Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Typical lumpiness in contracts with utilities held uranium fuel-broker and technology developer Centrus Corp. to a net loss in the third quarter of 2020, but the company expects to close out the year with a revenue bang, CEO Daniel Poneman told investors recently. Also, Poneman said, construction of the company’s new, Department of Energy-funded uranium-enrichment […]

By John Stang The state of New Mexico has lately been noncommittal about when it might approve a pair of permits the Los Alamos National Laboratory needs to vent tritium gas into the atmosphere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the venting, but a spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) said Friday […]

In what could be a boon to submarine subcontractors and the broader nuclear-naval industry, the Navy is looking at buying components for Columbia-class submarines, especially boats that will follow the two already under contract, a little earlier, the head of naval reactors said this week. “We’re looking at what we can do to further de-risk Columbia deliveries, especially […]

On Wednesday, as Congress prepared for final negotiations on a must-pass bill that could increase the Pentagon’s say over civilian nuclear-weapons programs, the former head of those programs said the defense department needs less, not more, sway over such matters. The Pentagon and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Security Administration (NNSA), a semi […]

The Navy is happy to share knowledge about weapons with the Air Force, so long as it does not actually have to share a nuclear weapon with the Air Force, the sea service’s director for strategic systems programs said this week. “I think a couple years ago, commonality started to put us on a path […]

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. “Construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility [MFFF], initially estimated to cost about $4.8 billion, was […]

When the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear reactor reactivates from a refueling outage that started Oct. 26, it will begin producing tritium for nuclear weapons for the first time, a National Nuclear Security Administration spokesperson said this week. The specialized rods will start producing yield-boosting gas for nuclear weapons during Watts Bar […]

The chair of the House Armed Services Committee had bitter medicine in a big spoon for disarmament advocates Wednesday: getting rid of nuclear weapons is a losing message that may have cost Democrats a chance to slow down procurement of next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. “We’re losing this argument because we lost seats in the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration had its biggest week-to-week jump in COVID-19 cases of the pandemic this week, when the agency tracked 260 more cases than last week, including the first fatal case at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Mixing in 80 recoveries left the semi autonomous nuclear weapons steward with 179 new, confirmed, active […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Nov. 27 in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 4.

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. “Construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility [MFFF], initially estimated to cost about $4.8 billion, was […]

Editor’s note: The Department of Energy recently finalized the first changes in more than 15 years to its Nuclear Safety Management rule, codified in Title 10, Part 830 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This rule governs the conduct of DOE contractors and civil servants — not the conduct of contractors or employees of other […]

The same day the National Nuclear Security Administration requested proposals for a potentially decades-long contract to run two of its three major nuclear weapons production sites, Senate appropriators asked why there is so little competition for such contracts at the Department of Energy. The semiautonomous DOE weapons agency released the final solicitation Tuesday, the same […]

Fluor Corp., the financially troubled, Dallas-based Department of Energy contractor, continued to narrow its losses from continuing operations in the second quarter and first six months of 2020, the company said in a long-delayed second-quarter earnings report. Fluor’s second-quarter loss from continuing operations was about $20 million, an improvement from a loss of more than […]

Lame-duck budget negotiations are officially underway, and the Senate’s opening gambit for the National Nuclear Security Administration was to give the agency the roughly $20 billion it sought for 2021: over $1 billion more than what the House of Representatives recommended. That’s according to a bill and an accompanying report the Senate Armed Services Committee released […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette kept close tabs on then-National Nuclear Security Administration boss Lisa Gordon-Hagerty for months, sending chaperones to her meetings with Congress and monitoring her personal calendar before abruptly demanding her resignation last week, a source told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. It was a dramatic end to a year of strife between the […]

Former National Nuclear Security Administration No. 2 Madelyn Creedon is part of President Elect Joe Biden’s (D) transition team, the Biden camp announced Wednesday. Creedon is one of 19 people on Biden’s Department of Energy beachhead team, which is led by Arun Majumdar: currently a professor at Stanford University’s department of mechanical engineering in California, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission slapped a $900,000 fine on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee, issuing five violations related to a “substantial safety culture issue” at the plant during the fall of 2015 and early 2016. Tennessee Valley Authority uses Watts Bar Unit 1 to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration recorded over 200 new cases of COVID-19 among its federal employees and contractors this week, and more than half those cases were still active at deadline Friday, an agency spokesperson said. With cases of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus spiking across the county, confirmed cases at the semi-autonomous […]

Here’s this week’s collection of quick-hit news about, and with implications for, U.S. nuclear security. Like almost everything else, support for a B61-12 flight test from an F-35A had to go virtual this year, according to a press release from Sandia National Laboratories.  Sandia helped train Air Force personnel virtually in preparation for an April […]

A former Lawrence Livermore senior manager joined General Atomics this week as the senior vice president of the San Diego-based company’s energy group. Anantha Krishnan had been Livermore’s Associate Laboratory Director for Engineering for about six years before making the jump to the private sector, according to his LinkedIn profile. General Atomics announced the hire […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies hauled in $520 million in revenue during the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, which is up 3% from the $506 million it took in during the same period a year ago, the company reported this week. Its net income for the quarter dipped a bit, however, as BWXT took in […]

Among the many subplots of the still-undecided White House contest between President Donald Trump (R) and former vice president Joe Biden (D) is the makeup of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Matthew Moury, the Department of Energy’s associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security, was nominated to a post on the maximum-five-member Defense Nuclear […]

Most congressional incumbents hung on this election, as they typically do, but a few open seats in a few districts and states that host National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites means there are a few new faces representing the neighbors of the nuclear security enterprise — or in the case of a New Mexico congressman […]

The United States says the contractor for a cancelled plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site still owes the feds millions of dollars because of allegedly fraudulent billing and called the company’s claim that it already paid back the sum smoke and mirrors, according to a new court filing. “MOX Services did make a […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday formalized a decision to make at least 50 nuclear-weapon cores a year at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., and environmental groups immediately raised the prospects of a lawsuit if the agency does not review the plan again. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency made its long-expected […]

The Navy this week awarded General Dynamics’ Electric Boat a $9.47 billion contract modification on Thursday for full construction of the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN-826) and continuing advanced construction for the second vessel. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts told reporters Thursday on a conference call that […]

The United Kingdom announced this week it will nationalizing operations of its Atomic Weapons Establishment next June after letting contractors run the shop for nearly three decades. The Atomic Weapons Establishment will become a wholly-owned, arms-length body controlled by the Ministry of Defence, which will take over the heart of the U.K. nuclear weapons complex […]