Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories have successfully performed a second joint abnormal thermal environment test for the W80-4 Life Extension Program, the labs recently announced.  Carried out April 5 at Sandia’s Cross Wind Test Facility in New Mexico, this abnormal thermal environment test, or ATE-2, was a fast-heat, fully engulfing system-level fuel […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration needs at least 50 trained medics ready to treat gunshot trauma “anticipated in a hostile environment,” vehicle accidents on highways and caring for common illnesses for its Office of Secure Transport (OST) personnel.  The agency is seeking a medical service provider capable of training about 50 OST medics at the […]

With a deficit deal in place, the House and Senate now plan to write the annual bill authorizing budgets for Department of Energy defense-nuclear programs by June 23. Disrupted by negotiations over spending levels and U.S. borrowing authority, markups of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) are now set to resume next week, according to […]

Rep. Joe Wilson, the Republican from South Carolina whose district surrounds the Savannah River National Laboratory, recently received briefings from Navy, National Guard, and Department of Energy officials on how the state is promoting national security.  Leaders from Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Savannah River Site, and the Savannah […]

Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, currently the chief of staff of the Air Force, said the U.S. military’s new nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile is on track for a test flight by the end of the year.  Brown, nominated by President Joe Biden (D) to be the top uniformed officer in the U.S. military as the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Information Management has plans to establish a $6.4 million information technology center to consolidate two existing facilities in the Washington, D.C. area.  The NNSA began modernizing its information technology (IT) facilities with its fiscal year 2022 budget in order to establish data center space and “increase capacity for […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security recently laid the final roof beam of what will become the new High Explosives Science and Engineering facility at the Pantex Plant in Panhandle, Texas.  During the topping out of the facility, the construction crew placed the final steel beam on the Technology Development and Deployment Lab last week, the Pantex site […]

Employees suing Consolidated Nuclear Security over allegedly withheld wages are again without lawyers and have only two weeks to explain why the case should not be dismissed.  After the first set of lawyers for the three named plaintiffs, all employees of the manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., bowed out of the […]

The Department of Energy’s defense nuclear programs would be largely untouched if the bipartisan deal to cut federal spending and extend the U.S. borrowing limit becomes law. The deal cleared a major hurdle Tuesday evening when the House Rules Committee voted 7-4 to allow the bill, the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023,” to advance to […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory management has been put on notice after a series of safety violations two years ago sent red flags all the way up to National Nuclear Security Administration leadership. Triad National Security, led by Battelle Memorial Institute, The Texas A&M University System and the University of California, violated Department of Energy safety […]

The United States has stopped sharing with Russia certain information required under the New START nuclear arms treaty, implementing so-called “countermeasures” to Moscow’s suspension of its participation in the bilateral agreement, according to the State Department. Four specific measures, all of which are reversible, are now in effect to mirror Russia’s refusal to abide by […]

After about two years of bid protests, incumbent Centerra Group recently started its 60-day transition into a new 10-year contract to provide security to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., an agency spokesperson said Thursday. The Notice to Proceed was issued on May 15 and Centerra should start its new decade-long, […]

Robert Moriarty, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for Installations, authorized the support construction phase for the Northrop Grumman’s LGM-35A Sentinel missile. The Department of the Air Force’s 450 missile silos, launch facilities and 45 missile alert facilities “would be updated extensively to completely refurbished condition to meet the requirements of the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Secure Transport, which is responsible for moving nuclear material and weapons between secure sites around the country, is buying two new logistics support trailers to aid federal agents in that mission. Trailer Technologies Holdings, based in Albuquerque, N.M., received a sole-source, firm-fixed-price contract to build the two trailers […]

Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and National Nuclear Security Administration head Jill Hruby are too legit to quit. In mid-May, the pair hosted former rapper and “science enthusiast” MC Hammer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore California.  Hruby included a photo of the three of them, along with Kim Budil, director of […]

Senators from four states have joined forces to form a caucus dedicated to advocating for U.S. national laboratories, including those overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), James Risch (R-Idaho.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced the creation of a new Senate National Labs Caucus on May 25. […]

Meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the first of the only two nuclear weapons deployed in wartime, leaders of the Group of Seven nations reaffirmed a commitment to rid the world of nuclear weapons.  Along with the city of Nagasaki, Hiroshima “offers a reminder of the unprecedented devastation and immense human suffering the people […]

Production of tritium and plutonium pits could prove a significant limiting factor in the introduction of a new nuclear weapons delivery method like a sea-launched cruise missile and other attempts by the U.S. to beef up its nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, according to an official at the National Strategic Research Institute.  Christopher […]

The House Appropriations Committee postponed markups of several fiscal year 2024 spending bills with no rain-check date given, the panel’s chairwoman said Monday.  Citing ongoing negotiations between the administration and House Republican leadership, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who chairs the appropriations committee, said all markups scheduled for the week are now postponed. “Given recent developments […]

At the heart of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is an often-overlooked force of highly-trained, armed couriers who shepherd nuclear materials from one National Nuclear Security Administration site to another.  NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Frank Rose on May 18 praised the most recent class of candidates for that service, graduates of the Office of Secure […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory added SambaNova Systems’ spatial data flow accelerator to the lab’s Livermore Computing Center as part of an effort to see if artificial intelligence can aid the nuclear-weapons program. Livermore will integrate the new hardware to further investigate cognitive simulation approaches combining artificial intelligence (AI) with high-performance computing to learn if deep […]

Russia on Thursday made good on a plan to deploy lower-yield nuclear weapons in Belarus, a move President Vladimir Putin announced in an interview with state television on March 25, Reuters and other news outlets reported.  It is the first deployment of Russian nuclear weapons outside the country’s borders since the fall of the Soviet […]

Some programs to ferret out potential insider threats at the Department of Energy are still not in place eight years after they were established, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. DOE established its Insider Threats Program in 2014 but has “not implemented all required measures” for the program, like ensuring employees are trained to identify […]

Ground was broken last week on a new 13,000-square-foot operational command center at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site to consolidate emergency services into a single building. NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Frank Rose cut the ribbon for the Mercury 2 building on May 11. The new facility is among those to be […]

Another power-generation cycle is underway at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1, one of two reactors in which rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons are irradiated. The plant returned to operation on May 12 after a scheduled shutdown for maintenance […]

State officials signed off last week on a Department of Energy request to delay installation of what’s known as Next Generation Solvent at the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a federal advisory board heard Monday. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on May 8 approved […]