Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

Vaccinations have started at some National Nuclear Security Administration sites, which as a group racked up more than 150 new COVID-19 cases this week, with recoveries outpacing new confirmed infections, according to agency data. The labs that received vaccines did not reply to questions about how many workers they had vaccinated, at deadline. The Nevada […]

Donald Trump appointee Charles Verdon has taken over as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency confirmed Friday. Meanwhile, David Huizenga, No. 3 at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its top career official, will take over as acting Secretary of Energy until the Senate […]

David Huizenga, the No. 3 official at the National Nuclear Security Administration, will take over as acting Secretary of Energy until the Senate confirms President Joe Biden’s nominee for the post, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), the administration said Wednesday. Granholm is scheduled for a Jan. 27 confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy Natural […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published today, Jan. 18, 2021, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021.

William Bookless will resign as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration on inauguration day, Jan. 20, setting up career civil servant David Huizenga to shepherd the nuclear-weapons agency through the early days of the Joe Biden administration. Bookless announced his impending departure Monday in an all-hands memo to National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has scheduled another virtual job fair, with the next in the series scheduled for Jan. 27, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency announced. The agency said it has “more than 2,000 NNSA federal and contractor positions” to fill, “including engineers, policy experts, and physical scientists, throughout the country.” Those interested […]

Three more National Nuclear Security Administration employees have died from COVID-19, an agency spokesperson said this week, as active cases across the enterprise tricked down, despite more than 400 new cases cropping up. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency said, some National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites are starting to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has scheduled another virtual job fair, with the next in the series scheduled for Jan. 27, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency announced.  The agency said it has “more than 2,000 NNSA federal and contractor positions” to fill, “including engineers, policy experts, and physical scientists, throughout the country.” […]

William Bookless will resign as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration on inauguration day, Jan. 20, setting up career civil servant David Huizenga to shepherd the nuclear-weapons agency through the early days of the Joe Biden administration. Bookless announced his impending departure Monday in an all-hands memo to National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

The commander of U.S. nuclear forces, who met with President-elect Joe Biden’s (D) transition team recently, worried this week that the civilian nuclear weapons complex faces problems bigger than a potential slip in plutonium-pit production. Under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act passed into law this month over President Donald Trump’s veto, U.S. Strategic Command […]

The Sandia National Laboratories split its Nuclear Deterrence division into two new organizations and brought in a former Raytheon executive to oversee them, the Albuquerque, N.M.-based labs network announced this week. Sandia rolled out the changes internally in November, a labs spokesperson wrote in an email to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. A major cog […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration got its big requested budget increase under the omnibus spending bill signed into law just before New Year’s, jumpstarting key nuclear-weapons programs even as the incoming Joe Biden administration squares up the ongoing U.S. modernization regimen for possible cuts. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will get $19.7 billion, which […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration had about 1,000 active, confirmed COVID-19 cases across its national network for most of December and closed out 2020 with about 3,500 cumulative cases, of which seven were fatal. That is according to data provided Friday by a spokesperson for the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency. Including the first […]

The commander of U.S. nuclear forces, who met with President-elect Joe Biden’s (D) transition team recently, worried Monday that the civilian nuclear weapons complex faces problems bigger than a potential slip in plutonium-pit production. Under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act passed into law this month over President Donald Trump’s veto, U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) […]

The Sandia National Laboratories split its Nuclear Deterrence division into two new organizations and brought in a former Raytheon executive to oversee them, the Albuquerque, N.M.-based labs network announced this week. Sandia rolled out the changes internally in November, a labs spokesperson wrote in an email to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. A major cog in […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is preparing a final environmental review for its new plutonium disposal program at the Savannah River Site, but not the thorough review a National Academies panel recommended earlier this year, the agency announced Wednesday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency published its notice of intent to do an environmental […]

New COVID-19 cases continued to rise week-to-week in some National Nuclear Security Administration host regions this week, but growth flattened in a few locales and the agency itself saw recoveries outpace new infections for the first time in more than a month. Even so, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon steward tracked a record 350 […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Christmas holiday, nor the week after, in observance of New Year’s Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 8. Happy holidays!

If, with a herculean effort, you put the COVID-19 pandemic to one side, the biggest story of 2020 at the National Nuclear Security Administration was how semi-autonomous it really is from the Department of Energy, and how much control the Department of Defense should have over it. The debate is in a sense older than […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is preparing a final environmental review for its new plutonium disposal program at the Savannah River Site, but not the thorough review a National Academies panel recommended earlier this year, the agency announced Wednesday. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency published its notice of intent to do an […]

Even in a government where Democrats will control the White House and at least one chamber of Congress, political consensus appears to favor continuing the nuclear modernization program the Barack Obama administration started in 2016, the head of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday. “Any effort to change that is running into very strong […]

A little over a month after the secretary of energy demanded her resignation as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Donald Trump administration welcomed Lisa Gordon-Hagerty back into the fold, appointing her to a Pentagon advisory board. The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that Gordon-Hagerty will join its Defense Policy Board, potentially giving […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration had more than 300 new confirmed COVID-19 cases last week, including two more fatal cases, a spokesperson said Friday. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency tracked 311 new confirmed cases among contractors and civil servants of the viral disease caused by the novel coronavirus that broke out in China […]

A little over a month after the secretary of energy demanded her resignation as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Donald Trump administration welcomed Lisa Gordon-Hagerty back into the fold, appointing her to a Pentagon advisory board. The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that Gordon-Hagerty will join its Defense Policy Board, potentially giving […]

Even in a government where Democrats will control the White House and at least one chamber of Congress, political consensus appears to favor continuing the nuclear modernization program the Barack Obama administration started in 2016, the head of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday. “Any effort to change that is running into very strong […]

The personnel churn in the Donald Trump administration’s nuclear-weapons enterprise and Joe Biden’s election as President of the United States highlight the urgency of giving the administrator of the National nuclear Security Administration a fixed term, members of a National Academies panel said Wednesday. “At the moment we not only have secretary and deputy secretary […]

On Tuesday, another Democratic lawmaker called for President-elect Joe Biden to publish what would be the third U.S. nuclear posture review in as many administrations — a potential step toward altering the course of the nuclear modernization regimen that started in 2016. “They’ll have to do a top-to-bottom review of these programs and think about […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday moved to reassure the city of Oak Ridge that moving some uranium purification outside the fence at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge Tenn., will not cost the site any jobs. The city raised the alarm in a statement issued before the Thanksgiving holiday last week, […]

For the second week in a row, the National Nuclear Security Administration broke its record for new confirmed COVID-19 cases in a week, reflecting the disease’s rapid spread among the general population. Nationally, the U.S. is setting new daily case records almost daily, according to data tracked by the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  At […]

The personnel churn in the Donald Trump administration’s nuclear-weapons enterprise and Joe Biden’s election as President of the United States highlight the urgency of giving the administrator of the National nuclear Security Administration a fixed term, members of a National Academies panel said Wednesday. “At the moment we not only have secretary and deputy secretary […]