Vol. 27, No. 16 
NNSA won’t know how much 80 pits per year will cost until 2025
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Defense & Military
Air Force initiates test firing of unarmed Minuteman III from Navy E-6 aircraft
The Air Force and Navy on Wednesday morning used an airborne control center to test-fire an unarmed Minuteman III missile, the services said. The test gave the services a look at the Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS), an aircraft that can launch intercontinental ballistic missiles if ground-based communication with nuclear silos is disabled. A joint […]
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Non-Proliferation
U.S. lawmakers reintroduce bill to prohibit presidents from igniting nuclear war
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-chair of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) have reintroduced the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act to prohibit the U.S. President from launching a nuclear strike without prior authorization from Congress. The legislation, filed Friday, would also institute safeguards to prevent the […]
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Plutonium Pit Production
‘Obsolete’ Los Alamos fire alarm system repeatedly registering false alarms
The Los Alamos Fire Department responded to 34 fire false alarms at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2022 and the obsolete alarm system continues to malfunction in 2023, according to reports from the site. An ongoing effort to replace the existing fire alarm system at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Plutonium Facility at TA-55, also […]
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Budget & Policy
Los Alamos County proposes doubling fire department budget to cover LANL
Los Alamos County, New Mexico, started its annual budgeting process Monday night with a public hearing on the proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2024, which includes a massive more-than-doubling of the fire department outlay to cover a cooperative agreement with the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Los Alamos Fire Department provides firefighting and emergency […]
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National Laboratories
Wrap up: NATO head talks nukes; Livermore scientist is one of Time’s 100; DOE puts Russia on notice and more
NATO and the U.S. State Department this week held the 18th Annual NATO Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Non-Proliferation in Washington, D.C. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman delivered remarks at the opening session of the conference on April 18. “NATO will […]