Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

WASHINGTON — The Donald Trump administration paused on firing hundreds of federal employees that worked on the nation’s nuclear weapons for the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, media outlets reported. Late last Thursday Feb 13, over 300 of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) 1,800 employees were fired, including all probationary employees, […]

On the same day a federal district judge in Massachusetts lifted his earlier restraining  order against the Donald Trump administration’s deferred retirement program for government workers, the Office of Personnel Management closed out the program. “The Deferred Resignation Program is now closed,” according to a notice Wednesday on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website. […]

Multiple media sites reported over the weekend that members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency started working at the Department of Energy without security clearances. Chris Wright, the newly-confirmed Secretary of Energy, told CNBC Feb. 7  that three members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “have access to look around, talk to people […]

A representative from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Tuesday said government  urgency for plutonium pit production at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is “unnecessary” —and increases risk to workers. Dylan Spaulding, a senior scientist researching nuclear weapons production at the Union of Concerned Scientists, laid out his case […]

Israel might strike Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities in the first six months of 2025, multiple media outlets reported that U.S. intelligence said. According to Washington Post-reported intelligence reports spanning from the end of the Joe Biden administration and the beginning of the Donald Trump administration, such an attack would set Iran’s nuclear program […]

The ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower subcommittee criticized President Donald Trump for his announcement of new steel and aluminum tariffs days after Australia sent its first increment of hundreds of millions of dollars of AUKUS submarine industrial base funding. On his way to the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump told reporters his […]

President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin, on a phone call this week, talked negotiations for ending the nearly three-year war Russia waged in Ukraine, media reported. Trump said Thursday that Ukraine would have a seat at the table in peace negotiations, after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kyiv’s allies warned against a “dirty […]

Certain segments for the intercontinental ballistic missile Sentinel are being put on hold while the program undergoes restructuring, the Air Force said in a statement Monday. “The Air Force has ordered the Northrop Grumman Corporation to suspend the design, testing, and construction related to the Command and Launch Segment,” a spokesperson said in the statement. […]

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said last Friday President Donald Trump would support the AUKUS agreement with Australia. The defense secretary made the remarks while meeting his Australian counterpart, Defense Minister Richard Marles, at the Pentagon. Hegseth said this after Australia made its first payment of $500 million last week toward the $3 billion investment […]

Kim Budil, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, said Wednesday the lab closed an office due to President Donald Trump’s executive order ending “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs in the federal government. “We did have an office that we closed,” Budil said at a hearing by the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee […]

The Republican chair and ranking Democrat of the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee Tuesday asked Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for quick action on Australia’s recent submarine industrial base investment payment. On Feb. 7 Australia sent the Defense Department a $500 million payment to invest in the U.S. domestic submarine industrial base […]

As the Donald Trump administration moves ahead with its agenda to shrink the federal workforce, roughly one-sixth of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s staff was terminated Thursday. According to NPR, who broke the story Thursday, 300 of the agency’s 1,800 staff were fired.  The Department of Energy, of which the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

Staffers at the Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies now have the weekend to consider taking up the Donald Trump administration offer on buyouts, as a federal judge will hear arguments Monday on the deferred resignation program. The Thursday ruling from U.S. District judge George O’Toole, Jr. in Massachusetts held up the […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries Thursday reported a steep fourth-quarter decline in earnings driven by lower performance in construction of attack submarines and new aircraft carriers. Net income in the quarter tumbled 55% to $123 million, $3.15 earnings per share, from $274 million ($6.90 earnings per share) a year ago, short of consensus estimates by 13 cents […]

Earnings rose at Amentum, Chantilly, Va., in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, which the company that recently combined with the government contracting wing of Jacobs attributed to strong core businesses linked with national security. In response to questions from Wall Street analysts during a Wednesday morning conference call, CEO John Heller said Amentum management […]

Texas A&M University announced Tuesday it would offer land to four advanced nuclear reactor companies to build small modular reactors. According to a press release by the university, reactor manufacturers have been looking for a piece of land large enough to build clusters of reactors to generate a power supply “needed for artificial intelligence endeavors, […]

Representatives from eight non-governmental organizations signed a letter Wednesday asking for a 45-day extension to provide “informed public comments” about Los Alamos National Laboratory’s site-wide environmental impact statement. “This extension is necessary to ensure the public and Tribes may thoroughly review and analyze the extensive and complex information contained in the draft document, which exceeds […]