President Barack Obama this week nominated nuclear energy industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve a full term on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
Hamilton joined the board in August 2015, replacing the late Ken Mossman. If approved by the Senate, he would serve a full term of five years.
Hamilton was president of nuclear fuel cycle front-end contract specialist Fuelco LLC from 2009 to 2013, after a stint as engineering director for the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Texas from 2003 to 2008. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1978 to 2002, with duties including supervising nuclear operations in six warships, commanding another vessel, and being a reactor officer for the midlife refueling overhaul of an aircraft carrier.
The five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board oversees an Executive Branch organization of about 115 employees tasked with monitoring safety and potential health threats at Department of Energy defense nuclear facilities around the country.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) radiation portal monitors, installed at U.S. entry points to prevent nuclear and radiological materials from being smuggled into the country, can function at least 20 years longer than initially expected with proactive maintenance, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released Wednesday.
Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection operates nearly 1,400 radiation portal monitors (RPM) to scan cargo and vehicles at U.S. ports of entry for nuclear and radiological material, and nearly 2,700 handheld radiation detectors to identify sources of radiation. These efforts are directed by the department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), which works to address the risk of nuclear terrorism by strengthening U.S. capabilities to deter, detect, and respond to attacks.
The GAO found that as of August 2016, DHS’s RPM fleet “remains almost 100 percent operational, even as almost 20 percent of the RPMs have reached the end of their original estimated 13-year service life and another 40 percent are within 2 years of that date.” The monitors were deployed to border crossings and seaports starting in fiscal 2003.
DNDO-commissioned field studies published in 2011 assessed RPM system and component aging and determined that the service life for systems could be years longer than originally estimated. Homeland Security officials have now told GAO “they believe the RPM fleet can last at least 20 years longer if it is properly maintained and spare parts remain available,” the report said. This means they can remain operational until at least 2030, provided proper maintenance.
This has led DHS to change its strategy; while it had initially planned to replace the full fleet of RPMs, it is now shifting to a more selective approach that will swap out roughly 120 RPMs along the northern U.S. border with upgraded equipment from fiscal 2016 through 2018, and replace 150 to 250 RPMs at some high-volume ports with enhanced, commercially available variations from fiscal 2018 through 2020. The upgrades are intended to improve threat discrimination, enabling CBP to distinguish potential threats from other naturally occurring radioactive materials found in cargo, such as fertilizers.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) anticipates awarding a contract extension to Centerra Group for security protective force services at the Nevada National Security Site, according to a special notice posted Nov. 23.
The notice said the NNSA expects to award a modification around Dec. 31, 2016, the date Centerra’s current contract is set to expire. The contract was initially awarded to the Florida-based company in December 2011 and is valued at $233.9 million. The modification would extend the contract for another six months, the notice said.
Early last month the NNSA said it would soon release a request for proposals for protective force services, for work to be performed at the 1,370-square-mile Nevada site, the Remote Sensing Laboratory at Nellis Air Force Base, and the Las Vegas Complex.
Under the contract, the force would be responsible for protecting nuclear explosive devices, special nuclear material, national security operations and related equipment, classified information, government facilities, and employees. The Independent Guard Association of Nevada represents the force, and the next contractor will be bound by the union’s current collective bargaining agreement, which remains in effect through 2019.
The NNSA’s sources sought solicitation said the new contract is expected to be a performance-based fixed price/time and materials hybrid with a total five-year term worth roughly $270 million.
The Nevada site supports the NNSA through nuclear stockpile stewardship, nonproliferation and counterterrorism activities, radioactive waste management, and national emergency response programs.
