Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Europe’s two nuclear-armed powers France and the United Kingdom agreed to coordinate their nuclear arsenals, both countries’ leaders announced in a press release Thursday. The decision comes as French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K.’s prime minister Keir Starmer signed a series of defense agreements. “From war in Europe, to new nuclear risks and daily cyber-attacks […]

President Donald Trump signed into law last week the massive reconciliation bill that would appropriate millions in extra funds to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The funds, part of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” that includes $150 billion for defense purposes, would be available in fiscal 2025 through the end of fiscal 2029. The National […]

U.S. Navy shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and enterprise AI application software company C3.ai, Inc. have expanded their partnership aimed at accelerating shipbuilding throughput. In a June 30 announcement, the companies said the new agreement expands their preexisting partnership to now integrate artificial intelligence (AI) solutions across shipbuilding operations like planning, operations, supply chain, labor […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has asked the Department of Energy for a briefing on plans to refurbish an old shaft and hoist relied upon for emergency evacuation of underground workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). “Despite long-standing recognition of underlying problems, age-related degradation and technical obsolescence issues with the shafts […]

Several publicly-traded companies doing business within the Department of Energy weapons complex are scheduled to report earnings in the coming weeks. Here is a rundown of currently scheduled earnings releases and conference calls.  July 31: Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., will report its second quarter earnings results, the company said in a press release. […]

The Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is still well behind its shipment rate from before a major accident in 2014, but things are gradually rebounding, according to the Government Accountability Office. “According to DOE officials, WIPP [the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.] had been receiving as many as […]

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday said the White House can go ahead with plans for major layoffs and restructuring of the federal government while legal challenges play out, according to media reports. The Washington Post  and other media outlets reported Tuesday afternoon that the high court elected not to block planning for mass layoffs at […]

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency departed from Iran on July 4 to return to headquarters in Vienna, the agency said on the X social media platform that day. The inspectors had been in Tehran “throughout the recent military conflict,” the post said. The agency’s director general Rafael Grossi also “reiterated the crucial importance […]

The House last Thursday voted 218-214 to pass the massive reconciliation bill with $150 billion for defense that the Pentagon has built into its fiscal year 2026 spending plans. After consideration of the tax and spending bill went through the night in the lower chamber, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” was signed by President Trump […]

The Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) is now projected to be ready by early 2029, Navy officials told lawmakers last week. The Navy says its highest priority program is the Columbia-class, starting with the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN-826), which it intends to gradually replace the aging Ohio-class SSBNs. Acting Chief of Naval […]

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 […]