Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

A review of nuclear modernization is among the top items for Kathleen Hicks, if the Senate confirms her as Deputy Secretary of Defense. Hicks, 50, has been involved on the inside and outside of the Pentagon since 1993, most recently as a senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She […]

The New START nuclear arms-control treaty is officially extended through Feb. 5, 2026, giving the U.S. time to pursue more arms control agreements with Russia, and possibly with China, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said this week in a press release. “The United States will use the time provided by a five-year extension of the […]

A year into the pandemic, the Department of Energy is officially in the market for routine COVID-19 tests for employees who work at the agency’s Washington area headquarters, according to a request for information posted online this week. “It is anticipated that testing and support services will be required for an initial six-month period, with […]

Jennifer Granholm, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, easily cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday with a 13-4 bipartisan vote, setting her on course for a floor vote that had not been scheduled at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), […]

Two more people in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s workforce died from COVID-19 this week, as recoveries continued to outpace new infections and more nuclear weapons workers got vaccinated.  One of the two fatalities this week was at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was the fourth fatal case for the lab during the pandemic. […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration racked up more than 200 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 this week, but recoveries again outpaced new infections, with vaccinations continuing throughout the enterprise. As of Friday the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency had 604 active cases of the disease caused by the coronavirus that broke out in […]

Consolidated Nuclear Security is seeking a subcontractor to build the National Nuclear Security Administration’s High Explosives Science and Engineering facility at the Pantex Plan in Amarillo, Texas, according to a procurement note posted online. The three-building High Explosives Science and Engineering facility is one part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Primary Capability Modernization […]

Moscow this week approved an official request by the U.S. to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with the Russian federation for five years. The U.S. officially proposed an extension on Tuesday after the Joe Biden administration telegraphed the move last week. “On behalf of the United States of America, the Embassy proposes […]

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists kept their metaphorical Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight on Wednesday, citing development of hypersonic weapons, missile defense systems and dual-use weapons-delivery systems over the past 12 months, the dove-ish, Chicago-based group said during its annual clock unveiling. “By our estimation, the potential for the world to stumble into […]

James Biggins is now listed as the acting general manager of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, according to an organizational chart released late last week. Biggins has served as a special assistant to the chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) since September 2018 and has also served as general counsel and acting general […]

The energy and defense mix on the House Appropriations Committee, at least its leadership, will remain essentially unchanged in the 177th Congress, according to rosters released by Democrats and Republicans this week. Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) will remain chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House Appropriations energy and water development […]

Kim Budil will become the 13th director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on March 2, the younger of the two U.S. nuclear-weapons design laboratories announced Thursday. Budil was mostly recently Livermore’s director of weapons complex and integration, responsible for the lab’s major weapon refurbishments, including the W80-4 air-launched cruise-missile warhead and the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration barely rated as a blip this week in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s hearing to examine President Biden’s nomination of Jennifer Granholm as Secretary of Energy. In her written testimony, Granholm said enhancing American security through DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and “clean-up of our Cold War […]

Attorneys for the Nevada National Security Site’s prime contractor want a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit from the company’s disgruntled ex-finance chief, who is trying to prove that the privately held contractor is subject to federal law that protects whistleblowers who expose financial misconduct at publicly traded companies. In 2019, ex-Chief Financial Officer […]

A Democratic House staffer who has worked the nuclear weapons and strategic systems portfolio for the House Armed Services Committee for a decade has taken a Pentagon post with a similar bailiwick in the Joe Biden administration. Leonor Tomero will be deputy assistant director for nuclear and missile defense programs after inauguration day, the administration […]

Adding another hash mark to the record of winter disruptions on the hill, the Los Alamos National Laboratory opened late on Monday, advising essential personnel needed for national security work inside the fence to wait out some heavy snow before reporting in. That means the roughly 20% of Los Alamos’ workforce still on site amid […]

President Joe Biden wants to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia for five years, his press secretary confirmed Thursday.  “The United States intends to seek a five-year extension of New START,” Biden’s press secretary, Jennifer Psaki, said during a Thursday briefing at the White House. “The president has […]

In his Senate nomination hearing this week, Secretary of Defense designate Lloyd Austin, since approved for a floor vote in the upper chamber, would not commit outright to supporting the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to build two factories to produce new plutonium pits. The Senate confirmed Biden to lead the Pentagon on Friday. “Maintaining […]

Vaccinations have started at some National Nuclear Security Administration sites, which as a group racked up more than 150 new COVID-19 cases this week, with recoveries outpacing new confirmed infections, according to agency data. The labs that received vaccines did not reply to questions about how many workers they had vaccinated, at deadline. The Nevada […]

Donald Trump appointee Charles Verdon has taken over as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency confirmed Friday. Meanwhile, David Huizenga, No. 3 at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its top career official, will take over as acting Secretary of Energy until the Senate […]

The story “NNSA Contractor Scorecards for Pandemic Fiscal Year Show Headaches for Pits, Non-nuclear Components, Nevada Test Instruments” (Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, (Vol. 25, No. 02) should have said that Savannah River Nuclear Solutions earned $31.4 million of a possible $35.3 million for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) work at the Savannah River Site […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies this week appointed Rob Smith as its president of government operations, which is a newly-created post. In that role, Smith will lead the company’s nuclear operations and nuclear services segments. This includes work for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Naval Nuclear […]

William Bookless will resign as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration on inauguration day, Jan. 20, setting up career civil servant David Huizenga to shepherd the nuclear-weapons agency through the early days of the Joe Biden administration. Bookless announced his impending departure Monday in an all-hands memo to National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

Jamie Shimek will remain clerk of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, providing a modicum of stability for Washington nuke watchers scrambling to update their contacts list ahead of the transition to the Joe Biden administration. Shimek joined the committee that writes each year’s first draft of the Department of Energy annual budget bill […]

A pair of think-tanks are pushing a combination of machine learning and open-source data as a way to generate more leads on potential nuclear proliferation and said Tuesday that a recent pilot project shows the technique “could save hundreds of analyst hours” if put into practice by the government. That was the claim in a […]

With the National Nuclear Security Administration’s capacity to manufacture new nuclear weapon cores still a question mark, the Navy is studying whether the recently funded W93 submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead needs a brand new plutonium pit, the admiral in charge of the service’s nuclear weapon systems said Thursday. “We are, in the [Department of Defense], […]

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is officially headed to the National Security Council, ending for now any prospects of a return to the Department of Energy, where the nonproliferation and weapons-of-mass-destruction policy hand was second-in-command during the Obama administration. The Biden transition team officially announced the move Wednesday, which media had reported earlier. Sherwood-Randall will be homeland security […]