Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

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 […]