Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Lawyers representing employees who accuse Consolidated Nuclear Security, manager of the Y-12 site in Oak Ridge Tenn., of withholding wages have withdrawn from a proposed class action lawsuit against the contractor.  The motion to withdraw as counsel was granted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville on Monday. Justin […]

Australian leaders are concerned about the nuclear waste the country’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet, which the country will buy and then build under the AUKUS deal with the U.S. and U.K.  AUKUS also poses complicated questions of compliance for Australia, which is treaty-bound to neither produce or possess nuclear weapons or materials that could be used […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s longest-serving associate administrator Jeffrey Johnson, the chief of nuclear security, announced his retirement on Monday.  Johnson served eight years at NNSA following a 20-year career in uniform and seven years as a civilian employee with the U.S. Marine Corps, according to a statement from the NNSA. The NNSA did not […]

Citing a national security memorandum that describes a reduced need for the B83 thermonuclear gravity bomb, the National Nuclear Administration proposed cutting funding for the weapon in its 2024 budget request.  The NNSA proposed cutting $28 million from funding for management of the B83 in its fiscal 2024 budget request, owing to “updated program requirements […]

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlined the advantages of boosting High Energy Density (HED) research and identifies key challenges in the field.  The study, undertaken by the Committee on the Assessment of High Energy Density Science, was sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration.  Félicie Albert, deputy director […]

There are at least 500 too few employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which has contributed to a cost increase and schedule slip for the uranium processing facility under construction there, the Secretary of Energy testified in Congress Thursday. In its budget request for fiscal year 2024, the National Nuclear […]

Any deployment by North Korea of a nuclear weapon would mean the fall of the Kim regime, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said this week.  The reclusive nation fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday and later announced it has the capability to mount a nuclear warhead on the launcher.  […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2024 includes a funding boost for plutonium pit production in New Mexico, with the goal of building 80 per year as close to 2030 as possible.  Also in the request, the NNSA provided a new cost and schedule estimate for completing the Uranium Processing Facility […]

Funding for a nuclear warhead carried by an in-development sea-launched cruise missile was written out of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget request, reflecting the Biden administration’s desire to cancel the weapon. The NNSA received $20 million in 2023 to continue development of a lower-yield sea-launched cruise missile variant of the W80-4 […]

Bills pending before the South Carolina legislature could split the state regulator for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken into two separate organizations, a state agency official told the Citizens Advisory Board for the federal complex Monday. Susan Fulmer, manager of federal remediation for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental […]

Work continues on transfer of the Savannah River Site landlord authority to the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, the top cleanup fed at the South Carolina complex told a DOE advisory panel this week. A joint team of DOE Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) representatives should issue […]

The Air Force conducted a critical design review for the AGM-181 Long Range Stand-Off nuclear-tipped cruise missile from Feb. 2 to -March 2 at Eglin AFB, Fla., a service spokesperson said Monday. Raytheon Technologies, Arlington, Va., is the Air Force’s prime contractor for the missile, which will carry a W80-4 warhead provided by the National […]

Australia will buy three U.S.-built Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines beginning in the 2030s as part of the tripartite AUKUS deal, the parties said Monday. AUKUS aims both to create an Australian nuclear submarine force and industrial base and recapitalize the U.S. submarine building industry. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.K. Prime Minister […]

Materials shortages, technology changes and other factors have pushed major enhancements to a nuclear-weapon testing facility in Nevada back three years and inflated the overall project cost to $1.8 billion, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2024 budget request. Supply chain disruptions and other problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to the […]

A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the National Nuclear Security Administration found that technical limitations and exceptions for some nuclear warheads do not hamper the Defense Department’s planning or operations. Published March 90, the report highlights 90 technical nuclear weapons exceptions and limitations in six categories: Safety, operational considerations, reliability, performance, aircraft […]

President Joe Biden recently announced his intent to nominate Patricia Lee, who has more than 30 years of experience with radiation protection issues at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina and elsewhere, to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Lee now serves as the portfolio manager for the laboratory’s digital enterprise, […]

The U.S. military lags behind both Russia and China in building and fielding low-yield nuclear weapons and can address that gap by diversifying the military’s nuclear options, the head of U.S. Strategic Command told Congress on Thursday. Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, in charge of U.S. nuclear forces since December, said he launched a review […]

Northrop Grumman recently completed the first full-scale static test of an LGM-35A Sentinel solid rocket motor at its test facility in Promontory, Utah, marking yet another milestone on the road to potentially flying an example of the next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile later this year. In partnership with the U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, the […]

Facing expanding mandates for information security at the two big nuclear-weapon production sites it manages, Consolidated Nuclear Security has launched a hiring spree for qualified information technology and cybersecurity experts. Over the past several years, Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) has found it difficult to meet its cybersecurity and IT staffing needs with its internal employee […]

The weapon systems that make up the U.S. nuclear triad have nearly outlived their operational utility and must be replaced to maintain a credible deterrent, senior Air Force officers in charge of nuclear forces said in congressional testimony Wednesday. Both Russia and China are rapidly modernizing and expanding their nuclear weapons stockpiles and delivery platforms, […]

Below is Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s annual digest of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) performance evaluation summaries: the agency’s report cards for its big contracts, which explain how much management and operations entities earned for their performance. The Monitor has provided links to NNSA source documents. Kansas City National Security Campus, Kansas City, […]

The Biden Administration’s fiscal 2024 budget requests $23.8 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, an increase of about $1.5 billion from the current fiscal year.  Released Thursday, the president’s budget request aims to “make historic investments in the nation’s nuclear security enterprise to implement the President’s Nuclear Posture Review; support a safe, secure, and […]

Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs would get a roughly 6% boost under the budget request President Joe Biden (D) released Thursday, while weapons cleanup would be flat. For DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, the Biden administration proposed roughly $23.8 billion for the 2024 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That’s over $1.5 billion […]

Facing expanding mandates for information security at the two big nuclear-weapon production sites it manages, Consolidated Nuclear Security has launched a hiring spree for qualified information technology and cybersecurity experts. Over the past several years, Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) has found it difficult to meet its cybersecurity and IT staffing needs with its internal employee […]

The Department of Energy on Friday marked the anniversary of Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine with a list of the agency’s contributions to Kyiv during the conflict. Both the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Office of Nuclear Energy merited callouts in Friday’s press release for showing Ukrainian personnel how to identify radiation releases, conduct unspecified […]

A State Department spokesperson confirmed this week that Russia officially suspended its participation in the world’s biggest bilateral nuclear-weapons treaty. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also mentioned the treaty to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New Delhi, India, during what the spokesperson called a “rather brief encounter” between the two at the Quad Foreign […]

Machined uranium chips caused the fire that prompted last week’s evacuation of the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Building 9212, a site spokesperson said this week. “In the event on February 22, chips of uranium metal from machining activity had been processed for storage in accordance with standard operating procedures,” a Y-12 spokesperson wrote Thursday in […]