Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Continuing its investigation of a fatal fire nearly two years ago at BWX Technologies’ Lynchburg, Va., plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning a public, predecisional enforcement conference at its Rockville, Md., headquarters with the company. “We will contact you promptly to determine a mutually agreeable date and time” for the conference, the NRC wrote […]

SUMMERLIN, NEV. — With the National Nuclear Security Administration hoping to see the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico producing 30 plutonium pits by 2026, the organization is working closely with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on plans for the increased transuranic waste levels, speakers told the RadWaste Summit Wednesday. With […]

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a two-year extension of a law providing financial compensation to certain people sickened by radioactivity from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Extension Act of 2022 is a clean, two-year extension for the federal program, which is open to atmospheric test participants, certain uranium miners […]

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee is neutral on whether the Department of Energy should lead any revived federal research effort on potential health impacts of low-dose radiation, the head of the panel, said Friday. Tribal communities and atomic workers “generally do not support” a DOE-run low-dose radiation program, Joe Gray, professor […]

Amentum, a major contractor for the Department of Energy and other government agencies, last week outlined management roles for a new National Security business group that the Maryland-based company is putting together under a corporate reshuffling by the new CEO. “Today, I am announcing the leaders of each of these three businesses [within National Security], […]

The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee approved its contributions to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, kicking up to the full committee a package of reforms for the Nuclear Weapons Council and an order to study modernization of the Pantex Plant, among other things. The subcommittee completed its markup without debate […]

Confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 among contractors and civil servants working on site at National Nuclear Security Administration facilities more than quadrupled over the month of May, according to data provided Friday by a spokesperson at agency headquarters in Washington. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency had 547 confirmed cases, up from 132 confirmed […]

The Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services will get six more months tacked onto its contract to process depleted uranium hexafluoride in Ohio and Kentucky while the Department of Energy solicits bids for a follow-on contract that will include new work for active nuclear weapons programs. The incumbent, which also includes Westinghouse and Fluor, will now be […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s airborne, radiation-sniffing Nuclear Emergency Support Team was to wrap up four days of background sampling over Los Angeles on Saturday ahead of the ninth annual Summit of the Americas, the agency said. Ahead of the scheduled meeting June 6 of government, industry and community representatives from each American continent, a […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new high-performance computing system, called Venado, assembled by Hewlett Packard and to be delivered in 2023, will be the first in the U.S. powered by the Grace central processing unit designed by Nvidia, the lab said. The lab announced the impending delivery of its next high-performance computer system at this […]

The Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week wrapped up key details of a memorandum of understanding they inked in February pledging full cooperation on safety at federal nuclear-weapons installations. The 19-page supplement announced by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in a Wednesday press release fleshes out specifics […]

A senior U.S. arms control negotiator on Thursday would not endorse limiting the U.S. nuclear arsenal to the 1,550 strategic warheads prescribed by the New START treaty with Russia if the treaty expires in 2026 without a new accord in place.  “I don’t think we should sort of right now figure out what is the […]

In a virtual address to a gathering of nuclear weapons professionals on Thursday, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration touted the White House’s Nuclear Posture Review for its support of civilian nuclear weapon programs, advocated for more exports of peaceful nuclear-energy technology and said that Russia’s war in Ukraine has resurrected old nonproliferation […]

A Georgia congressman released a written request that House appropriators accept the White House’s funding request for the Savannah River Site’s proposed plutonium pit factory and reject a proposed cut for the site’s H-Canyon chemical separations plant. Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) made the requests ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled Member’s Day hearing, an annual exercise in […]

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 […]