Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and Babcock International Group have agreed to a contract expanding a partnership to support construction of Virginia-class submarines through HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division. The HII press release on Tuesday said this is the first Virginia-class outsourced contract to Babcock for submarine work with NNS. However, the two entered a […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) hosted a ceremony Tuesday to lay down the keel, or backbone, for the Virginia-class attack submarine Barb (SSN 804), the company announced in a release. The Barb is the 31st Virginia-class attack submarine and the 15th that will be delivered by NNS. “Our reason to come together […]

The U.S. Senate has confirmed David Beck as deputy administrator for defense programs at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Beck was confirmed as part of a large bloc of Donald Trump administration nominees. NNSA announced Beck’s confirmation in a Thursday social media post. “Beck has over 40 years of experience in […]

The Change of Command ceremony for the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) will be held Friday, Dec. 5, where Vice. Adm. Richard Correll will replace Gen. Anthony Cotton. Correll was confirmed Thursday, Nov. 21 in the Senate by voice vote. The ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Central time at Offutt Air […]

As the Air Force considers when to hold its first flight test in its Northrop Grumman-developed Sentinel missile, Lockheed Martin has received a nearly $454 million contract add-on from the Air Force Nuclear Weapon Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The add-on is for the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile’s (ICBM) Mk21A re-entry vehicle. […]

In an email sent out to agency employees, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) head Brandon Williams warned of the consequences of disseminating classified or sensitive information. “It saddens me that this message is necessary,” Williams opened his Nov. 22 email viewed by Exchange Monitor, “but past actions by NNSA-affiliated personnel have undermined national leadership’s confidence […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) approved Critical Decision-4, or the completion of the final stage of construction, for the Process Support Facilities subproject for the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at Y-12 National Security Complex. “With the completion of the Process Support Facilities [PSF] at UPF, the team is one step closer to delivering this […]

North and South Dakota Sens. John Hoeven (R) and Mike Rounds (R), respectively, said the Northrop Grumman future intercontinental ballistic missile Sentinel will be under the Golden Dome project in upcoming defense bills. “The project itself, it will be a part of an Iron Dome project, or a Golden Dome Project,” Rounds told the Exchange […]

The bow section of the first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine arrived at General Dynamics’ Electric Boat South Yard assembly building in Groton, Conn. last week, where it will undergo final assembly. With this delivery, all of the major modules for the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN-826) are now at Electric Boat’s facility. The bow […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issued a request for information from “innovators” in artificial intelligence (AI) with aims to integrate AI into the agency’s critical operations, NNSA announced Monday. The request for information (RFI), entitled “Transformational AI Capabilities for National Security,” was released one week after President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently conducted an experiment on weapons-grade plutonium to assess how resilient a nuclear weapon will prove when it comes up against an adversary’s missile defenses.  The experiment was conducted at the lab’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), where fusion ignition, or the output of more energy than was input, was first achieved […]

Two nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) launch task area agreements were awarded to Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, a division of the defense company, and Pacific Engineering. The award was announced on the National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL) contracting platform. It will be funded by the Strategic Systems Programs in partnership with NSWC Crane, a spokesperson […]

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has provided more information on land available for lease at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for development of a data center powered by a small modular reactor (SMR). The online procurement notice published Monday in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) now lists 5 […]

A new pro-nuclear group in New Mexico has emerged and seeks to play a role in the state’s transition towards clean energy with nuclear power. The New Mexico Nuclear Alliance, founded in July, is a non-partisan membership organization that operates out of Santa Fe, N.M. The new group has partnered with the Carlsbad N.M. Department […]

While much of the government was shut down, the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico stayed open and received 45 waste shipments in October based upon figures from DOE’s public website for the disposal site.  That’s a drop from the 61 shipments the plant received a month prior in September […]

Jocelyn Brown-Saracino, who spent 15 years with the Department of Energy, has been selected to head the DOE Alumni Network, Tarak Shah, former DOE chief of staff during the Joe Biden administration, announced last week on LinkedIn. “Having gotten to know Jocelyn over this search process, I am SO excited that she is going to […]

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not be published on Friday Nov. 28. Exchange Monitor Publications will not be staffed Nov. 27 or Nov. 28. Enjoy your holiday. Your next weekly publication will be on Friday Dec. 5.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright Thursday announced reorganization of the Department of Energy with a prominent role in the organizational chart for the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The reorganization is designed “to strengthen DOE’s ability to execute President Trump’s bold agenda to restore American energy dominance,” Wright said in a press release. “This […]

In a series of agreements, President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman finalized and signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, according to a White House fact sheet released Tuesday. The Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation, as it is called, cements a “civil” nuclear energy partnership […]

Government and commercial imagery could help fill a void in on-site nuclear inspections, given the upcoming lapse in the New Strategic Arms Reduction (New START) Treaty protocol next February, a new report by the Federation of American Scientists said. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a nonproliferation-focused nonprofit founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists, […]

The Department of Energy told the Exchange Monitor Monday that, despite media outlets saying otherwise, President Donald Trump will not be meeting in the Oval Office with high-level nuclear weapons complex officials. News outlets such as CNN reported Friday that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) head Brandon Williams, and officials […]

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the lawyers who successfully sued the Department of Energy over the Savannah River Site’s mismanaged Mixed Oxide (MOX) plutonium facility are entitled to $75 million of the $600 million settlement the state received.  The ruling was issued last Wednesday Nov. 12. South Carolina has litigation against DOE dating to […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has awarded California-based defense technology company Anduril with a $140 million contract to procure counter uncrewed aircraft systems (CUAS) on four sites, a procurement notice site said last week. CUAS is a capability used to detect and neutralize hostile drone threats with airspace security and sensors, usually.  The indefinite […]

Diana Toebbe, the wife in the husband-and-wife duo sentenced for conspiracy charges related to nuclear warships, has an appeal pending in a West Virginia federal district court, a document says. Diana and her husband Jonathan Toebbe, a naval nuclear engineer in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, are a Maryland couple sentenced in 2022 for allegedly […]

The Navy on Monday awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $2.28 billion cost-only modification covering additional advance procurement and advance construction of five more Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine hulls. The contract announcement noted this award also supports additional program execution in accordance with a Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement focused on “Obligations in Advance of […]

The Army and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) are requesting bids to provide nuclear power plant energy solutions that would be demonstrated on a military installation within the U.S. by 2030. The goal of the effort, named the Janus program, is to develop prototype Microreactor Power Plants (MPPs) to provide power to “installations and non-permanent operations” […]

Nuclear fuel reprocessing is an overpriced distraction that will slow down nuclear innovation and derail United States’s nuclear leadership if practiced, a former Department of Energy (DOE) official wrote in an opinion piece this week. In a Monday op-ed piece posted on Nuclear Threat Initiative’s (NTI) website, Ross Matzkin-Bridger, senior director of NTI’s Nuclear Materials […]

Laura McGill, director of Sandia National Laboratories, announced Thursday she was “absolutely confident” in the nation’s nuclear stockpile and had completed the lab’s annual certification of the stockpile. The stockpile assessment letter, which is addressed to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and will then go to Congress and the President, was finalized Sept. 22, the […]