Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation Office led a U.S. delegation at the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence’s Nuclear Forensics User Group Annual Plenary, the agency said Dec. 15. NFUG involves scientists of U.S. national laboratories, the Pentagon, the DOE, the State Department and the UK counterparts of each agency. Its goal is […]

A three-bill minibus appropriations bill that includes funds for Energy and Water development, including $25.4 billion to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), passed the House floor 397-28 Thursday. The bill was released by top appropriators in the Senate and House Monday on both sides of the aisle. Congress has until Jan. 30 to either […]

A Bechtel National company has landed a Department of Defense contract modification worth nearly $928 million for naval nuclear propulsion components, the Pentagon said last week. Bechtel Plant Machinery., Monroeville, Pa., was awarded the modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, according to a Dec. 19 summary of contract news from the Pentagon. About two-thirds […]

Here’s the timeline for NNSA contracts at key DOE weapons complex sites The Department of Energy, hires private companies to oversee and manage the facilities in its weapons complex, including the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). These prime, or management and operating (M&O) contractors, normally consist of joint ventures between companies, and are not only […]

The fiscal year 2026 defense authorization bill is giving the Navy some flexibility in how it buys Columbia-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). The compromise bill, signed by President Donald Trump Dec. 18, allows the Navy to procure up to five Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines starting next year.  The explanatory statement released with the bill […]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) wrote a letter Dec. 16 to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright asking DOE to review the need and scope of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) pit production program. Warren and Garamendi are both members of their respective chambers’ Armed Services Committees and of the bicameral […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and other Department of Energy branches said last week they have made big strides toward recovering rare plutonium-244 from old Cold War-era material at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. A new radiochemical separation capability successfully recovered valuable isotopes from a Mark-18A target at the Savannah River National […]

As it has for major events in the past, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will make low-altitude helicopter flights over the Las Vegas Strip area leading up to New Year’s Eve celebrations in the desert city. The flights by NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) Aerial Measuring System aircraft will measure […]

In observance of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, Nuclear Security and Deterrence Monitor will not publish again until Friday Jan. 9. Exchange Monitor staffers are off Dec. 25-26 as well as Jan. 1-2. The Monitor wishes you a happy and safe holiday season!

Amid an administration change, government layoffs and a lapse in funding that led to the longest government shutdown in history, here were the top stories in 2025 involving nuclear deterrence and the National Nuclear Security Administration. To kick off the year in January, shortly after the conclusion of now-Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s Senate confirmation hearing […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) hosted an Australian delegation at its Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division last week in support of the trilateral AUKUS agreement, the company announced on its website. Richard Marles, Australia’s deputy prime minister and minister for defence, led the delegation.  “It was fantastic to see the U.S. submarine industrial base on display […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was awarded over $28 million to modernize its technology infrastructure for emergency response, the Technology Modernization Fund said on its investment page. The Technology Modernization Fund, which provided the award, was created in 2017 to provide civilian government agencies with funding for tech modernization projects. The TMF’s authority expired […]

The conferenced fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) turns back a proposal by the Senate to accelerate the U.S. Air Force AGM-181 Long Range Standoff (LRSO) nuclear cruise missile under development by RTX’s Raytheon. The Senate bill recommended $756 million for LRSO – $149 million more than requested by the Air Force – including […]

Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, a naval technical agent, was awarded a $453.9 million contract modification to fund engineering support on the Trident D5 missile guidance subsystem, the Pentagon announced last week. The cost-plus-fixed-fee modification applies to a previously announced and awarded Navy contract to continue engineering and support services for the submarine-launched ballistic missile system. […]

Nuclear tech company Oklo has been conducting a multi-day plutonium experiment with DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory this week to validate plutonium as fuel for future fast reactor development and deployment. A press release by Oklo said the company used plutonium materials already in LANL’s inventory to carry out a series of low-power experiments at […]

The Navy accepted delivery of the future Virginia-class USS Idaho (SSN-799) from General Dynamics (GD) Electric Boat this week, marking the second attack submarine delivery of the year. The boat will now undergo a set of tests and trials before being commissioned into active service, expected in the spring of 2026. SSN-799 is the 26th […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 25 shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste in November. Through the first 11 months of the calendar year 2025, WIPP has received 408 shipments. That is down from 441 in the same period last year.  The 25 shipments last month is less than […]