Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Jill Hruby spent some time at the Nevada National Security Site this week, according to a series of posts on official agency Twitter accounts. Hruby visited the site along with members of the NNSA Council, which includes representatives of several nuclear-weapon sites.   The NNSA said this week it […]

By Dan Parsons The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation, or NA-80, recently embarked the second and final phase of a refresh for its Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) air fleet: airplanes and helicopters the agency uses to gather data about nuclear accidents, incidents and potential radiological terror attacks. This week, […]

The story “Fed review of RLUOB recategorization in May” [Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, Vol. 26, No. 11] should have said the Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building can legally accept just under 40 grams of plutonium at once.

Centrus Energy was to have its new enrichment cascade for high assay low-enriched uranium ready to start up by Thursday, according to recent regulatory filings by the Bethesda, Md., company. The uranium fuel broker and enrichment technology developer appended a letter contract with the Department of Energy to its latest 10-K filing with the Securities […]

A one-page Department of Defense fact sheet issued this week appeared to confirm that President Joe Biden would not declare a no-first use of nuclear weapons policy. “As long as nuclear weapons exist, the fundamental role of U.S. nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attack on the United States, our allies, and partners,” reads the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has requested a roughly 60% increase in fiscal year 2023 for the part of its budget that funds the rebuilding of critical nuclear-weapons production infrastructure including plutonium pits, a Department of Energy document published Tuesday shows. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency seeks some $4.6 billion for Production Modernization in fiscal […]

The Wall St. Journal reported Friday that President Joe Biden’s nuclear posture review will call for canceling both a planned nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile slated to use a modified W80-4 warhead and a life extension program for the megaton-capable B83 gravity bomb.  The Journal also reported that the Biden posture review would not declare that […]

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Nuclear Security Administration stopped keeping track of active cases of the disease among personnel who don’t report to work regularly at the agency’s labs, plants or sites. The change left the agency with 59 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 among employees working on site, a spokesperson at […]

In a confirmation hearing Tuesday morning, the Joe Biden administration’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons programs from headquarters in Washington pledged his support for the agency’s program of record and agreed to review the agency’s plan to produce new plutonium pits if confirmed. The nominee, Marvin Adams, a professor of nuclear […]

A regulatory domino fell Thursday at the plant where Westinghouse fabricates tritium producing burnable absorber rods for the National Nuclear Security Administration, clearing the way for cleanup of contaminated disposal lagoons on the South Carolina property. On Thursday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an exemption to commission regulations clearing U.S. Ecology to accept waste from […]

Many full-timers working directly for the Los Alamos National Laboratory Laboratory received a modest raise earlier this month as part of broad retention efforts by the National Nuclear Security Administration, according to a letter from the lab’s director. “We are pleased that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has granted this increase,” Thomas Mason, director […]

As the nuclear-weapons production complex began a shift into overdrive, non-essential personnel at the Pantex site were asked to delay their arrival early this week, starting with the graveyard shift on Monday after a late-season ice storm moved in over the Texas panhandle. Only a day after the spring equinox, the system dropped a wintery […]

Personnel at DOE headquarters in Washington completed their “reentry” to the work place after two years of maximum telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson said Thursday, though headquarters had not yet tallied the exact number of people who returned to their pre-pandemic work stations. “On Monday, DOE completed its formal reentry process at most […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security will officially remain the management and operations contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s two main weapons production sites through September, the agency confirmed Friday. As it attempts to address a controversy about a follow-on award to manage the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s five-year Enterprise Construction Management Services contract is up for bids and interested small businesses have just over a week to ask questions about the quick-turnaround bid request and just over two weeks to get quotes in. The winner of the contract that went up for grabs last week will provide […]

Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, said during a recent industry gathering. Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations for the […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory appeared more or less on track to recategorize one part of its planned plutonium complex as a hazard category three facility, allowing for increased storage of the fissile material there, according to a recent report by the government’s independent nuclear watchdog. In February, Los Alamos prime Triad National Security wrapped up […]

Christopher Davis will be Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s next chief of staff, Granholm wrote Friday in an all-hands email. Davis, according to his LinkedIn profile, has been a senior advisor to Granholm since right around Inauguration Day, prior to which he held various roles at DOE dating back to 2011. Before that, he spent […]

A congressionally chartered commission about U.S. strategic posture is stacked with nuclear-savvy appointees, including the woman who led the National Nuclear Security Administration during most of the Donald Trump administration. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under Trump, will get her direct line to Congress back as one of Sen. Jim […]

Five elected representatives from the Aiken, S.C., area said this week they planned to carry on a fight in the state legislature for a bigger share of federal settlement money related to weapon-usable plutonium at the Savannah River Site. With Rep. Bart Blackwell (R-Aiken County) acting as spokesman Monday, the state house members from the […]

A new submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead will be ready for production by 2036, and the National Nuclear Security Administration still hasn’t missed deliveries to the military because of COVID, according to the agency’s latest annual unclassified progress report. Notionally, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will produce the final proof-of-concept model, or first production unit, […]

After idling for half the 2022 fiscal year at last year’s budget level, the National Nuclear Security Administration would get some $26.65 billion to see it through Sept. 30, under an omnibus spending package that at deadline Friday awaited only President Joe Biden’s signature. That’s a 4.5% raise year-over-year that’s 3% more than requested for […]

The U.N.’s nuclear panel is investigating reports that power has been restored at Ukraine’s former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, days after a blackout that raised concerns about the safety of the site’s spent fuel stores. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement Thursday that it was “looking for confirmation” that the lights […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration was recently searching for a new director for its office of enterprise project management, according to a want-ad posted on the federal government’s official recruiting website. According to the listing, the agency conducted interviews only for a month, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 22. The current occupant of the office — […]

MOX Services, the contractor that was building the canceled plutonium facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, settled allegations of fraud with the government to the tune of $10 million, the Department of Justice announced Monday. The contractor paid to end the nearly three year-old litigation over federal claims that it submitted “false […]

There is not enough money in the world for the National Nuclear Security Administration to spend its way to making 80 plutonium pits a year by 2030, the general who commands U.S. nuclear forces told Congress Tuesday morning. “[W]e now know that we will not get 80 pits per year by 2030 as is statutorily […]

PHOENIX — After finishing major demolition and remediation last fall of the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Biology center or “mouse house,” the Department of Energy cleanup contractor is “very close” to turning the property back to Y-12 prime Consolidated Nuclear Services, a speaker told the Waste Management Symposia session Wednesday. “It is imminent,” Tommy Morgan, chief engineer […]