Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

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, […]

There were 270 new, confirmed COVID-19 cases, including another fatal case, among National Nuclear Security Administration contractor employees and civil servants as of the end of the Thanksgiving holiday week, an agency spokesperson said Monday. The fatal case was at the Los Alamos National Laboratory: the second COVID-19 death at the nation’s first nuclear weapons […]

Local officials with the City of Oak Ridge slammed the National Nuclear Security Administration’s decision to shift some national security work to BWX Technologies Subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tenn., from the Y-12 National Security Complex. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency informed the city of the move in an email the day before […]

Thanksgiving has plenty in common with a congressional hearing about nuclear-weapons production infrastructure, if you think about it. One day, a lot of folks who know each other well but see each other seldom gather round a big table, make small talk, and (to the extent that decorum and tempers allow) probe weightier issues. And […]

Geoffrey Beausoleil will retire in April as the local federal official for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production office, which oversees the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, he said in an email. Separately, a senior DOE official tweeted Friday that Steve Erhart, a former policy […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 Monday. The specialized rods will start producing yield-boosting gas for nuclear weapons during Watts Bar Unit […]

The state of New Mexico last week was 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 the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) had not as of Thursday decided when it […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 Department of Energy is pushing back against the narrative that Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was forced out of her job as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.  Gordon-Hagerty abruptly resigned Friday after more than two-and-a-half years in the top spot at DOE’s semi-autonomous nuclear-weapons agency. Her resignation letter, reportedly […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]