Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has removed all high-risk cesium-137 from Vermont, making it the 15th U.S. state or territory declared free of high-risk quantities of the radioactive material. This follows a July operation in which a team from Idaho National Laboratory removed a self-shielded cesium irradiator from the University of Vermont in Burlington […]

James Biggins, a longtime senior manager at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has started a new position as chief of staff and chief counsel at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Biggins joined the Government Ethics office this month, he announced in a LinkedIn post. Biggins has held various key DNFSB posts, including […]

The Department of Energy has sent its first shipment of remote-handled transuranic waste since 2009 from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) using a new shipping container. Remote-handled waste is more radioactive than contact-handled transuranic (TRU) waste, which accounts for the vast majority of TRU waste disposed […]

Centrus Energy and Radiant Nuclear agreed to a long-term deal where Centrus will provide high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for Radiant’s incoming fuel needs following its Janus program selection. The Army’s Janus program awarded Radiant with $750 million to construct its Kaleidos microreactor at Fort Benning in Georgia and develop 15 microreactors across several military installations. […]

The U.S. Navy unveiled plans this week for a nuclear microreactor at the Naval Weapons Station Crane in Indiana, which will be the first base to use the technology. The microreactor installed at the naval base will be owned and operated by a private company and provide electricity inside the fence even through power outages, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has approved the next major phase for modernizing the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), allowing the project to advance into design for replacing aging accelerator systems. NNSA said in a Wednesday press release it approved Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) – meaning it gave the green light to proceed […]

North Korea has built a new uranium enrichment facility at its Yongbyon nuclear complex capable of housing up to 28 centrifuge cascades, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in an Aug. 28 report. The IAEA identified a new two-story building at Yongbyon as the site’s second uranium enrichment facility by comparing satellite imagery with […]

The South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) is demanding the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) conduct a public environmental review of plans to provide 19.7 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium to private nuclear companies. SCELP published the letter of demand Sept. 8 on behalf of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, […]

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp.-Marine Systems has been awarded a $111.4 million contract to maintain, overhaul and repair ship service turbine generators aboard the Navy’s Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet. The firm-fixed-price and cost-only, indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract was posted Sept. 4 by the Defense Department. The deal has a total potential value of $253.3 million if […]

Lockheed Martin Space has received a $90.2 million contract modification for “advanced design and development” work supporting the Navy’s Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile life extension program, the Pentagon said. The $90,229,306 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification, posted by the Defense Department Sept. 4, supports the Trident II Life Extension 2 Strategic Systems Programs Alteration Advanced Design […]

BWX Technologies has received a contract from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to develop a conceptual design for the first module of a new Lithium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.  The first phase of the award is a four-month, $4 million contract that covers the conceptual design […]

The United States and European allies are seeking an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution that would report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear safeguards obligations, news outlets said Friday Sept. 4.  The U.S., Britain, France and Germany are lobbying members of the IAEA Board of Governors ahead of its upcoming meeting, seeking […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Thursday its Y-12 National Security Complex has completed production and acceptance testing of the B61-13’s canned subassemblies, finishing the work roughly seven months ahead of schedule. The milestone fulfills a timeline NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams projected in an August interview with Exchange Monitor, when he said the remaining […]

Nearly a year into his tenure leading the National Nuclear Security Administration, Brandon Williams says some of his most difficult decisions have involved challenging the way the agency has traditionally done business. “The hardest decisions are that we’re not going to do business as usual,” Williams told Exchange Monitor in an exclusive interview in August. […]

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he was nominating Hung Cao as Secretary of the Navy after serving in the role in an acting capacity for over four months. “I am pleased to nominate a true WARRIOR, Hung Cao, to become the next Secretary of the Navy. We need Patriots like Hung leading our Navy […]

The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant could face a station blackout within roughly 10 days if external power is not restored or additional diesel fuel is delivered, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week. The plant has been without off-site power since Aug. 20, when military activity damaged its connection to the 330-kilovolt Ferosplavna-1 […]

Michael Mikolanis, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Savannah River Field Office, will move back to Los Alamos in September to lead the agency’s field office there, local publication Aiken Standard reported. Mikolanis will succeed Ted Wyka, who retired in June after five years as manager of the NNSA Los Alamos Field Office, according […]

Following an earlier glitch, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management has set a Sept. 10 deadline for interested parties to respond to a Request for Information (RFI) on transporting transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. DOE “has identified a technical issue affecting the WIPPTransportation@cbfo.doe.gov email inbox that […]

The Department of Energy’s national laboratories as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration have made use of uranium oxide produced by conversion plants at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. That was one of the takeaways from an Aug. 20 meeting of the Paducah Citizens Advisory Board, according to […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Syria was constructing an undeclared nuclear reactor at Deir al-Zor under former President Bashar al-Assad, according to published reports.  The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a report viewed by some news outlets such as Al Jazeera its inspectors verified that cooling infrastructure uncovered at the site is […]

Submarine maintenance delays have cost the Navy $3.4 billion over the past decade and could add $3.1 billion more as it prepares to retire aging Los Angeles-class attack submarines, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds. In an analysis of attack submarine (SSN) data from fiscal years 2008 to 2025, GAO said it found […]

Sandia National Laboratories has completed a sounding rocket flight test designed to provide real-world reentry data that will inform development of nonnuclear components for the Navy’s W93 nuclear warhead. The Atrax test, conducted at Sandia’s Kauai Test Facility, collected data on the aerodynamic loads and vibrations a reentry vehicle experiences as it travels toward its […]

The House of Representatives voted 370-48 Tuesday to pass a conferenced, short-term continuing resolution (CR) funding the federal government through Dec. 11, but the House Appropriations chair still criticized the Senate for not working on its individual appropriations bills. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law Wednesday to prevent a government shutdown. The resolution […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to install two new ammunition storage magazines at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Outdoor Live Fire Range, replacing existing structures that no longer meet current security requirements. The project, detailed in an August floodplain assessment released by the Department of Energy, would take place at Technical Area 72, where […]

Parsons has secured two task orders from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)  to design and deploy counter-nuclear smuggling systems across the Middle East and Africa. The Middle East Region 3 and Africa Region 2 task orders cover counter-nuclear smuggling initiatives in 25 countries, according to an Aug. 27 company announcement. NNSA is a semiautonomous […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration and Defense Threat Reduction Agency removed a disused cobalt-60 source from Guatemala, transporting the material to secured storage in the United States. The operation, which started in May, involved the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and Guatemalan officials from the National Centre of Radioactive Wastes and Ministry of […]

The Air Force on Tuesday said it awarded RTX’s Raytheon an up to $603 million contract through August 2031 for a new radar, the APQ-188, for the service’s 75 B-52H bombers under the Radar Modernization Program (RMP). An active electronically scanned array radar based on RTX’s APG-79, the APQ-188 is to replace the bomber’s Northrop […]