Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty resigned as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration after two years, eight months and 22 days as the head of the U.S. civilian nuclear weapons program, the agency announced Friday. The official statement gave no reason for the departure, which happened days after the still-unsettled U.S. election. At deadline, Democratic nominee Joe […]

COVID-19 is surging across the country, with the rate of new cases at most major National Nuclear Security Administration host sites eclipsing their week-ago totals, and the agency cumulative racking up more than 100 new cases for the fourth week in a row. Mixing in 40 recoveries this week, that made for 303 confirmed cases […]

Next week, the National Nuclear Security Administration will host a second virtual meeting with the public to discuss a planned release of tritium from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to a notice posted online. The second virtual meeting about venting flanged tritium waste containers is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 5, from 5 p.m. to […]

By early next year, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy could sign a memorandum of understanding about how to share information under a two year-old DOE order that limits interactions between the federal agencies. On Tuesday, the board — a roughly $30-million-a-year agency with a staff of around 100 full-timers […]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham (D) wants the Department of Energy to explain how its plan to dispose of some seven metric tons of diluted, weapon-usable plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant complies with environmental law, according to a recent letter. The tranche is part of the 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium that […]

Amid the public whipsaw of New START nuclear-arms negotiations between Washington and Moscow, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, offered to limit deployment of land-based intermediate range missiles near the European border. Putin on Monday morning offered refrain from deploying the 9M729 missile near Europe if the U.S. would agree to reciprocal steps, including allowing inspections […]

Here’s this week’s collection of quick-hit news about, and with implications for, U.S. nuclear security and the nuclear security enterprise. The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments will soon investigate “the introduction of unauthorized electronic equipment (Panasonic pan-tilt-zoom cameras) into security areas for over two years and the potential unauthorized disclosure of classified information […]

If Joe Biden wins the White House in the Nov. 3 election, his administration will consider backing off the U.S. nuclear buildup set in place by the Obama administration in 2016, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee predicted Thursday. “China’s philosophy has been very simple: we’re going to build a reliable nuclear arsenal […]

At deadline Friday, winter weather had finally blown over New Mexico and Texas after an early-week barrage that gave all the nuclear-weapons sites in those states at one snow day. Non-essential dayshift employees at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, were most affected by an early winter storm that crusted the panhandle counties of Potter […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration still had not at deadline released the final solicitation for the potentially $28-billion, $10-year contract to manage its two big nuclear-weapons production sites, but more information is percolating up through industry about the players interested in the deal. With the envisioned start of the transition from the Bechtel-led incumbent, Consolidated […]

A third National Nuclear Security Administration employee has died from COVID-19, and the agency recorded more than 100 new cases among its workforce for the second consecutive week, a spokesperson said Friday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency declined to identify the person who died, but did say they worked at the Nevada […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory wrapped up equipment installation at the site’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility 10 months ahead of schedule, the weapons lab said this week in press release. This now-completed phase, officially, Plutonium Facility Equipment Installation-Phase 1, is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility (CMMR) project. […]

The Department of Energy on Sunday finalized changes to its rule about nuclear safety management that, according to the government’s independent nuclear health and safety watchdog, could encourage contractors to unsafely increase radioactive hazards in old buildings. After about two years of deliberation, the agency published its changes to  Title 10, Part 830 of the Code of […]

Later this year, the National Nuclear Security Administration will begin a formal review of its program to dispose of the 34 metric tons of plutonium once slated to be recycled into commercial reactor fuel, an agency official said. It was unclear whether the agency would heed the advice of the National Academies of Sciences and […]

Texas-based Fluor, a major contractor at Department of Energy nuclear weapon sites, lost $171 million, or $1.22 per share, for its first quarter that ended March 31, according to results released Thursday. Since late 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have been investigating problems with Fluor quarterly data filed during […]

A vendor to the Kansas City National Security Campus made thousands of nuclear weapons parts with the incorrect alloy because “product drawings were not clear,” forcing the Pantex Plant to pause servicing on multiple nuclear weapons in mid-September while the National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed the parts were safe to use, a campus spokesperson said […]

This week, top U.S. officials in Washington warned against cutting the U.S. nuclear arsenal or agreeing to extend a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia without assurances that Moscow’s promised warhead freeze would actually happen. “[E]ach piece of our triad is essential, but they’re also complimentary,” Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s radiation-sniffing helicopter started a campaign of low-altitude flights over Washington this week, part of an effort to safeguard against a nuclear-armed attack on January’s looming presidential inauguration. The agency routinely measures background radiation ahead of large public gatherings to create a base level against which the source of a radiological […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s leader should get a fixed term, senior agency managers should be exempted from Senate approval and the stockpile’s steward should strive for a closer contractual relationship with its nuclear-weapons laboratories, a National Academies report concluded. The 14-member, joint National Academy of Public Administration and National Academy of Sciences panel that […]

Here’s this week’s collection of quick-hit news about, and with implications for, U.S. nuclear security. The National Nuclear Security Administration and Canada’s Atomic Energy of Canada Limited have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on nuclear safety and security, the government entities announced jointly. Brent Park, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) deputy administrator […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration should formalize in April its choice to build a pit-production from the remains of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina an agency official said recently. That would set the stage for the semiautonomous DOE nuclear weapons agency to approve a formal cost […]

As with the whole country, COVID-19 hit the National Nuclear Security Administration hard this week, when the agency recorded more than 100 new cases, a spokesperson said. For the week ended Friday, 73 contractor and federal employees recovered from their bouts with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — but the 107 new cases […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s enterprise-wide procurement honcho predicted a competition to pick a new management contractor for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex would conclude in time to replace the incumbent by Oct. 1, 2021, and without any protest. “We don’t get protested,” Bob Raines, the agency’s associate administrator for acquisition […]

Sister Ardeth Platte, the nun who breached the perimeter of the Y-12 National Security Site in 2010 as part of an anti-nuclear protest, died in her sleep last week in Washington at age 84, media reported. Platte, by the time of her death a well-known anti-nuclear-weapons protester, served time in jail for her trespassing — […]

Future nuclear weapons programs will be delayed if the National Nuclear Security Administration is not able to produce depleted-uranium-niobium alloy ingots in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in the next three years, according to a report the Government Accountability Office published this week. “[A]ny delays beyond that will affect the current schedules of these programs,” Congress’ investigative […]

Glovebox component vendor Central Research Laboratories, Red Wing, Minn., again popped up in connection with a glovebox breach at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility, this time after a close call involving a plutonium machining operator.  On Sept. 23, an “ergonomic” glovebox glove assembly provided by Central Research Laboratories unexpectedly disconnected from the […]

Touch ‘Em All: NNSA Administrator Rounds Out Tour of Nuclear Security Enterprise With visits this week to the Kansas City National Security Complex in Missouri and a pair of naval nuclear sites in New York, Lisa Gordon Hagerty, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, wrapped up a four-mouth tour of the civilian agency’s main […]