Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

ARLINGTON, VA. – In his debut public address as Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), Adm. Richard Correll told Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit the national labs were one of “five significant threat vectors” of concern for STRATCOM. “The way I think about it, and I hope I came across in my remarks, is […]

With a 16-year U.S.-Russia nuclear agreement that expired Thursday, President Donald Trump took to social media to say he would negotiate an “improved” treaty instead of extending it again. Signed in 2010 by then U.S. and Russian Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which hit its expiration […]

ARLINGTON, VA. – Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) will complete the first phase of a real estate acquisition project that will add 2 million square feet of office and manufacturing space this June, the site’s acting manager said last week. Shekita Robinson spoke at a panel of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) field […]

The Department of Justice recently launched an online portal for radioactive waste survivors to submit claims for assistance through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). “GREAT NEWS – the DOJ has launched the online portal for radioactive waste survivors to submit their RECA claims,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), one of the bipartisan advocates for RECA, […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Two sister entities within the Department of Energy, the Office of Environmental Management and the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), are setting the stage for future work at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn. That’s according to NNSA Y-12 field office manager Mary Helen Hitson at Exchange Monitor’s […]

Sean Musick, formerly a general manager at Chalk River within the Canadian National Laboratories, has taken a new post at Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) in South Carolina. At SRNS, the prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, Musick will be deputy senior vice president for strategic planning and integration. Musick, […]

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) earnings increased in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 which the Knoxville-based federal utility attributed to higher sales thanks largely to weather impacts and growing demand from data processing and related sectors.. Net earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 ended Dec. 31 were $266 million, up from $125 million, […]

ARLINGTON, VA – For sites in the Department of Energy’s nuclear complex recruiting electricians and skilled craftspeople is a big task – and keeping them can be another. This was a key theme to emerge during a Tuesday Jan. 27 panel discussion here at Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.  Senior managers from National Nuclear […]

Kim Budil, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said the Donald Trump administration did not consult the lab or the National Nuclear Security Administration on using the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) in the future Trump-class battleships. Bradley Wallin, Deputy Director of Strategic Deterrence at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, also told the Monitor he did […]

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) completed a record of 13 tritium extractions between fiscal 2025 and 2026, the agency said Jan. 23. This extraction amount was completed in nine months, the agency’s press release said. The previous record was eight extractions in 12 months between fiscal 2022 and 2023. “This […]

A Bechtel subsidiary received a $812 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for naval nuclear propulsion components by the Navy, according to the Jan. 21 contracts list on the Pentagon website. Bechtel Plant Machinery, based in Monroeville, Penn., is a prime contractor for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and is involved in many parts of the process for […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The site-wide environmental impact statement for Los Alamos National Laboratory powerline is done, the lab’s field office manager told the Exchange Monitor Monday on the first day of the Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Ted Wyka, field office manager for the Manhattan Project-era lab, said the lab is just waiting to finish up consultations […]

ARLINGTON, VA – Proposals are being assessed for contractors looking to build and power artificial intelligence (AI) data centers at Savannah River Site, the site’s field manager said in a panel on a snowy first day of Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Due to inclement weather, Brandon Williams, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The second-highest person at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday he is “absolutely considering contracting differently.” Scott Pappano, NNSA’s principal deputy administrator, gave a keynote on the second day of Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit. “The world I came from, you know, in shipbuilding, advanced procurement was very much a […]

ARLINGTON, VA – Scott Pappano, Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), said Tuesday that Savannah River can still play a “supporting role” in pit production between now and the completion of its pit production facility. Pappano gave a keynote on the second day of Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit. NNSA must […]

The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic device the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists uses to signify closeness to “global catastrophe” set another record closeness to midnight as of Tuesday. “A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe,” the Manhattan […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is embracing a culture of urgency and shifting from a scientific to production mindset, according to Administrator Brandon Williams Tuesday in his day 2 keynote at Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit. “Urgency requires a fundamental, fundamental shift in how we work,” Williams said of the Department […]

ARLINGTON, VA – Charles Ball was named the lead for the Genesis Mission at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the agency’s head Brandon Williams said Tuesday in his keynote at Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit. The Genesis Mission is an executive order from November by President Donald Trump which calls for a national effort […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The U.S. Air Force is considering modular missile silos to house the service’s future LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by Northrop Grumman, while using the same locations as the previous siloes. “My understanding is they [the Air Force] will largely use the same locations,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters Wednesday […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The W80-5, a new variant of the W80 warhead family, is on a “more aggressive schedule” to go on the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N), weapons directors said on the final day of Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Rita Gonzales, Deputy Laboratories Director for Nuclear Deterrence at Sandia National Laboratories, and Bradley […]

ARLINGTON, VA -The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its contractors must modernize key infrastructure quickly, a Kiewit Nuclear executive said here Monday. “We are at an inflection point,” Mike Rinehart, president of Kiewit Nuclear Solutions, told Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit Monday afternoon. “The nuclear security enterprise is expected […]

ARLINGTON, VA – Centrus Energy has signed contracts worth $2.3 billion to provide low-enriched uranium to electric utilities and virtually all of it involves traditional LEU rather than the high-assay-low-enriched uranium (HALEU) Centrus CEO Amir Vexler said here Tuesday. “The existing market is LEU,” Vexler told Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit, “There is no existing […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Tuesday issued the much-anticipated draft solution for management and operation of the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. The draft request for proposals (RFP) said bidders will be encouraged to offer updated technical approaches to making plutonium pits at the complex. According to a Jan. 27 procurement document, […]

ARLINGTON, VA – To garner support for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers on federal land, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should “state its value propositions” early on, Senior Director at Microsoft Federal Bryan Lopez said here Wednesday. Lopez told Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit that this goes a long way in helping hyperscalers consider […]

BWX Technologies said Monday it has opened its Centrifuge Manufacturing Development in Oak Ridge, Tenn., supporting national defense-focused uranium enrichment for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).  BWXT, based in Lynchburg, Va., was awarded a $1.5 billion-value contract from NNSA in September to assist NNSA in creating a reliable supply of enriched […]

Centrus Energy plans to expand its manufacturing plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. at an investment of more than $560 million, according to the company’s Jan. 23 press release. The Bethesda, Md.-based uranium broker said the expansion of the Oak Ridge manufacturing plant supports its plans to expand the uranium enrichment plant at the Department of […]

ARLINGTON, VA – The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Los Alamos National Laboratory “exceeded all” objectives for producing the fissile cores of the nation’s nuclear weapons, the lab’s director Thom Mason told the Exchange Monitor Monday at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit. NNSA produced a “diamond-stamped,” or war-reserve quality, first production unit of a W87-1 plutonium […]

ARLINGTON, VA – Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit Wednesday there was a “pretty cohesive desire” to finish funding the government, but “whether we get it done by Friday” he was unsure. Friday, Jan. 30 is the final day of funding in the current continuing resolution (CR), which extended fiscal 2025 […]