Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week officially green-lit the Los Alamos National Laboratory to make 30 war-ready warhead cores in 2026 for next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles. Under the long-expected decision, the northern New Mexico weapon-design laboratory “will produce a minimum of 30 war reserve pits per year for the national pit production mission […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday, in observance of Labor Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

The Pentagon is keeping a close eye on nuclear weapons life-extension programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic, but to date there have been no signs of any delays, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday. “I don’t believe that there have been any COVID-related implications to the life-extension programs,” […]

The Senate delegation from Massachusetts looks set to retain it tag-team of nuclear disarmament advocates into the next presidential term, now that Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has defeated Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) in a Democratic primary in the blue state. The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth at deadline had not released the official results […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday morning officially green-lit the Los Alamos National Laboratory to make 30 war-ready warhead cores in 2026 for next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles. Under the long-expected decision, the northern New Mexico weapon-design laboratory “will produce a minimum of 30 war reserve pits per year for the national pit production […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California received a VIP visit from the head of U.S. Strategic Command this week, as it continues to work on the warhead-refresh for the airborne leg of the triad. Navy Adm. Charles Richard visited the Livermore, Calif., weapons laboratory on Monday, as wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic continued raging through […]

To settle a lawsuit filed in 2016, the federal government will pay $600 million to South Carolina in recognition of the Department of Energy’s inability to remove several metric tons of plutonium from the state by a legal deadline of 2022, state and federal officials said Monday. The money will come from the Treasury Department’s […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette is scheduled for an official visit to South Carolina today, during which he and the state’s attorney general are expected to announce a major financial settlement in a $200-million lawsuit over weapon-usable plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site for about a decade. Two people with knowledge of the secretary’s […]

Some 1,500 people showed up online Wednesday to check out job opportunities in the nuclear security enterprise during the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) third virtual job fair of the summer. Roughly 2,000 people registered to attend by providing resumes and other information, and most of those got at least some virtual face time with […]

A report from the University of New Mexico concludes the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in recent years was worth more than $3.1 billion to the state, although the economic benefit is concentrated in a few counties. A summary of the report was presented Aug. 21 to the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) […]

A coalition of local communities surrounding the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is back in the good financial graces of the Energy Department after repaying nearly $16,000 in grant money. Earlier this year, the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) repaid the agency $15,767 for expenditures questioned  in a September 2019 report by […]

In an order as bristly as the late Wilford Brimley’s legendary mustache, a federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing of a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his connection to a Chinese government program. Sentencing had been set for Wednesday in U.S. District Court for New Mexico, and […]

The downtown Seattle building contaminated with cesium-137 after what the Department of Energy called a “preventable” quality control lapse by a radiological source-removal contractor should reopen in about a year, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) top nonproliferation official said Thursday.  “We are hopeful the University of Washington could reoccupy the building within a matter […]

Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor took its annual summer recess in mid-August, but we kept track of the nuke news during the publishing holiday and have compiled it here for you. NNSA Helo Sweeps Charlotte Ahead of GOP Convention  The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) dispatched a radiation-sniffing helicopter to the skies of Charlotte, N.C., […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will name its under-construction Albuquerque headquarters building after the late John Gordon, the former agency administrator who died early this year. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, the current administrator of the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency, announced the decision on Aug. 21. The building’s official name will be the John […]

Although the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to replace Consolidated Nuclear Security as the manager of the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, the incumbent will stay on at Y-12 to continue building the new factory for nuclear-weapon secondary stages. “The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) project will continue […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) picked up four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 this week, bringing the nuclear-weapon agency’s total to 529 since the confirmed beginning of the U.S. outbreak, a spokesperson said Friday. So far, 416 people among the agency’s federal employees and contractors have recovered from their bouts with the disease caused […]

Some 1,500 people showed up online Wednesday to check out job opportunities in the nuclear security enterprise during the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) third virtual job fair of the summer. Roughly 2,000 people registered to attend by providing resumes and other information, and most of those got at least some virtual face time with […]

In an order as bristly as the late Wilford Brimley’s legendary mustache, a federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing of a former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist who pleaded guilty to lying about his connection to a Chinese government program. Sentencing had been set for today in U.S. District Court for New Mexico, and […]

The Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., is set to reopen its Innovation Parkway Office Center on Tuesday, following a deep cleaning necessitated by a COVID-19 case on-site. After announcing confirmation Friday that an individual working in the building had caught the viral disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Sandia diverted anyone needing badging to […]

Although the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to replace Consolidated Nuclear Security as the manager of the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, the incumbent will stay on at Y-12 to continue building the new factory for nuclear-weapon secondary stages. “The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) project will continue […]

Attorneys for the former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist due to be sentenced this week for lying to federal authorities about his connection to a Chinese talent-recruiting program asked for only fines and probation for their client, according to a long-awaited sentencing memo. Turab Lookman, indicted in May 2019 on three counts of lying to […]

Recoveries handily outpaced new cases of COVID-19 at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week, as the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency confirmed 107 active cases of the viral disease among its civil servant and contractor employees. That was 53 fewer active cases than the week before, an agency spokesperson told Weapons Complex […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will name its under-construction Albuquerque headquarters building after the late John Gordon, the former agency administrator who died early this year. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, the current administrator of the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency, announced the decision Friday. The building’s official name will be the John A. Gordon […]

A report from the University of New Mexico concludes the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in recent years was worth more than $3.1 billion to the state, although the economic benefit is concentrated in a few counties. A summary of the report was presented Friday to the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) by […]

Over 70 former Republican national security officials have endorsed Democratic nominee Joe Biden for president, calling Donald Trump “dangerously unfit to serve another term.” The group includes several former members of the Trump administration, such as Miles Taylor, who served as the Department of Homeland Security chief of staff, and Elizabeth Neumann, who was DHS […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it will dispatch a radiation-sniffing helicopter to the skies of Charlotte, N.C., ahead of the 2020 Republican National Convention scheduled there next week. A twin-engine Bell 412 helicopter, rigged with passive radiation-sensing instruments, “will conduct low-altitude helicopter flights over downtown Charlotte and areas in and around Yorkmount […]

David Wilson, a former official with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), joined Energy Department contractor Longenecker & Associates on Aug. 10 as a senior associate. Wilson, who spent 37 years with the state agency before retiring as its acting director in 2019, will take over a newly created post and […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is preparing for its third virtual job fair of the summer, coming to a computer or connected device near you on Aug. 26. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, according to an announcement from the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency. Those interested […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory blamed a new type of glovebox glove for a June 8 incident that exposed at least one person, and likely more, to radioactive contamination from plutonium 238, the independent federal Defense Nuclear Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reported. Alarms sounded in Los Alamos’ PF-4 Plutonium Facility after a lab Actinide Material Processing […]