Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Active COVID-19 cases at the National Nuclear Security Administration had spiked to a two-month high in July by Friday after reaching their lowest level of the year earlier in the same month, according to data provided by agency headquarters in Washington. The agency, with its mission-essential nuclear-weapons work, was among the early beneficiaries of COVID-19 […]

An auxiliary manufacturing space, known as Kansas City East and Building 23, should be christened in the fall, the president of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s main non-nuclear parts maker said this week. The headcount at the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) is “currently around 5,500 with plans growing to 6,000 here before the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration planned to host discussions soon with teams that bid on the potentially 10-year, $30 billion combined management and operations contract for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex, sources said this week. It was unclear at deadline whether the agency planned to invite bidders for traditional oral presentations […]

John Howanitz will be promoted to president of Bechtel National’s nuclear, security and environmental global business effective Sept. 1, replacing the retiring Barbara Rusinko as the head of the Reston, Va.-based company’s nuclear business with the Department of Energy and other agencies worldwide. The company announced the impending change Wednesday in a press release. Howanitz is […]

The Senate on Thursday confirmed ex-Sandia National Laboratories director Jill Hruby as the sixth administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The vote was 79-16. Hruby’s swearing in at the Department of Energy had not been scheduled at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security and Deterrence Monitor. The semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is the […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted 23-3 to approve the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022, the panel said in a Thursday press release about the legislation that authorizes more than $20 billion in spending for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The committee’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the policy bill that sets […]

An internal Department of Energy watchdog gave Consolidated Nuclear Security a public calling-out, but no other penalty, for letting an employee at the Pantex Plant in Texas work in radioactive areas for six months last year after the contractor realized the person had lost their dosimeter, according to a report published this week. The employee […]

John “Devin” Biniaz was appointed deputy associate administrator for defense nuclear security, the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week. In his new role at headquarters, Biniaz wil backstop Jeffrey Johnson, the head of the office responsible for physical and information security at the agency’s labs, plants and sites. Biniaz was most recently assistant manager […]

With the full House set to vote next week on a multi-bill spending package that would keep the civilian nuclear weapons budget about flat at about $20 billion, some Republican lawmakers have offered amendments to up funding for a proposed pair of ocean-going nuclear warheads. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) wants to transfer $19 million to […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed Department of Energy budget for fiscal year 2022 would slash funding for one of the potential disposal routes for surplus weapon-usable plutonium that has to be removed from South Carolina under terms of a record-setting legal settlement. Separately, the bill rejects the Administration’s plan to trim the Inertial Confinement Fusion […]

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration is one of many political appointees for key national defense posts whose confirmation votes have been blocked in the Senate, multiple people have told Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Some of these people told the Monitor this week that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) had held Jill Hruby’s […]

With COVID-19 vaccines now widely available in the U.S., federal agencies including the Department of Energy are supposed to set plans by Monday to return personnel to offices. The White House Office of Management and Budget gave federal agencies until July 19 to “finalize their phased plans for reentry and post-reentry,” according to a June […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said this week it completed the first production unit of a refurbished submarine-launched nuclear warhead, setting the stage for a mass-production run that could begin early next year and which will fit the weapon with a new detonation system rated for 30 more years at sea. Workers at the Pantex […]

The Secretary of Energy recognized three National Nuclear Security Administration projects that demonstrated significant results in completing projects under budget and ahead of schedule, the agency announced this week. The Secretary’s Project Management Achievement Awards at the NNSA went to the Exascale Class Computing Cooling Equipment project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New […]

While nobody had walked off the job at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, some 240 people were set to go on strike at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California over what the union called the management’s refusal to negotiate terms of a mandatory on-call policy for some craft workers. The Society of Professionals, […]

The Savannah River Site has been running a four-shift glove box operation at its main plutonium-disposal program in the site’s K-Area for a little more than a month now, a site spokesperson said this week. The Aiken, S.C., site ratcheted up to four shifts from two on June 1, the spokesperson wrote Tuesday in an […]

On a party line 33-24 vote Friday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a 2022 civilian nuclear weapons budget that includes requested funding for proposed plutonium pit factories but withholds funds for a few smaller nuclear weapons programs. The full House had not scheduled a vote on the bill at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & […]

The U.S. Air Force on July 7 awarded Northrop Grumman a contract that could be worth nearly $3.9 billion for ground subsystems support for the Boeing Minuteman III ICBMs until 2039. Northrop Grumman was the incumbent, as the company had won a $963 million contract for such support in January 2015. Given its long experience […]

Shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from National Nuclear Security Administration operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were set to resume this week after being on hold since an ignition scare in February, according to the Department of Energy. “After a careful review of the drum event” […]

Terry Wallace retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory last week after a nearly 20-year lab career, which he capped by running the site on an interim basis in 2018, during the transition to non-profit management and operations contractor Triad National Security. Wallace’s last day was June 30, the lab announced in a retrospective published last […]

The Joe Biden administration plans to nominate Sandia National Laboratories alum and State Department veteran Mallory Stewart to be assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance, the post responsible for ensuring the last remaining nuclear arms treaty is functioning as intended. The White House announced its intent to nominate Stewart just before the U.S. […]

Responders at the Nevada National Security Site have completely contained the wildfires that broke out there last week in the site’s western region at Area 16, Area 29 and Area 30, the site said this week. The total estimated burn area was about 275 acres, according to a Tuesday press release from site management and […]

The Secretary of Energy did not deny any written requests for information from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in the six months ended June 30, the chair of the independent federal board reported recently to Congress. “The Board has no denials of access to information to report in the past six months,” Defense Nuclear […]

In a long-awaited legal settlement over six years of mislabeled, radioactive waste shipments to Nevada, the Department of Energy agreed to tighten waste-inspection standards at nuclear weapon sites and overhaul its solid waste permit with the state by early next year, Carson City’s top environmental official said this week. DOE will also have to revise […]

SOC, a Day & Zimmermann company, filed a bid protest June 28 over the Department of Energy’s decision to stand by a February award of a security services contract to Securitas-led SRS Critical Infrastructure Security. It is the second challenge filed by a losing bidder with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the  $1-billion contract awarded at […]

Environmentalists this week sued to stop the National Nuclear Security Administration from building a plutonium pit plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., alleging violation of environmental law. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should have to reopen the environmental record for the planned Savannah River Plutonium Pit Production Facility (SRPPF) and a […]