturing Development program, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report published May 20. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency “may be using inconsistent measures across individual […]

Some nonproliferation news came out of President Joe Biden’s first trip to Asia this week, when Biden and  Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the Savannah River Site and Y-12 National Security complex had taken delivery of a combined 30 kilograms of uranium from three Japanese facilities. The shipment, completed in March, was part of […]

The big Cerro Pelado wildfire outside Los Alamos that has been burning for a month has grabbed the headlines, but it was neither the only wildfire in New Mexico nor the only one to break out near a National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear-weapons site recently. At the Sandia National Laboratories last week, workers reported the […]

The leader of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday he sees “tough fights” ahead over President Biden’s proposals to cut the Navy’s nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile program and retire B-83 gravity bombs as Congress takes up the next defense policy bill. Committee chair Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he agreed with both policy proposals […]

Andrew Kline joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday as an on-site inspector for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the board announced Monday. Kline was previously a design engineer, operations process manager and project manager at the Savannah River Site, a former Cold War plutonium production complex with […]

The Russian Federation — which in February again invaded neighboring Ukraine — on May 21 expanded a list of sanctions against U.S. citizens. Most, but not all, of these people are federal lawmakers and some of those federal lawmakers have a history of involvement with, or a significant degree of power over, U.S. nuclear weapons […]

The Department of Energy this week opened bidding for a pair of new long-term contracts to manage Cold War uranium-enrichment cleanup in Ohio and Kentucky, one of which includes some work for active nuclear weapons programs. The agency’s Office of Environmental Management, the nuclear-weapons cleanup steward, posted final solicitations online. The scheduled last day for […]

This year, the National Nuclear Security Administration will finish an integrated master schedule for building a new plutonium pit manufacturing complex and this summer, and this summer, it will quantify delays to the W80-4 nuclear cruise missile warhead, the head of the agency told Senators Thursday. “We are in the process of integrating those schedules […]

Carlos Alvardo will temporarily step in as the No. 2 fed at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, with Gabriel Pugh, the plant’s most recent deputy manager, leaving for the Department of Energy’s National Training Center, according to an internal email. Sunday was Alvardo’s first day as acting deputy manager at […]

The Cerro Pelado wildfire that started nearly a month ago in northern New Mexico was more than 70% contained, making it safe for employees who had been telecommuting to come back to work, the lab said. Employees who had been working remotely were cleared to return to work inside the fence on Tuesday, according to […]

It will take all summer to finalize a plan aimed at hastening construction of a key nuclear-weapon-component factory that has fallen behind schedule in South Carolina, a Pentagon official said Tuesday in a congressional hearing. It is nearly the end of the annual budget-hearing season in Washington, and federal agencies including the National Nuclear Security […]

In a blow to Fluor and Amentum, the National Nuclear Security Administration this week canceled a potentially 10-year, $28-billion contract for a joint venture of the two companies to manage the agency’s main nuclear-weapon production sites. At the same time, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency announced it would extend the Bechtel-led incumbent […]

The NNSA’s new facility for manufacturing nuclear-weapon secondary stages will not be completed until August 2026: eight months later than expected, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told Senators Wednesday in a hearing. Bechtel National, under contract to the Bechtel-led site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security, has been building the current incarnation of the […]

Nearly a year after kicking off the competitive bidding process, the Department of Energy must soon decide whether to extend its current contract for transportation of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The current five-year, $112-million Carlsbad Transportation Services small business contract, held by CAST Specialty Transportation, is scheduled to […]

Though the Cerro Pelado wildfire was still burning Friday, local officials in Los Alamos County, N.M., announced Thursday public school students will return to their normal schedules on Monday, May 16. Meanwhile employees of the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and the lab’s legacy cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) […]

Faulty missile tubes that earlier consumed months of schedule margin on the next-generation U.S. nuclear-armed, ballistic missile submarines are not pacing the schedule for the boats any more, the admiral in charge of the U.S. program said Thursday. “I retain margin on missile tubes,” Read Adm. Scott Pappano, the U.S. Navy’s program executive officer for […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it established a new initiative to improve energy security and climate-change friendliness at its nationwide enterprise of labs, plants and sites. The Energy Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation (ERICA) initiative “will be a critical element of NNSA’s multi-faceted strategy to identify, prioritize, and implement infrastructure investments that increase […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the company this week attributed to pension issues and lower productivity in the naval reactors business. Net earnings for the first quarter were $59 million or $0.64 per share, down from $69.7 million, or $0.73 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week added three new resident inspectors to monitor safety at Department of Energy sites in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los Alamos, N.M. Clinton Jones is a new resident inspector for DOE’s Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

Michelle Reichert said she will retire May 20 as president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the outgoing management and operations contractor of the U.S.’ two main nuclear-weapon production plants. Bill Tindal, Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) chief operating officer, will become the acting president and CEO, according to a note from CNS board […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission allowed the Tennessee Valley Authority to work some people harder during an ongoing service outage at the Watts Bar 2 nuclear reactor, where the restart of tritium production for nuclear weapons has slipped to June from mid-May, the commission said. The outage now “is now scheduled to be completed by early […]

The Department of Energy extended Centrus Energy Corp.’s contract to build a 16-machine enrichment cascade for advanced nuclear fuel at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, adding six months and $12 million to the sole-source deal. DOE extended the 80/20 cost-share contract on April 20, boosting the agency’s share of the pact, awarded in 2019, […]

This week, the House Appropriations panel that writes the first draft of the Department of Energy’s annual budget bill called off a hearing with the agency’s top nuclear weapons and waste leaders minutes into the proceedings. The hearing got no further than opening statements and a few questions from Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the chair, […]

Earnings were largely up at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the first quarter, which the international engineering and construction company — with contracts across the Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex — attributed to positive trends in its key markets. First quarter net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Fluor were $48 million, or $0.27 per […]

Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md., posted a net loss for the first quarter, when a drop in the flagship fuel brokerage business wiped out a gain from other uranium sales and the continuing steadiness of an advanced enrichment contract, now in its final days, with the Department of Energy, the company said Friday. Centrus lost […]

Authorities in New Mexico said Thursday afternoon they plan to use a controlled burn to give the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and the surrounding county more protection from the Cerro Pelado fire in the Jemez Mountains. A controlled burn is planned along Alamo trail to combat the fire that has burned 29,000 […]

Employees placed on unpaid leave after receiving religious exemptions to Los Alamos National Laboratory’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate were cleared to return to work this week after the lab declared a return to normal operations, an internal memo shows. “As of this spring, case rates have abated considerably, almost 100% of staff are vaccinated, and we […]