Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

President Donald Trump has nominated several officials to lead key Department of Energy branches serving nuclear energy and the weapons complex, and some are making progress through the confirmation process.  The nominees would report to the already confirmed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. Exchange Monitor will update the nominees’ progress from time to time. James […]

Almost three months into the second Donald Trump administration a safety watchdog panel for Department of Energy nuclear installation still lacks a quorum. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), which is set up as a five-member panel, is down to two people and its lone Republican’s current term expires in October.  The Trump administration […]

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the no. 2 Senate Democrat and a senior defense appropriator, announced Wednesday in a video he will not seek reelection in 2026. Durbin, 80, was elected to the Senate in 1996 and has served as the upper chamber’s Democratic Whip since 2005. He was previously the top Democrat on the Senate […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Christopher Hanson, commissioner for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Monday he does not know where the future of the agency stands under the current Donald Trump administration, the executive order threatening diluting power, and the current lawsuit against the agency. “I don’t know,” Hanson said with a laugh in answer to a […]

Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI, is stepping down as chairman of the board of nuclear power company Oklo, according to a company statement Wednesday. Jacob DeWitte, Oklo CEO and co-founder, will serve as chairman and board member in Altman’s place. “As Oklo explores strategic partnerships to deploy clean energy at scale, […]

Iran and the U.S. are set up to have a second round of nuclear talks this weekend in Rome, media reported. While Iran and the U.S. said the talks in Oman last weekend were “positive” and “constructive,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters Wednesday that allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium is “non-negotiable,” according […]

EnergySolutions announced in a Tuesday press release it was awarded two government contracts that assist in nuclear waste management across prominent Naval sites in the United States. The Utah-based nuclear company was awarded new U.S. Navy Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts that support waste management operations across numerous Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program sites. IDIQ […]

The Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile is to have new silos, U.S. Air Force leaders told community leaders during town halls in Kimball, Neb. and Pine Bluffs, Wyo. early April. The Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has a significantly larger design than its predecessor 1960s-era Minuteman missile series, including the Boeing-made Minuteman III. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will complete the First Production Unit of the B61-13 this fiscal year, according to Fox News April 9. With production complete in December for the B61-12 life extension program, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has now transitioned to producing the B61-13 gravity bomb, a new, higher-yield variant of the […]

BWX Technologies announced Tuesday it acquired 97 acres of land in Oak Ridge, Tenn. with the goal of rebuilding domestic uranium enrichment capabilities by manufacturing centrifuges. According to the emailed press release, the land acquisition would support DOE and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) deployment of Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) technology. […]

A Navy official told a panel of senators last week that the lead Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine is currently running 12 to 18 months late, but they are trying to recover some of that delay time. In a written statement for the Senate Armed Services Seapower subcommittee hearing April 8, program executive officers for the […]

House Democratic leaders of the Energy and Commerce committee demanded answers from Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on the effects of mass firing at DOE. The letter, released April 14, was signed by full committee ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), Energy subcommittee ranking member Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), and Oversight and Investigations subcommittee ranking member […]

The Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future intercontinental ballistic missile may get a reprieve from President Donald Trump’s executive order as DoD re-baselined the program last year after a six-month Nunn-McCurdy review. President Donald Trump’s April 9 executive order, Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base, speaks of cancellations of Major Defense […]

The Defense Innovation Unit announced April 10 next steps in its Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program to deploy microreactor nuclear systems for power reliability at select military locations. The companies selected are: Antares Nuclear BWXT Advanced Technologies General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Kairos Power Oklo Radiant Industries Incorporated Westinghouse Government Services X-energy These companies are […]

The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., is studying alternative sites for a municipal airport with land cleaned up by the Department of Energy now earmarked by Orano USA for a major uranium enrichment project. Although a local airport has been long sought by the city of Oak Ridge, Exchange Monitor reported in October 2024 it […]

U.S. Strategic Command is looking into potential impacts of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense to the nation’s nuclear deterrence, the commander said in a fiscal 2026 Strategic Forces Posture hearing April 9.  “We’re looking at some of the things that came from the SDI [Strategic Defense Initiative] initiatives, some of the talking points, […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 13 to 7 Wednesday to advance the nomination of James Danly to be deputy secretary of energy. The Danly nomination to be the No. 2 official in the Department of Energy can now go to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. No date for such a […]

The Department of Energy has conditionally agreed to provide five companies with high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for advanced nuclear projects.  The five companies awarded are: Kairos Power based in California; Radiant Industries based in California;  TerraPower based in Washington; TRISO-X, a Tennessee-based nuclear fuel subsidiary of X-Energy; and, Westinghouse Electric based in Pennsylvania. HALEU is […]

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Brandon Williams, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the National Nuclear Security Administration, told a Senate panel Tuesday he would “speak up” for the “men and women” that work for the agency. “If confirmed, I commit to you that I will stand up for the men and women of NNSA [National […]

In opening remarks at a hearing Wednesday on military posture in the Indo-Pacific region, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said to “accelerate AUKUS” to strengthen deterrence against China and North Korea. “China now has the world’s largest Navy—and a shipbuilding capacity over 200 times greater than our own,” Rogers, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, […]

Ernest Moniz and Joan Rohlfing, chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Nuclear Threat Initiative respectively, are stepping down from their roles in 2025 with no refills in place yet. According to a Wednesday press release by the Washington-based nonproliferation-focused nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Moniz and Rohlfing messaged the board, staff and partners […]

The CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries recently downplayed how much impact President Donald Trump ’s 25% aluminum and steel tariffs would have on the shipbuilding supply chain.  Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) CEO Chris Kastner also said adding Australian suppliers to submarine production under the AUKUS agreement will help bolster a fragile supply chain. He argued […]

Russia will obtain licenses to operate, and potentially restart, all units of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine by 2027, plant director Yuri Chernichuk recently told Russian-owned news source Strana Rosatom. Chernichuk told Strana Rosatom, which is owned by Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom that has occupied Zaporizhzhia since 2022, Rosatom will need […]

President Donald Trump said Monday his administration’s forthcoming defense budget proposal will have a topline of around $1 trillion, a record first for the Pentagon. “$1 trillion and nobody’s seen anything like it,” Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office. In an email to investors, a TD Cowen analyst noted that while the majority […]

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned five entities and one individual that it says support entities overseeing Iran’s nuclear program, the State Department said in a press release. The entities sanctioned include the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and its subordinate Iran Centrifuge Technology Company as part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on […]

With key Democrats denouncing any possible mass firings at the Department of Energy, the deadline is before midnight April 8 for DOE staff to opt into the latest round of voluntary buyouts. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said April 4 they are troubled by reports by Associated Press and other media […]

In a Tuesday emergency order, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a preliminary injunction by a U.S. District Judge in California ordering federal agencies including the Department of Energy to rehire 16,000 probationary employees. Also, the Associated Press reported this week that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit voted two-to-one to overturn a […]

Several key publicly-traded companies serving the Department of Energy’s weapons complex saw their share prices first decline, some by as much as 10%, and then bounce back in roughly a week’s time. The stock market went in a nosedive over much of the past week after President Donald Trump announced aggressive tariffs on goods from […]