Vol. 25, No. 31

Plutonium Pit Production

Senate Appropriators Match NNSA Budget Request, Buck House by Including All W93, Sea-Launched W80-4

The National Nuclear Security Administration would essentially receive its 2022 budget request under a spending bill the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up Wednesday, matching the funding the full House approved last week. Unlike the House, however, Senate Appropriators approved the $72 million the Joe Biden administration sought for the planned W93 submarine launched ballistic missile […]
  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    Nuclear Posture Review ‘Will Change Little’ at NNSA, Agency Weapons Boss Speculates

    ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Whatever changes the Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review prescribes to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national defense strategy, the nuclear production complex will have the same needs as it does now, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs office said here Tuesday. “I recognize […]

  • Plutonium Pit Production

    NNSA on Path to 30 Pits in 2026, but Management’s Judgements Differ About Interim Milestones

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Judgements varied here this week between two senior civilian nuclear-weapons leaders as to whether the National Nuclear Security Administration would meet some legally binding deadlines to produce new nuclear weapon cores this decade. Questioned about the deadlines by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor during the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, the head of National Nuclear […]

  • Plutonium Pit Production

    NNSA, Lab Official Say Congress Shouldn’t Change Legal Deadlines on Pit Production

    ALEXANDRIA — Congress should not relax legal deadlines to produce plutonium pits this decade, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged it won’t meet at least one of them,nuclear-weapons managers here said this week. “I would say no,” Michael Thompson, said here Wednesday when asked whether Congress should change the law so that […]

  • Stockpile Stewardship

    Samples Shipped for LANL’s Next Subcritical Plutonium Test at Nevada

    ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Materials for the third and final Nightshade subcritical plutonium test at the Nevada National Security Site have shipped out from the Los Alamos National Laboratory ahead of a shot planned for the fall, the head of the lab’s weapon’s program said here this week. Nightshade C had been scheduled to fire in […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    Reporter’s Notebook, 2021 Nuclear Deterrence Summit

    The Exchange Monitor held its 2021 Nuclear Deterrence Summit this week in Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington. The curtain rose on the show about a year-and-a-half after the 2020 summit, which wrapped up barely a month before COVID-19 changed everything. For some attendees, and maybe more than just some, the summit was the first […]

  • Contracts & Procurement

    Fluor Has 2Q Loss From Continuing Ops; Confirms Pursuit of Y-12, Pantex Deal

    While earnings from continuing operations were down at Fluor, Irving, Texas in the second quarter, the engineering and construction contractor said in a Friday press release it is reducing its debt and increasing its guidance for 2021. In slides released ahead of a Friday earnings call, the company also confirmed that it was among the […]

  • Contracts & Procurement

    BWXT 2Q Earnings Fall But Revenue Remains Steady

    Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor and maker of nuclear submarine reactors and components attributed to non-recurring costs such as commercializing a line of medical isotopes, plus higher interest rates. Net income for the second quarter ended June 30 was $59.4 million or $0.62 […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    DOE Spells Out Steps to Stem Rising COVID Case Count Around Nuclear Sites

    The Department of Energy is taking steps to implement White House policy to stem the tide of increasing COVID-19 infections by again ordering mask wearing indoors, giving more time off to have family members vaccinated and holding off on many in-person meetings. Effective immediately, “any DOE-hosted in-person meeting, conference, or event that will be attended […]

  • Nuclear Weapons & Stockpile

    Rose Sworn in as No. 2 at NNSA

    Frank Rose is officially principal deputy administrator of the the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency announced this week. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm conducted a virtual swearing in for Rose, who lives in Massachusetts, according to a tweet by Jill Hruby, herself sworn in as administrator of the National […]

  • Budget & Policy

    White House to Nominate Hinderstein for Top NNSA Nonrpo Post

    The Joe Biden administration said this week it will nominate former National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation hand Corey Hinderstein, currently at the non-government Nuclear Threat Institute, as the agency’s deputy administrator for defense non-proliferation.  “An accomplished leader and well-known expert on #nuclear #security matters, Corey has the knowledge and skills to lead the #NNSA nonproliferation […]

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