Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

PHOENIX —After layoffs and buyouts and the possibility of a government shutdown, the Department of Energy presence was lighter than usual at the annual Waste Management Symposia here. The buzz at a Sunday night reception here was that while DOE and its nuclear cleanup arm typically sends around 200 people, this year’s contingent was closer […]

The Donald Trump administration is nominating Timothy John Walsh of Colorado to become the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management, according to an entry in Monday’s Congressional Record. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is also from Colorado. If confirmed, Walsh would be the first Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for environmental management (EM-1) since Anne Marie […]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday he intends to vote to advance a Republican-drafted stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government operating through the rest of fiscal 2025. Unless a continuing resolution was approved Friday, the government would partially shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. A vote was expected Friday after Exchange […]

At the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors meeting Monday, Director General Rafael Grossi briefed the board on the situations in Ukraine and Iran. Grossi visited Ukraine in February, and said there was “no room for complacency” in his opening statement. He also said that he had visited Iran since the last Board session, […]

The Virginia-class submarine USS Minnesota arrived at HMAS Stirling, Australia on Feb. 25 for the first of several SSN routine port visits to Australia set to occur this year.  This visit is also the first of two planned U.S. submarine (SSN) visits to that base in 2025. The visits are part of increasing experience and […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Mobile Loading Source Recovery Team and Off-site Source Recovery Program completed their 100th shipment of recovered radioactive material in January, the lab announced last week. The two teams travel nationwide to recover potentially harmful radioactive material from devices found at hospitals, universities, and research facilities. The shipment of such material in […]

A company called Last Energy announced Friday it hopes to build up to 30 micro-reactors on a 200-acre site in Northern Texas to help power data centers. The company, which bills itself as a technology developer for 20-megawatt reactors, said in a press release it has already applied to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas […]

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill last week with the aim of safeguarding and securing radioactive materials, and reducing the risk of bad actors developing a so-called “dirty bomb.”  The Securing our Radioactive Materials Act, would mandate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to implement recommendations on a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from September, […]

The Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET), a nonprofit organization dedicated to repurposing older Department of Energy facilities at the Oak Ridge Site, has begun the first phase of turning a uranium enrichment area into a private park. The organization will conduct road improvement projects, lighting and landscaping as part of a closure plan […]

The Department of Energy issued a memo dated Thursday Feb. 27 saying telework and remote work agreements will be terminated, with exceptions, and all employees will return to in-person work. The memo, obtained by the Exchange Monitor on Friday, said DOE was pursuing President Donald Trump’s executive order from his first full day in office, […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it has finished commissioning the long-anticipated new underground ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The roughly $500-million Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) is designed to more than triple underground airflow to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), to 540-,000 cubic feet per minute, […]

AtkinsRéalis has appointed Jeff Kendall as president of the company’s US nuclear business, the engineering services and nuclear company announced Wednesday. According to the company’s press release, Kendall had been with AtkinsRéalis for seven years, with his most recent position being interim president for the US business. In the seven years he also served as […]

Outlays at the Department of Energy as well as the Department of Defense are two areas that remain among the federal government’s “high-risk areas needing significant attention,” Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said last week in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. DOE Acquisition and Program Management at EM and the National Nuclear […]

As Congress faces a March 14 shutdown deadline, President Donald Trump has endorsed taking up a “clean” stopgap funding measure that would keep the government open through the end of September.  “The Budget from last YEAR is still not done,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday night.”We are working very hard with […]

The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Wednesday he’s “encouraged” by President Donald Trump’s plan to establish a new office in the White House dedicated to bolstering domestic shipbuilding.  Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who chairs the panel, said he had not heard of the plan to set up an Office of Shipbuilding before […]

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) says Energy Secretary Chris Wright has promised the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant facilities in New Mexico will stay open.  “I’m pleased to announce that on my call with Secretary Wright, he promised they will stay open,” Heinrich said in a Thursday post on the […]

WASHINGTON — Teresa Robbins, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Exchange Monitor Tuesday that everyone whose firing was rescinded at the agency was successfully contacted and has returned to work. Robbins spoke to the Monitor on the sidelines of a panel on Capitol Hill hosted by Washington forum Advanced Nuclear Weapons […]

Chris Wright, the newly confirmed Secretary of Energy, visited Los Alamos National Laboratory this week on his nationwide tour of the national laboratories and touted artificial intelligence as “the next Manhattan project” in a post on the website X. “More than 70 years ago, the Manhattan Project brought together the world’s greatest scientists and engineers […]

WASHINGTON — Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose district abuts Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said Tuesday the nuclear enterprise was facing a “workforce shortage.” Fleischmann, who chairs a House Appropriations subcommittee on Energy & Water, also told the Exchange Monitor Tuesday recent layoffs at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee were […]

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has advised Department of Energy employees to “please pause” on responding directly to an email from the Office of Personnel Management entitled, “What did you do last week?” “The Department of Energy is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its […]

The Congressional Research Service sent and updated a report to Congress Feb. 12 on the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile. “Despite the [Joe Biden] Administration’s objections, Congress has provided continued funding for the missile and the associated warhead,” the “In Focus” report said.  The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) required the National Nuclear Security […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the fourth quarter, and 2024 as a whole, which the company chalked up partly to Department of Energy contracts and rising interest in commercial nuclear power. Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $71.1 million, or $ 0.77 a share up from $ 66.3 […]

The B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb’s life extension program has “fully transitioned into the stockpile” after its last production unit was produced in December, Sandia National Laboratories announced Monday in a press release. With production complete for the B61-12 life extension program, the gravity bomb can now enter the stockpile for “sustainment,” the press release said, […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recently welcomed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to the weapons complex with a summary of safety issues including waste drums and transportation. “On behalf of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), I extend our warmest congratulations and welcome you to this pivotal role,” DNFSB Acting Chair Thomas Summers […]

WASHINGTON — Will the U.S. Air Force need to build new intercontinental ballistic missile “launch facilities”–siloes–to accommodate the LGM-35A Sentinel? “Looks to me like they’re going to have to,” Sen. Angus King (I-Me.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel, told Exchange Monitor-affiliate Defense Daily Tuesday. The provision of multiple […]

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who represent the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, last week sought details on recent terminations of personnel at DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Nevada lawmakers issued a statement and letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright and acting National Nuclear Security Administration […]

The Defense Department last week said it expects to cut its civilian workforce between 5-8%, adding that beginning this week it will start to lay off 5,400 probationary workers followed by a hiring freeze.  The department is “re-evaluating our probationary workforce” as it complies with President Donald Trump’s direction for a more efficient and productive […]

The Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management released a joint memo Wednesday detailing how federal agencies should develop agency reorganization plans to reduce their work force. The memo also said President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency directed agencies to draft the plans by March 13 and to […]