Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

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 […]

Local groups said they would continue to oppose a planned low-level radioactive waste facility in Adelaide, Australia for the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, Australian media reported this week. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a federal law enacted in October allows the storage and disposal of radioactive waste at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Osborne, […]

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), after stepping down as GOP leader, said Thursday he will chair the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the next Congress. The Senate Appropriations Committee previously advanced its $852.2 billion fiscal year 2025 defense appropriations bill, which funds the Department of Defense and funds the ongoing refurbishment of the nuclear triad. The 2025 […]

Derek Merrin (R) a member of the Ohio legislature has formally conceded his race in Ohio’s 9th congressional district against Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), a member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the longest serving incumbents in congress. “The vote is we came about 2,300 votes short” after the provisional votes were counted in […]

When it comes to overseeing billions of dollars’ worth of federal contracts, the Department of Energy, and its two nuclear weapons complex offices, still has work to do, a congressional watchdog agency said in a Thursday report. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said DOE, its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its Office of […]

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 […]