Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration was set to become landlord of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina effective Tuesday, Oct. 1. The nuclear-weapons agency will take over management of the 310-square-mile federal complex near the Georgia line from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which cleans up shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites. […]

The first boat in the Columbia-class fleet of nuclear-armed submarines will cost several times more than the shipbuilder and Navy estimate, the Government Accountability Office said this week in a new audit report. Those overruns are in addition to delays already disclosed by the Navy in an April shipbuilding report, the Government Accountability Office said. […]

President Joe Biden (D) on Wednesday told media he would not support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, after vice presidential candidates and nonprofits sounded their own alarms. Reporters caught Mr. Biden at Joint Base Andrews, before he boarded Air Force One. When they asked if he would support Israel striking iran’s nuclear sites, […]

Defense ministers from the U.K. and Australia last week said they will negotiate a new treaty related to Australian-made nuclear-powered submarines to be developed under the AUKUS agreement. During a press conference following a trilateral AUKUS defense ministerial meeting in London, British defense secretary John Healey announced that he and Richard Marles, Australia’s deputy prime […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday recommended that the Senate vote on William “Ike” White’s nomination to join the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The approval by the committee, which received White’s nomination in May, clears the way for the full Senate Senate to send the former head of the Department of Energy’s Office […]

China’s Defense Ministry said it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters Wednesday, media such as the Wall Street Journal and BBC reported. The ICBM was carrying a dummy warhead, WSJ said. The launch was the first in over 40 years, but according to Beijing it was “routine.” While Chinese media said it gave […]

WASHINGTON — Construction on the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex is about 70% complete and ahead of the current schedule, the site manager told the Exchange Monitor recently. The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages. “So the current baseline schedule, and of course, it’s […]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told a room of Navajo Nation members Tuesday that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act would pass by supermajority, but that the House speaker hadn’t “committed” to giving it a vote. “’l just thank Speaker Johnson for being very involved,” Hawley said at a press conference on Capitol Hill […]

Senators proposed an amendment to the Senate’s version of the 2025 defense authorization bill to increase the number of F-35 developmental test aircraft for future upgrades from six to nine. The amendment would also push back the required fielding of the aircraft from 2030 to 2034. The planned amendment, by Senate Armed Services Committee chairman […]

WASHINGTON — The Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex would benefit from a continuing resolution, the site’s prime said, while plutonium pits could suffer under a short term budget extension, a spokesperson at the Department of Defense told the Exchange Monitor recently. The bill, voted on Wednesday as Congress prepared to leave town […]

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said Wednesday the federation changed its nuclear doctrine, specifically by adding new adversary actions to the list of things that warrant a nuclear response from the Kremlin, according to a video posted by state media. “Aggression by a non-nuclear-weapon state, but with participation or support of a nuclear state, would […]

A Department of Energy report to Congress about cleaning up excess nuclear weapons facilities will be a few months late next year, the Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday. DOE’s report will arrive by June 30 instead of March 31 as required by law, according to an attachment to a letter signed by Candice Robertson, senior […]

WASHINGTON — Classified intelligence shows China will make more nuclear weapons than the U.S., an Air Force general said here Thursday in a public meeting. “I see a lot of intelligence at a classified level, and I’ve never seen anything that tells me they [China] intend to stop at parity. Why would they?” Lt. Gen. […]

Senate armed services committee chair Jack Reed (D-R.I) and ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) this week said they amended the committee’s 2025 National Defense Authorization Act to include language about the next silo-based, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile. The language, part of a large managers package of uncontroversial amendments, says that it is “sense of Congress” […]

Whoever wins the U.S. presidency must end the war in Gaza to temper the threat of Iran’s rising nuclear program, according to article in Arms Control Today’s September issue. “The next president’s ability to handle the simmering issue of Iran’s advancing nuclear program will be complicated by Tehran’s growing regional influence and the spiraling Gaza […]

An ambassador from the International Atomic Energy Agency advocated in a statement last week for a Middle East free of “weapons of mass destruction” and for more safeguards there. “We remain committed to working with the regional states to advance this goal in an inclusive, consensus-based manner that takes into account the legitimate regional security […]

JOINT BASE ANDREWS — Scanning for threats against presidential candidates is a “24/7” operation for the nuclear emergency support team at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency’s counterterrorism head told the Monitor. “I find these attempts, any attack to take the life of anyone, let alone a presidential candidate or former president, inexcusable,” Wendin […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who collapsed at an event in Washington last week, got a pacemaker and can return to his duties on Capitol Hill, he said Monday in a video message. “With the pacemaker implant, issues have been now resolved for my public service,” Wilson said in a recorded video statement posted Monday to YouTube. In […]

The U.S. made “huge strides” reinvigorating its civil nuclear industry, the deputy energy secretary said Monday at the International Atomic Energy Agency general conference. “The U.S. civil nuclear industry is providing products and services to partner with countries to achieve their civil nuclear goals, while incorporating effective and efficient nuclear security, safety, and safeguards early […]

WASHINGTON — After lurching back to the House floor Wednesday, the House speaker’s six-month continuing resolution again failed to rally enough support to pass the chamber. The bill went down 202-220, with 14 Republican holdouts, two Republicans voting present and three Democratic supporters. It was mostly clean for the Department of Energy, aside from an […]

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — The head of the U.S. Strategic Command on Wednesday told a roomful of military personnel to produce the nuclear weapons needed to counter pressure from Russia and China. “We now have two nuclear peers,” Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of United States Strategic Command, said in a panel on “the […]

The six-month continuing resolution voted down Wednesday in the House would have delayed completition of nuclear-powered submarines, among other things, the Secretary of the Navy wrote this week in a letter to congressional appropriators. In the letter, dated Sept. 12 and publicly released Monday, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro reiterated some points made […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is giving its 2024 John S. Foster, Jr. Medal to Franklin Miller, lab Director Kim Budil announced Monday in a press release. Miller’s career in the U.S. government spans over 31 years. He has served in roles such as the special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director […]

Congressman Joe Wilson, 77, whose district abuts the Savannah River Site, was hospitalized in Washington Tuesday night after taking ill, according to his office’s post on website X. Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) son, South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson, said on the website X that the congressman was experiencing “stroke-like symptoms,” according to doctors at […]

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency told the agency’s board of governors that ensuring nuclear safety in Ukraine and Russia was “extremely challenging,” an agency press release said Monday. Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi traveled to the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine Sept. 4 to […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security seeks information from entities interested in delivering a vacuum arc remelt furnace to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a Thursday notice said. According to the notice, responses by interested parties are due by Sept. 30. Site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) would use the […]

WASHINGTON — House speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday in Washington that he was pulling his stopgap six-month GOP spending bill that would extend federal agencies’ 2024 budgets from its scheduled House floor vote. The bill was mostly clean for the Department of Energy aside from an anomaly that grants the agency permission “to sustain […]