Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration will conduct low-altitude helicopter flights Dec. 2-13 over downtown Washington, to detect radiation threats ahead of the 2025 presidential inauguration, the agency said in a press release. The Nuclear Energy Support Team’s (NEST) aircraft, now a Leonardo AW-139, will scan for background radiation by flying at low levels in the […]

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

A 2019 law ordering production of pits at Los Alamos is not a substitute for a required environmental analysis of the program that, an antinuclear activist said this week in court, the National Nuclear Security Administration still has not done. “There is no such exemption here, and Congress cannot order the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration collaborated with Japan’s Kyoto University to convert a reactor to run on high-assay low enriched uranium, according to an agency press release.  The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology first agreed to convert Kyoto University Critical Assembly’s (KUCA) fuel in a […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security is seeking a firm to test for leaks in one of its glovebox systems at Y-12 National Security Complex, according to a source sought notice posted Nov. 14 on sam.gov. The Bechtel National-led manager at the uranium processing hub for deployed nuclear weapons in Oak Ridge, Tenn., estimated in the expression of […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Strategic Command told the Exchange Monitor here Tuesday he could have public conversations in the spring on the nuclear employment guidance. The report, which the Pentagon said it submitted to Congress Nov. 14, describes the U.S. nuclear employment strategy in an unclassified format. “I’ll probably have conversations in […]

Multiple national news organizations reported Saturday President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Chris Wright, CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based oilfield services company, to be the next secretary of energy. According to his Liberty biography, Wright is a self-described “tech nerd” who previously founded Pinnacle Technologies in the 1990s, a company involved in […]

Military activities are targeting Ukraine’s energy and nuclear infrastructure, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement Saturday. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said in the statement that the Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine nuclear power plants were not directly impacted nor did they shut down, but their […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration conducted low-altitude helicopter flights starting Tuesday this week over Las Vegas, Nev. ahead of the city’s Grand Prix, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said. According to a post Monday from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on the website X, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) used its helicopters […]

The Navy last week released a request for information for a congressionally mandated, nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile. The Navy published the request for information Nov. 15, seeking interest and resources to support the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) all up round program. Responses are due by Dec. 9. The missile will be deployed on Virginia-class […]

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) will return to Congress as a Democratic voice in a Republican-controlled Senate after the Associated Press called her reelection race on Nov. 10. Rosen’s win gives Democrats 47 seats in the Senate. Republicans will control the chamber with 53 votes. If Rosen keeps her spot on the Senate Armed Services Committee, […]

President elect Donald Trump said this week he would tap Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as his eventual pick for Secretary of State. Rubio has advocated for a more hawkish stance on Iran in the past, gunning for more sanctions to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear program. He has also spoken against the Iran nuclear deal […]

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency will visit Iran’s capital this week to meet with Iranian government officials, according to an agency press release. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said in the release that holding technical discussions and making “substantive progress” in implementing the IAEA Joint Statement […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Exchange Monitor it ‘feels like we’re close’ to finalizing an extension for a management and operations contract at Lawrence Livermore. “We’re working on an extension on that,” Hruby said, referring to Lawrence Livermore National Security, the California nuclear weapons lab’s Bechtel […]

The federal government and environmental groups have until Dec. 12 to figure out how to review the environmental effects of plutonium pit production without stopping development of a pit factory in South Carolina, a judge said Friday. It was more than a month ago that Judge Mary Lewis ruled, in a lawsuit filed in 2021 […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority began a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage Nov. 1 at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1, the quasi-government corporation announced last week. A Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) spokesperson told the Monitor in an email that tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) are “loaded during a refueling outage, irradiated during one cycle, […]

A nuclear cleanup contract awarded this week to an Atkins-led team could be modified later to include production of depleted uranium tetrafluoride for the National Nuclear Security Administration. As expected, the Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Operations and Site Mission Support contract, awarded Nov. 8 to Mission Conversion Services Alliance by the Department of […]

Centrus Energy Corp. will get until late June to deliver 900 kilograms of energy-dense uranium to the Department of Energy, the company said last week in a regulatory filing. Centrus, Bethesda, Md., disclosed the extension, but not its terms, in a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The extension was foreshadowed in February […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the U.S. producing more modernized nuclear weapons annually than it has since the end of the Cold War, the government should not “over respond” to rising nuclear threats abroad, the head of National Nuclear Security Administration said here Wednesday. Although she is “very worried about global conditions,” Jill Hruby, administrator of […]

In the wake of Donald Trump securing his second term as president, the GOP on election day also regained majority in the Senate with new leaders set to take over the upper chamber’s defense authorization and spending panels in the next Congress. While much remains to be finalized with key committee posts in the coming […]

Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the third quarter, which the company attributed on Monday to contract wins and higher production in naval nuclear components and microreactors. Net earnings for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 were $69.6 million, or $0.76 a share, up 15% from $60.4 million, or $0.66 a share, in […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory looked at ‘every possible alternative’ for building a powerline through Caja del Rio Plateau, the lab’s top federal manager wrote in a local newspaper over the weekend. “After years of study, debate and consultation that included the brightest minds at one of the world’s premier science and engineering laboratories, we […]

The U.S. Space Force tested the intercontinental ballistic missile’s ability to strike targets with multiple warheads in a Minuteman III launch Tuesday at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. According to a press release by the Space Force base, an airborne command post controlled the  intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test. “These tests are demonstrative of what […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Dennis Carr, chief operating officer at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, told the Monitor here last week that the team’s parent company Fluor would compete for a follow-on management contract at Savannah River. In late September, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) published a special notice with a draft request for proposal (RFP) […]

According to data gathered by the Associated Press and other media, Donald Trump was reelected president with 277 electoral votes and almost every incumbent lawmaker with a big defense-nuclear constituency won reelection. While Trump and these lawmakers will return to Washington come January, U.S. voters also helped Republicans take back the majority in the Senate […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ strong momentum in 2024 came to a halt in the third quarter due to challenges in shipbuilding and notably delays in an award from the Navy for submarine work. Net income in the quarter slid 32% to $101 million, or $2.56 earnings a share from $148 million or $3.70 a share a […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries Wednesday named Kari Wilkinson, currently president of the company’s Ingalls Shipbuilding segments, as the incoming president of its nuclear shipbuilding operations in Virginia effective Jan. 1, 2025. The Newport News segment is HII’s largest, generating $6.1 billion in sales in 2023. Newport News has more than 26,000 shipbuilders. The business builds and […]