Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

President Donald Trump said Thursday on Truth Social Tehran agreed to give up the uranium buried after the Midnight Hammer airstrikes in June 2025, which would greatly reduce Iran’s ability to construct a nuclear weapon if true. Tehran has not yet confirmed the agreement, according to the Washington Post. Earlier this week, U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations […]

A wargame conducted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies suggested that a stand-in, penetrating force of the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bomber for strategic attack were key to blunting a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, is advising the Air Force to buy […]

Solid rocket motors for the first five Air Force flight tests of the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) are in construction, the company said on Monday. “Every propulsive element of the Sentinel missile has been prototyped and tested,” according to the company press release. “Northrop Grumman has assembled the first three-stage […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright confirmed Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has “just begun” pit production in testimony Wednesday to the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee on the fiscal 2027 budget request for the Department of Energy. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking member of the subcommittee, asked Wright about reforms to project […]

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Wednesday North Korea has made a “very serious increase” to progress on its Yongbyon nuclear weapons complex, with expansions possibly including a new uranium enrichment facility. Grossi made his comments at a filmed press conference in Seoul, South Korea, where he met with South […]

Charles Nakhleh became the new deputy director for weapons at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico effective April 1, lab management announced recently. Nakhleh assumes the post following the March 31 retirement of Robert Webster, who finished up a 40-year career with the nuclear security enterprise, according to a recent […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) recorded 25 transuranic (TRU) waste shipments in March, following an annual maintenance outage that kept it offline since January.  The 25 shipments are the first since the facility accepted 33 shipments in December, and an uptick from March 2024 when WIPP received 13 shipments, according to […]

A South Carolina woman pleaded guilty last week to stealing money from her deceased relative’s pension benefits earned from working at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. On April 9, the Department of Justice announced Effie Mae Youmans, 71, of Columbia, admitted to theft of public money by wrongly collecting someone else’s pension benefits. […]

The deadline for responses to the request for proposals (RFP) to take over management and operations for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Savannah River Site was extended from April 28 to May 13, according to a procurement notice. The highly anticipated RFP was released late February for a standalone performance-based contract, according to NNSA’s […]

Jessica Kunkle is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) newest acting associate administrator for the Office of Infrastructure, a spokesperson for the agency told Exchange Monitor Thursday. Kunkle will be taking over for Nicole Nelson-Jean, who as of March principal associate administrator of NNSA’s Office of Environment, Safety and Health. The Office of Infrastructure is […]

President Donald Trump said on social media Tuesday evening a two-week ceasefire was negotiated between the United States and Iran to finalize an agreement between the two parties. “Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being […]

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, criticized the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion defense spending request for fiscal 2027, specifically pushing back on the planned use of $350 billion in reconciliation funds.  The White House released a high-level budget request April 3 that only listed some toplines. It requested almost […]

A bill has been reintroduced in the Senate by co-chairs of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, which would require Congressional approval for any nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia. The legislation is by Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) It is called the “No Nuclear Weapons for Saudi Arabia Act,” […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) biggest budget request yet for fiscal 2027 would include $27.4 billion for weapons activities, according to the Department of Energy’s budget justification document released over the weekend. That would be an increase of $7 billion, or 35%, from the fiscal 2026 enacted levels of $20.4 billion, which included the […]

Crews at the Y-12 National Security Complex have completed final concrete placement for a tunnel that will connect major sections of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF’s) enriched uranium mission. The project—known as the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility Connector (HCON)— is “in the dry,” signifying completion of the tunnel roof, allowing installation of internal systems […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies (BWXT) said Tuesday it plans to apply for a uranium enrichment license to build a new defense nuclear facility in Erwin, Tenn.  The nuclear fuel company notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) so the agency can prepare to review the application, which BWXT will submit during the first quarter of calendar […]

The Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) said Wednesday it picked Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana as potential locations for nuclear microreactors. The decision comes under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program (ANPI), a partnership between the Air Force and DIU to deploy “advanced, […]

The Los Alamos Study Group and Nuclear Watch New Mexico published separate statements this week criticizing the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 request for an increase in funding plutonium pit production and decrease to nonproliferation and non-weapons science programs. “Throughout this budget it is global dominance, not global cooperation, that is the stated theme. U.S. […]

Most Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites would receive modest reductions in their fiscal 2027 funding, under the budget justification document released over the weekend by the White House. The request for the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., is $483 million, an increase of 12% from […]

The House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development and related agencies scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, April 15 to review the Department of Energy’s budget request for fiscal 2027. This hearing comes after the White House issued a budget request for fiscal 2027 that would give $32.8 billion to the DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) have called on Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) to immediately convene a public hearing with Pentagon officials on the Trump administration’s ongoing military campaign against Iran.  “We are deeply troubled by the lack of transparency from the Trump Administration and the Department of Defense and its failure to […]

Air Force Gen. Dale White, the direct reporting portfolio manager for critical major weapon systems, visited the 91st Missile Wing at Minot AFB, N.D., on March 19-20 to gain insights on requirements and modernization involved with the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future intercontinental ballistic missile, the Air Force said.  “The Sentinel program is foundational to […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory is adjusting key safety controls as it prepares for expanded plutonium operations, even as routine breakdowns persist, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s weekly report for March 6. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Field Office approved the safety basis for Los Alamos’s plutonium facility in New Mexico during […]

The head of U.S. Strategic Command told lawmakers last week that nuclear modernization remains the Pentagon’s top investment priority, while signaling openness to expanding the Navy’s next-generation ballistic missile submarine fleet beyond current plans. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Adm. Richard Correll said recapitalizing all three legs of the nuclear triad is essential […]

A senior State Department official told lawmakers the AUKUS security partnership is being hindered by a complex web of regulatory barriers, describing the challenge as a “fishing knot” that requires both regulatory and legislative fixes. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, Thomas Dinanno, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, […]

The Donald Trump administration rolled out its very high-level budget proposal for fiscal 2027 this Friday, April 3, which included $32.8 billion for the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The fiscal 2027 request for NNSA is $3.6 billion, or 12%, more than what the agency in charge of maintaining the nation’s […]

Testing of Northrop Grumman’s and Bechtel’s prototype missile silo for the Sentinel should demonstrate a modular design the service and industry can repeat for all of the 450 planned, new silos, a Northrop Grumman official said last week. “Proving out the launch silo concept is critical to creating a repeatable approach that will accelerate deployment […]

A New Mexico watchdog group says recent federal analyses point to growing pressure to expand plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), potentially beyond currently scoped capacity. The group refers to the lab’s most recently released record of decision and site-wide environmental impact statement (SWEIS), an analysis required by the National Environmental Policy […]