Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Exchange Monitor Tuesday that everyone whose firing was rescinded at the agency was successfully contacted and has returned to work.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 […]

WASHINGTON — Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chair of the energy and water appropriations subcommittee, told the Exchange Monitor Tuesday that he put “unique and robust funding” for nuclear power in the House budget proposal that passed that evening. “If you take a look at the energy and water bill, which I wrote for the House […]

WASHINGTON — Senators from the Energy and Natural Resources committee said Thursday the Donald Trump administration firing so many National Nuclear Security Administration employees, even while reversing most, presents a national security risk. “President Trump is doing exactly what our adversaries want,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources committee […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has been awarded U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program contracts, worth a total of $2.1 billion, to manufacture reactor components, the company announced Wednesday.  The BWXT Nuclear Operations Group will manufacture naval nuclear reactor components and procure materials for Columbia and Virginia-class submarines, according to the company’s press release. The lifespan of […]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) issued a joint statement demanding an immediate briefing on the firings in the Department of Energy by its secretary Chris Wright. “While there have been reports that the Department has halted firings of NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration] employees, we remain deeply troubled that the Department […]

U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command said Wednesday it conducted a routine reliability flight test of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile at 1 a.m. Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. As in previous tests, the reentry vehicle traveled about 4,200 miles to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald […]

Earnings rose at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the fourth quarter as well as for the full year ended Dec. 31, 2024, which the company attributed Tuesday to projects ranging from data centers to Department of Energy nuclear cleanup. The numbers were also affected by the “equity method” of accounting for Fluor’s investment and “de-consolidation” from […]

Earnings rose at Parsons, Chantilly, Va., in the fourth quarter and the full year of 2024, the company reported early Wednesday. Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $54 million or $ $0.49 a share, up from $49 million, or $0.39 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was $1.7 billion […]

The Senate adopted its budget blueprint 52-48 overnight Thursday into Friday in a colloquially-dubbed “vote-a-rama” to pass a $340 billion plan to boost energy production, the military and immigration. President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed the House GOP’s budget resolution proposal that would take a one-bill, all-encompassing approach to passing administration priorities, to include $100 […]

The Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday voiced support for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to “review the entire budget” at the Pentagon to find about $50 billion that can be cut and shifted to President Donald Trump’s priorities. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) spoke following the Pentagon’s confirmation on Wednesday evening that […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the upper chamber’s top defense appropriator, said Thursday he will not seek reelection in 2026. McConnell will end his four-decade career after having served as the longest-tenured Senate leader in U.S. history, a role he stepped down from ahead of the current Congress and as he took over as […]