The White House’s proposal to decrease the Naval Reactors budget within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) by 5.6% to about $1.96 billion “may be something we need to talk about,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told agency Administrator Jill Hruby this week in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Kaine, an advocate for BWX Technologies’ naval nuclear factories in Lynchburg, Va., also talked about “workforce issues in Virginia” connected to the AUKUS trilateral nuclear-submarine program to sell Australia at least three and as many as five Virginia-class submarines before helping the island nation build its own.
Kaine asked Hruby during the hearing whether Rolls Royce would make the reactor’s for AUKUS submarines. Rolls-Royce U.K. and the U.K. government have each said that Rolls Royce will make reactors under AUKUS. Australia planned to build its own submarine by the 2040s or so, according to a White House fact sheet.
The Australian Government Department of Defence, in a new report on its own programs, got behind extended U.S. deterrence and more arms control as the way of the nuclear future.
“In our current strategic circumstances, the risk of nuclear escalation must be regarded as real,” the Australian government wrote in a 112 page Defence Strategic Review released this week. “Our best protection against the risk of nuclear escalation is the United States’ extended nuclear deterrence, and the pursuit of new avenues of arms control.”
The National Nuclear Security Administration selected eight universities to receive cooperative agreements totaling $100 million to establish nine Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Centers of Excellence to support research activities in areas of physical sciences and engineering.
The SSAA program funds research grants and cooperative agreements to provide opportunities for scientific collaboration between the academic community and scientists at Department of Energy and NNSA national laboratories. A main objective of the SSAA is to develop and maintain a long-term recruiting pathway supporting the national laboratories by training and educating scientists in critical areas of research relevant to stockpile stewardship.
“These cooperative agreements will allow NNSA to train the smartest and most skilled individuals while creating a direct pathway into our workforce with a diverse group of experts that can meet the evolving needs of the nuclear security enterprise,” said Kevin Greenaugh, chief science and technology officer for defense programs.
Christopher Nolan unveiled the first footage this week of his epic biopic of theoretical physicist and Manhattan Project head J. Robert Oppenheimer. Nolan previously said that he was able to recreate the Trinity nuclear test with practical effects for the film, which he has not further explained.
The film, titled simply “Oppenheimer” is set to open July 1 and tackles development of the first atomic bombs through the eyes of the Los Alamos Lab leader.
“Like it or not, J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived,” Nolan said at CinemaCon in Los Vegas on Wednesday, according to Variety. “He made the world that we live in for better or for worse. His story has to be seen to be believed.”
