Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Citing a lack of transparency on the agency’s part, a losing bidder for a major nuclear-weapon sites management contract cried foul in January when the National Nuclear Security Administration short-circuited an external review of the controversial award, according to the Government Accountability Office. According to a January decision memorandum from the office, part of the […]

Robert Raines, head of procurement for the National Nuclear Security Administration, will retire in June after more than a decade leading the semi-autonomous weapons agency’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management, according to an internal memo. Raines has been the National Nuclear Security Security Administration’s (NNSA) acquisition chief since 2011, according to Thursday’s announcement from […]

Following the lead of the House of Representatives earlier this month, the U.S. Senate voted 65-to-27 Thursday evening to approve a short-term spending deal to keep the federal government open through March 11. President Joe Biden was expected to sign the latest continuing resolution (CR) in order to prevent a government shutdown today while Democrats […]

The Department of Energy is required to “fully cooperate” with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and will restrict access in only limited cases such as when a representative of the safety watchdog lacks “an appropriate security clearance,” according to a deal reached this week. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the two parties have […]

A recent Government Accountability Office report confirms what most observers already assumed — the COVID-19 pandemic prompted much of the federal workforce at the Department of Energy and elsewhere to abandon their cubicles in favor of telecommuting, although the practice has its own hassles. The DOE found there were limits to its work-from-home efforts especially […]

Net earnings from continuing operations fell at Jacobs, Dallas, in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, which the global engineering firm and Department of Energy contractor attributed largely to tax-related adjustments, according to financial results reported last week. Net earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, were $134 million, or $1.03 a share, […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Nimble series of subcritical experiments, the next in line at the test site after Los Alamos’ Nightshade Series, was scheduled to run at least through Sept. 30, a lab official said last week. “We’re targeting Nimble to be done by the end of FY22 or the beginning of FY23,” Bradley […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which requires a regular supply of depleted uranium tetrafluoride for future nuclear-weapon refurbishments, may let a small business coordinate production and delivery of that material to the agency, according to a request for information released last week. The nuclear-weapons agency plans to acquire the uranium tetrafluoride by converting stocks of […]

In the state Senate’s latest plan to split the baby, counties surrounding the Savannah River Site would get about 65% of the mega-settlement South Carolina struck with the Department of Energy in 2020 over plutonium storage. State senators on Tuesday unanimously approved sending some $341 million of the settlement to Allendale, Barnwell and Aiken, the […]

Eighteen more states, some with Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed legal briefs this week supporting a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling that blocked President Joe Biden from requiring most federal contractor employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Amicus curiae or “friend of the court” briefs were filed Tuesday in […]

About a week remained as of Friday for interested parties to express interest to the Department of Energy about running a demonstration project in Ohio to produce hundreds of kilograms of high assay low enriched uranium for the department. DOE envisions a contract lasting as long as 10 years. The first year could call for […]

Maryland-based Amentum, one of the power players in the Department of Energy weapons complex, has completed its $1.9-billion purchase of PAE, a Virginia-based defense and government services contractor, the companies said Tuesday. The deal, which PAE characterized as a “merger” was announced by the parties in October. PAE’s “go-shop” period in which it could talk to other potential […]

A former Naval Reactors employee from Maryland will spend at least 12-and-a-half years in federal prison after his amateur spycraft got him pinched last year by an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign buyer of U.S. nuclear-propulsion secrets, the Justice Department said. Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to communicate […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Depending on when the National Nuclear Security Administration can “really” manufacture new plutonium pits, and depending on what “the real capacity” to make pits is, the Navy might be locked out of certain design choices for a planned new warhead, an admiral said here Wednesday. “[I]f we can’t get the requisite number […]

Below is Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s annual digest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) performance evaluation summaries: the agency’s report cards for its big contracts, which explain how much management and operations entities earned for their performance. The Monitor has provided links to NNSA source documents. For fiscal year 2021, which began Oct. […]

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday approved a three-week stopgap funding plan to keep the federal government open through March 11 after the current continuing resolution expires on Feb. 18. The full House voted Tuesday evening  272-to-162 to approve the short-term extension while appropriators continue to work on a spending plan to carry the government […]

Confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 across the National Nuclear Security Administration enterprise have tripled since January and are also three times higher than this time last year, according to data from agency headquarters. The civilian nuclear weapons steward also reported five confirmed COVID-19-related deaths since the first week of January, spokespersons from headquarters in Washington […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — A mining and construction project at the Nevada National Security Site critical to the next generation of non-explosive, nuclear-stockpile testing should have its cost and schedule set in June, the head of the site’s management contractor said here Tuesday. An independent cost estimate of the U1a Complex Enhancements Project’s (UCEP) Infrastructure and […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to reassess the priorities of its Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, senior administration officials said here this week. The review, which had yet to start as of Wednesday, will “reexamine the priorities and missions” of the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) “in light of the […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Maybe by March, the National Nuclear Security Administration will understand the extent to which COVID-19 has delayed modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons, the agency’s top Washington-based weapons official said here Tuesday. Programs under review include the W80-4 air-launched cruise missile warhead, which the agency said last year looked to be affected by […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With transition to a follow-on contract derailed for now, the National Nuclear Security Administration planned to extend the existing site-management contract for two of its main nuclear-weapons production sites for up to a year, people familiar with the plans said this week. Incumbent Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), a team led by Bechtel […]

The Exchange Monitor was on Feb. 7 to host its Nuclear Deterrence Summit, an annual, three-day gathering near Washington of industry professionals and government officials working on civilian nuclear-weapons programs. The summit was scheduled to run from Monday morning through Wednesday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City near the Pentagon. Jill Hruby, the administrator […]

Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s nuclear-weapons acquisition czar in the Donald Trump administration, was appointed to fill one of four slots on a new commission charged with scrutinizing the Defense Department’s budgeting process, according to a congressional press release. The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees each were allowed to nominate one person […]

In recent public statements, the two South Carolina Republicans in the Senate sounded receptive to the idea of President Joe Biden nominating a federal judge from their state, U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs, to the U.S. Supreme Court.   At the same time, however, some labor unions told The Washington Post recently Childs is not […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week laid groundwork to start competition on a contract for trucking tritium for nuclear weapons to the Savannah River Site from nuclear power plants in Tennessee.  At the very least, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency may need someone to make two trips over two years to […]

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who has taken an active interest in Department of Energy facilities in New Mexico, has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, but should make a full recovery, his office staff said this week in a statement. Lujan’s office said he would make a full recovery, though media subsequently reported he […]

Editor’s note: this story corrects errors about the cost and schedule estimates for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s direct melt bottom-loading furnaces published in the January 29 edition of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor [Vol. 26, No. 4], “New Uranium Reclamation Furnace at Y-12 Starting Up in 2026, Defense Board Says.”    Bottom-loading furnaces at […]