National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

The U.S. Senate voted 77-22 Monday evening to confirm former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) as Air Force secretary, making her the first Air Force Academy graduate to become the service’s top civilian. Air Force Undersecretary Lisa Disbrow has been serving in the acting secretary position since January. Early last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee […]

New leadership is wrapping up its first week on the job at the Sandia National Laboratories, following a transition that removed former contractor Lockheed Martin from its management position. The National Nuclear Security Administration last December awarded the management and operations contract to National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, a subsidiary of Honeywell International. The deal […]

A key project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site that supplies tritium for nuclear weapons is up and running for the first time since 2015. The Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) removes the material from tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) that have been irradiated in commercial light-water reactors by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The […]

Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday reported revenue of $1.72 billion in the first quarter of 2017, a 2.2 percent decrease from the same period last year, and operating income of $164 million, down from $198 million year over year. Diluted earnings per share dropped from $2.87 in 2016 to $2.56 in the latest quarter. […]

BWX Technologies on Monday reported $428.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2017, up by 17 percent from $364.8 million in the same quarter last year, and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) operating income of $83.2 million, spiking 95 percent year over year from $42.6 million. Earnings per share were reported at $0.55 in […]

The fiscal 2017 omnibus spending bill approved by both chambers of Congress provides $12.9 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, an increase of $142 million from the fiscal 2016 level and $63 million more than former President Barack Obama’s request for the current budget year. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into […]

President Donald Trump is expected today to sign into law an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2017 that largely maintains funding for construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina while leaving room to study former President Barack Obama’s proposed alternative method of plutonium disposition. This means questions about the future of […]

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed an omnibus budget that would give the Energy Department about $30 billion for the remainder of fiscal 2017: a roughly 3-percent raise from the last budget year, but more than 2 percent less overall than the Obama administration requested for the agency more than a year ago. Within the total, […]

A key project at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site that supplies tritium for nuclear weapons is up and running for the first time since 2015. The Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) removes the material from tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) that have been irradiated in commercial light-water reactors by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Monday released an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2017 that suggests congressional support for former President Barack Obama’s proposed alternative method of plutonium disposition, raising questions about the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The omnibus bill provides $12.9 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, […]

The earnings season for the first quarter of 2017 is well underway, with Northrop Grumman, Lockeed Martin, and other federal contracting giants rolling out their latest numbers in the last week. Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls will join them with an earnings call scheduled for 9 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. The Newport News, Va.-based company’s revenue and […]

Editor’s note: This is the final in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and the U.S. nuclear deterrent during the new administration’s crucial first days. The Donald Trump administration continues to shape its nuclear arms policy even as it very slowly advances its efforts […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has made progress in its governance of the U.S. nuclear security enterprise but will need to take more concrete steps to improve the federal-contractor relationship and reduce bureaucratic burdens, according to a new congressionally mandated report. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Academy of Public […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration may be underestimating the costs of its various weapons modernization programs by up to billions of dollars, raising concerns that some life-extension programs might be underfunded or even deferred, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Wednesday. The report said fiscal 2017 budget materials from the semiautonomous Department of Energy […]

Jill Hruby had no intention of leaving her job as director of the Sandia National Laboratories, but those plans were interrupted by an imminent change in management. Now, for the first time in more than three decades, she is pondering a future that doesn’t include the multi-state Department of Energy research complex. Just days before […]

Lockheed Martin Corp. on Tuesday announced net sales of $11.1 billion and net earnings from continuing operations of $763 million for the first quarter of 2017. Net sales increased from $10.4 billion in the same three-month period of 2016, while year-over-year net earnings fell from $806 million. Lockheed subsidiary Sandia Corp., with only a few […]

A company hired to provide specialty steel bars for construction of the MOX facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has agreed to pay $4.6 million in damages after being accused of supplying “defective steel reinforcing bar,” the Department of Justice said this week. Energy & Process Corp., a Georgia-based supplier […]

U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command airmen from the service’s bases in Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska on Wednesday launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, the Air Force announced. The operational test involved an unarmed ICBM with a single test re-entry vehicle containing a telemetry package, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily A pension tailwind, lower tax rate, and higher operating income led Northrop Grumman on Wednesday to post strong earnings in its first quarter as sales grew modestly. Net income rose 15 percent to $640 million, $3.63 earnings per share (EPS), from $556 million ($3.03 EPS) a year ago, topping analysts’ expectations by 21 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration should better address concerns over the affordability of its nuclear modernization programs in future agency documents, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Wednesday. The report said the NNSA’s fiscal 2017 budget materials do not align with its modernization plans, “raising concerns about the affordability of NNSA’s planned […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General dismissed in a newly released inspection report allegations of security concerns at a facility that houses special nuclear material at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The April 20 report, made public Tuesday, said the IG had received a complaint about security issues at ORNL’s Building […]

Lockheed Martin Corp. on Tuesday announced net sales of $11.1 billion and net earnings from continuing operations of $763 million for the first quarter of 2017. Net sales increased from $10.4 billion in the same three-month period of 2016, while year-over-year net earnings fell from $806 million. Lockheed subsidiary Sandia Corp., with only a few […]

A company hired to provide specialty steel bars for construction of the MOX facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has agreed to pay $4.6 million in damages after being accused of supplying “defective steel reinforcing bar,” the Department of Justice said this week. Energy & Process Corp., a Georgia-based supplier […]

The Department of Homeland Security and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) last week announced a new forensics capability to trace the origins of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. The new Plutonium Processing Signatures Discovery capability involves the replication of various plutonium conversion processes that result in the production of weapon-usable material with different characteristics – such as color […]

Representatives of the nuclear fuel industry are calling on the Department of Energy to downblend U.S. highly enriched uranium to levels above the low-enriched threshold in anticipation of the needs of advanced nuclear reactors, as the department evaluates options for managing its excess inventory of the nuclear material. The Department of Energy manages its excess […]

The Defense Department has formally begun preparing a new Nuclear Posture Review for the Donald Trump administration with the participation of interagency partners, including the State Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration. In a brief statement, the Pentagon on Monday said Defense Secretary James Mattis “directed the commencement of the review, which will be led by […]

Unprecedented shipments of liquid highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Canada to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will begin this spring, now that the 60-day window has closed to appeal a judge’s decision allowing the Energy Department transports. Groups that had sued against the shipments decided against appealing the directive. Judge Tanya Chutkan, of U.S. […]

A federal judge has granted the state of South Carolina and the Energy Department an additional three months to come up with proposed deadlines and schedules for removing 1 ton of plutonium from the state. The removal order is the result of the state’s 2016 lawsuit against DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration last year, which […]

Ten members of the House of Representatives from South Carolina and Georgia are urging Energy Secretary Rick Perry to sustain construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The Obama administration tried to cancel the decade-old project, through which Washington would meet its commitment to a nonproliferation […]

Department of Energy contractor Honeywell said Friday its first-quarter 2017 sales were almost equal to revenue from the same period one year ago, but both earnings per share and free cash flow spiked. The industrial company brought in $9.49 billion in sales in its latest reporting period, down very slightly from $9.52 billion in the […]