Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Earnings rose at Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., in the 2nd quarter, which the shipbuilder and Department of Energy contractor attributed in part to COVID-19’s effects last year on the Virginia-class attack submarine program. Net earnings for the second quarter ended June 30 were $129 million, compared with $53 million in the second quarter of […]

A Republican bid to add the better part of $4 billion for construction of plutonium pit factories to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget failed in the Senate in the Senate this week. A trio of defense-minded Republicans proposed the multiyear funding first as an amendment to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill approved Tuesday, then […]

Five new-to-the-organization faces will join the new Los Alamos directorate in charge of turning the lab into the first national center for plutonium pit production since Rocky Flats ceased production in 1989. Three of these five managers were to be on the job Monday, with two colleagues to follow later this month and next, according […]

This week, not long after senior nuclear-weapons managers gathered outside of Washington and lamented programmatic gear-grinding caused by what they called premature attempts to pin down costs, the House Armed Services chair asked the president to consider shrinking the arsenal, in part over concerns about its affordability. The Biden administration’s forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review should […]

The Air Force this week launched a non-nuclear Minuteman III missile, carrying what the service called a “high-fidelity joint test assembly,” from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Air Force announced the early-morning launch in a press release. Supporting the test launch from the west coast were Air Force personnel from the 341st Missile Wing […]

Bradley Wallin will lead Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s nuclear weapons programs, settling a succession that began when Kim Budil was promoted to lab director earlier this year, the design lab announced this week. Separately, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that Jeff Harrell, the federal manager for the agency’s Sandia Field Office, retired in […]

Facing a tough comp that included a big one-time payment, profits fell year-over-year at Centrus, Bethesda, Md., in the second quarter of 2021, though core operations remained essentially healthy and the company scored a crucial regulatory blessing for a new enrichment cascade. The fuel reseller and enrichment technology developer posted quarterly net income attributable to […]

With growing federal alarm over the surging numbers of new COVID-19 cases, especially among the unvaccinated, the Department of Energy on Friday confirmed it is imploring government contractors to find ways to get workers to take their shots. The agency acknowledged the effort, spearheaded by Tarak Shah, chief of staff to Secretary Jennifer Granholm, after […]

ALEXANDRIA — Congress should not relax legal deadlines to produce plutonium pits this decade, even though the National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged it won’t meet at least one of them,nuclear-weapons managers here said this week. “I would say no,” Michael Thompson, said here Wednesday when asked whether Congress should change the law so that […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would essentially receive its 2022 budget request under a spending bill the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up Wednesday, matching the funding the full House approved last week. Unlike the House, however, Senate Appropriators approved the $72 million the Joe Biden administration sought for the planned W93 submarine launched ballistic missile […]

The Department of Energy is taking steps to implement White House policy to stem the tide of increasing COVID-19 infections by again ordering mask wearing indoors, giving more time off to have family members vaccinated and holding off on many in-person meetings. Effective immediately, “any DOE-hosted in-person meeting, conference, or event that will be attended […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Materials for the third and final Nightshade subcritical plutonium test at the Nevada National Security Site have shipped out from the Los Alamos National Laboratory ahead of a shot planned for the fall, the head of the lab’s weapon’s program said here this week. Nightshade C had been scheduled to fire in […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Whatever changes the Joe Biden administration’s nuclear posture review prescribes to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national defense strategy, the nuclear production complex will have the same needs as it does now, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs office said here Tuesday. “I recognize […]

Frank Rose is officially principal deputy administrator of the the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency announced this week. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm conducted a virtual swearing in for Rose, who lives in Massachusetts, according to a tweet by Jill Hruby, herself sworn in as administrator of the National […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Judgements varied here this week between two senior civilian nuclear-weapons leaders as to whether the National Nuclear Security Administration would meet some legally binding deadlines to produce new nuclear weapon cores this decade. Questioned about the deadlines by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor during the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, the head of National Nuclear […]

The Joe Biden administration said this week it will nominate former National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation hand Corey Hinderstein, currently at the non-government Nuclear Threat Institute, as the agency’s deputy administrator for defense non-proliferation.  “An accomplished leader and well-known expert on #nuclear #security matters, Corey has the knowledge and skills to lead the #NNSA nonproliferation […]

While earnings from continuing operations were down at Fluor, Irving, Texas in the second quarter, the engineering and construction contractor said in a Friday press release it is reducing its debt and increasing its guidance for 2021. In slides released ahead of a Friday earnings call, the company also confirmed that it was among the […]

Earnings fell at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the second quarter, which the Department of Energy contractor and maker of nuclear submarine reactors and components attributed to non-recurring costs such as commercializing a line of medical isotopes, plus higher interest rates. Net income for the second quarter ended June 30 was $59.4 million or $0.62 […]

The Exchange Monitor held its 2021 Nuclear Deterrence Summit this week in Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington. The curtain rose on the show about a year-and-a-half after the 2020 summit, which wrapped up barely a month before COVID-19 changed everything. For some attendees, and maybe more than just some, the summit was the first […]

Jill Hruby was sworn in this week as the sixth administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, she wrote in a Twitter post on the official government account for the nuclear-weapons agency’s leader. Today, surrounded by my family, I was sworn in as #NNSA Administrator by @SecGranholm. Leading the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to […]

A House Armed Services panel this week called for a briefing about delays to a bomb and warhead refurb at the National Nuclear Security Administration and a new report on planned subcritical testing facilities. The strategic forces subcommittee wrote the requirements into a report appended to its portion of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense […]

The roughly 1% annual increase the Joe Biden administration proposed for civilian nuclear weapons programs is “minimally sufficient” to keep warhead and bomb modernization on track in 2022, but maybe not beyond, a joint Pentagon-Department of Energy nuclear acquisitions group told Congress recently. The Biden request of roughly $20 billion for the National Nuclear Security […]

By voice vote on Thursday, the Senate confirmed Frank Rose as principal deputy administration of the National Nuclear Security Administration, providing a backstop for Administrator Jill Hruby, who was confirmed last week. It took a little more than three months to get Rose confirmed. Rose was one of the four witnesses in a May 27 […]

On a party-line vote Thursday, the House approved a spending bill that would give the National Nuclear Security Administration the requested $20 billion or so for fiscal year 2022: a budget the Nuclear Weapons Council called “minimally sufficient.” The budget is part of a seven-bill minibus appropriations package that the White House has said it […]

Bidders for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s potentially 10-year, $30-billion contract to manage two of the country’s main nuclear-weapons production sites have until the second week of August to turn in their final proposals, the agency said this week. The final proposal revisions are due at 4 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 9, the semi-autonomous […]

Some 200 craft workers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California wrapped up a three-day strike on Thursday to protest what they called the lab management contractor’s unwillingness to bargain over a mandatory on-call policy. The Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers (SPSE) Local 11 – University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of […]

Federal employees and on-site contractors without COVID-19 vaccinations will have to mask up at all locations on government property and get COVID-19 tests once a week or more, the Joe Biden administration announced this week amid a surge in 19 cases. “Every federal government employee and onsite contractor will be asked to attest to their […]