Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

A Centrus Energy subsidiary American-Centrifuge Operating has delivered 900 kilograms, or 1,984 pounds, of high-assay low-enriched uranium to the Department of Energy, Centrus said last week. The Bethesda, Md.-based nuclear energy company has now achieved phase two of its DOE contract, which called for it to produce the 900 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) […]

In a study on the environmental effects of nuclear war, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said to focus less on extreme cases and more on the “realm of possible outcomes,” the organization said in a public panel announcing the study. The nonprofit, in tandem with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), released […]

The Senate voted 53-to-47 Friday evening June 27 to defeat a resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that would have directed President Donald Trump to seek approval from Congress before launching further military attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The vote fell along party lines with a couple of notable exceptions. Sen. John Fetterman […]

The Government Accountability Office, which serves as Congress’s watchdog over federal programs, would see its budget nearly cut by nearly half in fiscal 2026, under a bill advanced by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday June 26. The Legislative Appropriation Act for fiscal 2026, which passed through the committee Thursday 34-to-28, provides  $415.4 million for […]

The Senate on Tuesday narrowly passed the massive reconciliation bill with $150 billion for defense that the Pentagon has built into its fiscal year 2026 spending plans, sending the measure to the House. The lower chamber is expected to take up the “One Big Beautiful Bill” this week, to include the changes the Senate made […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on June 18 expressed skepticism that the wide-ranging Golden Dome missile defense initiative is realistic, and also questioned the wisdom of planned cuts to the Pentagon’s top weapons testing office. In a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kelly told Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that getting the system to […]

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a new bill aimed at streamlining defense industrial base collaboration with Australia and the United Kingdom. for the AUKUS submarine technology sharing agreement. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee, and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) introduced the AUKUS Improvement Act last week to exempt […]

Half of the key assets the Department of Energy needs to dispose of defense-related transuranic waste in a New Mexico salt mine were in “substandard or inadequate condition in 2023,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Tuesday. In a report to congressional committees, GAO said DOE’s Office of Environmental Management should do a better job […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration transitioned into the final stage of construction at the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency announced Tuesday. The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages. Once construction is complete, UPF will […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will conduct helicopter flights at low-altitude over Las Vegas for the remainder of 2025 and into 2026, the agency said on its website with aims to alert the public of low-flying aircraft to avoid alarm. NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team’s (NEST) aerial measuring system (AMS) aircraft, a Leonardo AW139 helicopter […]

Numerous Department of Energy nuclear weapons complex sites are sweltering under heat advisories due to what television weather forecasters are calling a “heat dome.” “Extreme HeatRisk impacts will expand from the Midwest into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast today,” the National Weather Service said on its website Monday. Localities with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit and […]

Corey Hinderstein, the former National Nuclear Security Administration’s deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation during the Joe Biden administration, said increasing weapons and slashing nonproliferation spending in the budget is a “recipe for national security failure.” “Cutting nonproliferation funding would be lose-lose: harming programs with valuable near-term threat-reduction benefits and making deterrence less sustainable for […]

Energy Secretary Chris Wright used an appearance before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week to plead for the upper chamber to confirm more DOE nominees. “If I can ask one thing for the whole senate is please help confirm my people,” Wright said during a hearing last week on the DOE budget […]

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a meeting with the agency’s board of directors June 16, called on all parties involved since Israel attacked Iran to exercise “maximum restraint.” “Military escalation threatens lives, increases the chance of a radiological release with serious consequences for people and the environment and delays indispensable […]

The New Mexico Environment Department wants the Department of Energy and its prime contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory to take more precautions before it repackages four containers of tritium waste. At the same time, the state Environment Department is angry at how Los Alamos National Laboratory has handled the tritium waste over time and […]

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), an umbrella organization of citizen groups active on nuclear weapons, cleanup and energy issues, wants the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have a quorum again. In a recent report, the alliance said Congress should protect the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), which is down to two members […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

The U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center may hold an industry day in late August to gauge industry capacity to support a possible intercontinental ballistic missile Development, Operations, and Sustainment program for the Boeing Minuteman III (MMIII). The industry day would be held at Hill Air Force Base (AFB), Utah. Such a contract would “ensure […]

The House Appropriations Committee voted 36-27 last week to pass its $831.5 billion defense spending bill, as lawmakers reiterated the uncertainty of advancing appropriations legislation without having received full budget details from the Trump administration.  According to the bill summary, the bill supports modernization for the nuclear triad, which includes the B-21 Raider, the Columbia-class […]

The Senate Armed Services chairman last week argued the White House Naval budget request shortchanges regular annual appropriations by wrongly assuming gaps will be filled via reconciliation. “I must say, I am deeply disappointed with the administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget request for the Navy,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said in his opening statement during […]

Kevin McCoy has been appointed as BWX Technologies’ newest chief nuclear officer, the Lynchburg, Va.-based nuclear fuel company announced Monday. McCoy, formerly the company’s Government Operations president since 2022, will be responsible for supporting the Department of Defense and Navy in accelerating Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine production. As McCoy steps into his new role, Joseph […]

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), in a naval hearing last week, said an aircraft carrying a B61 bomber will be a “much reduced cost” alternative to the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile aboard a conventional submarine. “I am not opposed to, you know, having a tactical nuclear option at sea,” Kelly said at a Senate Armed Services […]

The Government Accountability Office last week recommended the National Nuclear Security Administration formalize plans for transitioning responsibilities for radiological safety in Ukraine to Ukrainian partner organizations. “While NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration] took steps to manage fraud risk at the individual contract level, it did not conduct a program-level fraud risk assessment tailored to its […]

BARKSDALE AFB, La.— Gen. Thomas Bussiere, head of the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) , told Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily he is working on approving three plans to replace Minuteman III silos for the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. Bussiere, the head of AFGSC since December 2022, discussed the command’s modernization efforts in an […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee expressed their disapproval Wednesday to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on a proposed 11% cut in the Department of Energy’s budget for the labs. “I love the national labs, they deliver tremendous value to us in our history, and they will in the […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said the National Nuclear Security Administration’s upgrade to safety controls, including to gloveboxes, is a “significant improvement” to safety at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. The safety watchdog’s comments come in a letter dated May 21 to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, as well as to Teresa Robbins, […]

SAVANNAH, GA.—With interest in nuclear energy the highest it has been in years, attaining public trust is vital to development of new reactors and waste disposal projects. That was a recurring theme here during Exchange Monitor’s 19th Radwaste Summit. Only a few years ago, state legislatures across the country would propose a handful of nuclear-related […]