Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received fewer shipments of transuranic waste (TRU) in 2025 than it did during 2024, according to data from the facility’s public website. WIPP took in 33 shipments in December, to cap off the 2025 calendar year with 441 shipments, which is down from […]

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant lost all off-site power due to “widespread military activity” in Ukraine, United Nations nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on the social media platform X Tuesday. According to IAEA on X, several Ukrainian electrical substations as well as powerlines to other nuclear power plants were affected. Ukrainian […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) awarded Amazon Web Services (AWS) a contract,worth up to $30.7 million, to complete high-performance computing support and data processing services for the agency. The sole source contract, which has a $10-million floor, is named “AWS Genesis Demonstrator,” and the NNSA Weapons Activities Office provided the funds. The agreement is […]

Despite its dwindling number of board members, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) kept busy as a safety watchdog for the Department of Energy during fiscal 2025, according to a recent report. Set up 35 years ago by Congress as a five-member panel, DNFSB is down to a single member, Patricia Lee. Nevertheless, work […]

The top lawmaker on the House’s Navy acquisition oversight panel Jan. 14 backed the Donald Trump administration’s plan to build a new fleet of battleships, calling the initiative a “great idea.” Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), chair of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee also offered his support for the Trump administration’s recently […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management has hired a longtime federal hand, Lara Beasley, to be its deputy director.   Beasley comes to DOE Legacy Management from DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Legacy Management office announced in a December press release. A native of the Chicago area, Beasley has worked with […]

Work crews at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will start demolition of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) old Ion Beam Facility this year, a DOE cleanup manager said Wednesday. “We are going to tear down the ion beam and remove the slab” starting in 2026, Jessica Kunkle, who […]

Brandon Williams, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), told the Exchange Monitor Wednesday it is “certainly not my job to agree” with President Donald Trump on whether to return to nuclear testing. “You know, the president is the Commander in Chief, the president will make all of these decisions,” Williams said in response […]

Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit will feature speeches from big nuclear weapons complex players, including National Nuclear Security Administration head Brandon Williams and the first public appearance by newly sworn-in U.S. Strategic Command commander Adm. Richard Correll. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) whose state houses silos for the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, will also speak. […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina has hired Roderick Jackson as its associate laboratory director for the science, energy and innovation directorate. The science, energy and innovation directorate focuses on integrating fundamental research, energy reliability and innovation within a cohesive and mission-driven framework, according to a Jan. 14 press release.  […]

Salas O’Brien, an international employee-owned engineering and technical services firm, announced Wednesday it is purchasing Los Alamos-based TechSource, a government contractor that does work with the Department of Energy. “Salas O’Brien has strengthened its ability to deliver solutions for the most complex federal government and infrastructure challenges with the addition of TechSource, a leading scientific […]

The House on Thursday evening voted 341-88 to pass the final $839 billion fiscal year 2026 Defense Appropriations Bill. The measure was part of a three-bill “minibus” spending package, which also included the  Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Transportation appropriations bills. It now heads to the Senate. The upper […]

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee, told the Exchange Monitor last week the most recent bipartisan spending minibus shows lawmakers “making progress” with more work still to do. On Jan. 8, a three-bill minibus appropriations package that included fiscal 2026 funds for Energy and Water development, including […]

President Donald Trump told the New York Times that if a U.S.-Russia nuclear agreement “expires, it expires” and he would “just do a better agreement,” a statement the Union of Concerned Scientists thinks could be dangerous. The New Strategic Arms Reduction (New START) Treaty, signed in 2010 by then U.S. and Russian presidents Barack Obama […]

Northrop Grumman has tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) target by using a decommissioned LGM-118 “MX” Peacekeeper ICBM’s SR119 second stage motor, the company said last week.  The second stage motor came from the Space Force’s Rocket Systems Launch Program.  The company makes components for the LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM, as well as ICBM […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) swore in its four board members Monday, restoring a quorum for the nine-member board. Nominated by President Donald Trump in July, Arthur Graham, Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood and Randall Jones were confirmed by the Senate among a bloc of nominations last month. They will now join TVA’s Board Chair Bill […]

The annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit will feature speeches from big players in the nuclear weapons complex such as National Nuclear Security Administration head Brandon Williams, newly sworn in U.S. Strategic Command commander Adm. Richard Correll, and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) whose state houses silos for the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. The agenda will also feature […]

Standard Nuclear, which bills itself as a “reactor-agnostic” maker of advanced nuclear fuel, has received a shipment of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) feedstock at its facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn, the company said last week. This makes Standard Nuclear the first company to get both Department of Energy authorization as well as physically receive HALEU […]

An annual environmental report released last month on the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico shows the facility is complying with key regulatory standards for air and water, DOE said. The 2024 Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) for Los Alamos was released in December. The 300-page report shows the lab’s air […]

The Senate Thursday passed a minibus bill 82-15 that includes appropriations for Energy and Water development, which would provide $25.4 billion in funds to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The Office of Management and Budget issued a statement of support for the minibus, indicating President Donald Trump will sign the bill when it reaches […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Dec. 23 it was renewing a $25 million grant for five more years to a consortium of nine universities for research and development in nuclear science, engineering and security. The Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC) will fund $5 million every year for five years […]

The Department of Energy said Monday it was awarding $2.7 billion total in task orders to three companies with the goal of strengthening domestic uranium enrichment over the next ten years. American Centrifuge Operating, a Centrus company, and General Matter are both receiving $900 million to create a domestic high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enrichment capacity. […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is setting terms on how it can start using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance nuclear safeguards “without undue risks.” The policy is laid out in a Dec. 29 directive that will apply “to all DNFSB personnel, it full-time employees, contractors, consultants, interns, and any individuals granted access […]

As the anchors of a “Golden Fleet,” President Donald Trump pledged to build 20 to 25 gun and missile-equipped battleships named after himself that are to carry the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N). Flanking Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate Dec. 22 for his pledge were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan and Secretary […]

President Donald Trump wants to see deployment of a nuclear power reactor on the moon by 2030, according to a recent executive action. In the Dec. 18 executive order 14369, “Ensuring American Space Superiority”, the Trump White House called for Americans to return to the moon by 2028 through NASA’s Artemis Program, a program centered […]

The Navy plans to award a sole source contract to the service’s two largest shipbuilders, General Dynamics (GD) Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding, for the Donald Trump administration’s new battleship design. In December, Trump and senior administration officials announced plans for a new class of battleships named after the president, […]

While old, an underground hoist at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is not unsafe, according to managers of the transuranic waste disposal site. “While all the WIPP hoists are experiencing reliability issues due to age and obsolescence, these reliability issues do not present safety risks to employees,” DOE’s […]

Technicians completed power line repairs near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant with aid from a local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog’s Director General Rafael Grossi said Dec. 30. “I would like to thank both the Russian Federation and Ukraine for engaging constructively with us in making this possible […]