Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The Senate on Tuesday passed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, setting spending limits for nuclear weapons and waste programs and tinkering with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s authorizing law. The Senate approved the bill 85-14. Voting no were three Republicans, 10 Democrats and one independent who caucuses with Democrats. President Joe Biden (D) had […]

MERCURY, Nev. — The next subcritical experiment in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Nimble is scheduled to fire in April, senior officials at the Nevada National Security Site site told the Exchange Monitor Wednesday. The experiment, named Nob Hill, would be the second in the three-shot series of experiments. The first experiment, called Twin Peaks, took […]

LIVERMORE, Ca. — With development of the Sentinel missile largely paused, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory here is doing what “relevant flight testing” it can on the missile’s W87-0 warhead, a senior lab official at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told the Exchange Monitor Tuesday.  “There have not been Sentinel flights associated with it [the […]

MERCURY, Nev. — The next U.S. laboratory for testing nuclear weapons without nuclear explosions will be done a year or two sooner but cost more than forecast this spring, officials said here Wednesday. The officials spoke to the Exchange Monitor and other media outlets during a press tour of the Nevada National Security Site, organized […]

In observance of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not publish on Friday, Dec. 27 or Friday, Jan. 3. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 10. 

The National Nuclear Security Administration said it would update its strategy for disposing of defense nuclear waste in 2026, according to its response to a report by the Government Accountability Office. On Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on what it called “shortfalls” in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) waste disposal […]

With time expiring soon on this congressional session, a longtime federal manager is still awaiting Senate confirmation to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The nomination of William “Ike” White to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in September. The full Senate has yet to […]

The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which the House passed on Wednesday, would set the National Nuclear Security Administration’s spending cap at $24.9 billion for the fiscal year. The number, hashed out last weekend behind closed doors by a bicameral conference committee, is only about 0.2%, or $57 million, less than what the White House […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s probe into Syria’s potential nuclear weapons activities paused when rebels took control of the Syrian capital and forced its former dictator to flee. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a presentation in Oslo, Norway Wednesday that Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad gave the nuclear […]

The rear of an International Atomic Energy Agency vehicle was destroyed by a Kamikaze drone during a rotation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, the agency said in a release Tuesday. Personnel from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a driver and a security officer, were unharmed, IAEA said. The incident occurred almost five miles […]

Belarus’s president Alexander Lukashenko said this week that “several dozen” Russian nuclear warheads are deployed in his country, according to state-owned news agency BELTA Tuesday. “I have brought nuclear warheads here. … Many people are writing: ‘It’s a joke. No one has moved anything anywhere.’ They have. The fact they think it’s a joke means […]

As of Dec. 1, the New Mexico Environment Department has 27 pages of emails with comments on the Department of Energy’s plan to define legacy transuranic waste for disposal at DOE’s deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Most early comments are from individuals, not organizations, but follow a similar theme. Some commenters say the […]

The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the National Nuclear Security Administration’s spending cap at $24.9 billion, passed the House 281-140 this week. The bill now heads to the Senate, which is still controlled by a 51-member majority of Democrats and Democratically aligned Senators in the lame duck session that will end in a […]

Four Australian companies received Australian government contracts for a qualification process that will eventually let them work in and contribute to U.S. and U.K. submarine supply chains, the government in Canberra said this week. These four approvals, announced Wednesday, will allow the companies to manufacture samples of standard U.S. Navy valves and pipe fittings as […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration posted a source sought notice on sam.gov Tuesday for a contractor to purify and reprocess lithium hydride that the agency produces. Lithium is a component of producing tritium, which is used in the thermonuclear weapons maintained by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). According to the notice, NNSA targets recycling […]

The White House Office of Management and Budget last week requested another $1.59 billion from Congress to continue building the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. A senior Navy official told reporters Monday that OMB requested two anomalies divided into $1.59 billion to continue the Columbia-class (SSBN) program during a continuing resolution. The SSBN anomaly is aimed […]

In a bid to increase capacity and accelerate production of submarines for the Navy, Huntington Ingalls Industries has agreed to acquire the assets of W International. W International is a 500-employee strong metal fabricator that already supports the submarine industrial base with structures, modules, and assemblies. The deal for the South Carolina-based company is expected […]

Santa Fe County commissioners met this week with a coalition for the Caja del Rio plateau that has proposed making the plateau near the Los Alamos National Laboratory a monument, one of them said Wednesday. Commissioner Anna Hansen told the Monitor about Wednesday’s meeting in an email the week after the local Santa Fe New […]

WASHINGTON — Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), chair of the energy and water appropriations subcommittee in the House, told the Exchange Monitor he does not know when a vote on the federal budget would be. “I have not been privy to that,” Fleischmann said here Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol. “But I sure wish we could’ve […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Tuesday nominated Air Force Major General Mark Pye to take command of the Air Force Nuclear Systems Center in New Mexico as a lieutenant general. Pye, whose promotion requires Senate approval, is currently the director of programs at the office of the deputy chief of staff for plans and programs […]

Development of the nuclear warhead for the Air Force’s next cruise missile so far is not affected by the early parallel development of a sea-launched variant of the warhead for the Navy, the commander of the eighth Air Force said Wednesday. “I have not heard anything like that at all,” Major General Jason Armagost, commander […]

Fluor’s longtime chief financial officer and executive vice president Joe Brennan plans to retire July 1, 2025 after more than three decades with the Irving, Texas-based government contractor. Fluor announced Brennan’s planned departure in a Monday press release, adding he will be replaced by the company’s chief accounting officer, John Regan. Regan, currently chief accounting […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement Nov. 28 that Ukraine’s three operating nuclear power plants reduced electricity due to military activity targeting the country’s energy infrastructure. “Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is extremely fragile and vulnerable, putting nuclear safety at great risk,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said […]

Department of Energy management at the Savannah River Site told a federal safety watchdog last month steps are underway to strengthen oversight by departmental facility representatives at the nuclear complex in South Carolina. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is employing “trending analysis” and improving collaboration and training for its facility representatives at the Savannah […]

A federal judge granted the order Tuesday to vacate a judgement favoring environmentalists in a plutonium pit lawsuit and stop the case from going to an appeals court. The defendants, the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), asked district judge Mary Geiger Lewis to vacate her Sept. 30 judgement validating […]

In observance of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor will not publish on Friday, Nov. 29. The next issue will be published on Wednesday, Nov. 27.

In response to a statement by a watchdog nuclear agency condemning its nuclear program, Iran’s state news agency reported Tehran started activating new advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a joint statement Friday calling the International Atomic Energy […]