National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

As the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration awaits its marching orders from the President Donald Trump administration, the Los Alamos National Laboratory is now saying it will get to an annual plutonium pit production goal of 30 “ASAP.” Such pits are the triggers for thermonuclear weapons. David Dooley, the associate laboratory director for […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — James Peery, director of the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories, told the Exchange Monitor Monday that the W80-4 had its first flight test on the Long Range Standoff Missile last week. Peery spoke with the Monitor after speaking at a panel at the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit with Kim […]

Jeff Avery, the No. 2 officer at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, is moving over to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and a corporate official who worked at DOE during the first Donald Trump administration is being detailed to the nuclear cleanup branch in a senior adviser role, according to a […]

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration is “clear-eyed about the work ahead” with its two-site strategy for plutonium pit production, NNSA’s acting administrator Teresa Robbins told the opening of the 17th annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit Monday. Much work remains over the next decade for NNSA to achieve its goal of […]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The scheduled rebaselining process is done at the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., an agency official told the Exchange Monitor here Monday. The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages. Audrey Beldio, principal assistant deputy […]

Arlington, Va. — Gen. Anthony Cotton, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command is expected to give a fireside chat on the weapons complex during the annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit that begins Monday morning in Arlington, Va. Cotton is one of many players in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the nuclear weapons enterprise […]

Thom Mason, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, said Tuesday that the lab cannot rely on wind and solar power for its capabilities or to power its supercomputers. “That was part of a pretty extensive analysis on how to get more power on site,” Mason said in response to a question about the Electric Power […]

Joyce Connery, who is departing as a nuclear safety watchdog after nearly a decade, would not be shocked to see the President Donald Trump (R) administration revive then-President Joe Biden’s (D) nomination of a former Department of Energy cleanup boss to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board —only this time paired with one or more […]

WASHINGTON — Ahead of President Donald Trump’s (R) swearing-in, Jill Hruby, now former administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, advised the Trump administration to look at the agency’s enterprise blueprint. “I want to be clear that the blueprint is not a wish list,” Hruby said last week at a tell-all at Washington think tank […]

WASHINGTON — While unclear how President Donald Trump (R) will approach AUKUS, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) says there are ‘positive bits of evidence’ that it will be sustained in the new administration. “The president is very focused on shipbuilding, okay?” Kaine told the Monitor at the Capitol on Wednesday. “So that’s good. And I think […]

WASHINGTON — Ahead of President Donald Trump’s (R) swearing-in, Jill Hruby, now former administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, advised the Trump administration to look at the agency’s enterprise blueprint. “I want to be clear that the blueprint is not a wish list,” Hruby said last week at a tell-all at Washington think tank […]

WASHINGTON — Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump’s (R) pick for secretary of energy, said he would make it a priority to enrich uranium domestically Wednesday at his confirmation hearing. “We have lost our ability to enrich uranium in this country, to construct plutonium pits, and to do so many critical things that are key to […]

WASHINGTON — Brandon Williams, a former one-term congressman from New York’s 22nd district, is President Donald Trump’s (R) pick to head the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Chris Wright, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, told the Exchange Monitor here Wednesday after his confirmation hearing that he picked Williams personally for the […]

WASHINGTON — Jill Hruby, outgoing administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the next administration ‘don’t lose the momentum’ in a tell-all on the state of the nuclear enterprise Thursday. “I think, you know, there’s other people saying this as well,” Hruby told the Exchange Monitor after her comments at Washington think tank the […]

WASHINGTON — Brandon Williams, a former one-term congressman from New York’s 22nd district, is President Donald Trump’s (R) pick to head the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Chris Wright, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, told the Exchange Monitor here Wednesday after his confirmation hearing that he picked Williams personally for the […]

WASHINGTON — Brandon Williams, a former one-term congressman from New York’s 22nd district, is President Donald Trump’s (R) pick to head the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. Chris Wright, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, told the Exchange Monitor here Wednesday after his confirmation hearing that he picked Williams personally for the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration completed the last production unit of the B61-12 life extension program in December, the agency said Tuesday. With production complete for the B61-12 life extension program, the press release said, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will now transition to producing the B61-13 gravity bomb, a new, higher-yield variant of […]

Responding to a 2024 article about the weapons potential of fuel used by some advanced reactors, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration last week said the agency aims to evaluate risks of high-assay low enriched uranium. “It is important that U.S. [advanced and small modular reactor (A/SMR)] designs compete favorably in the global […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will by March issue a final request for proposals for managing the Savannah River Site, according to a Dec. 31 notice. The presolicitation synopsis was posted on the government contracting databases sam.gov and FedConnect just before the New Year.  Jill Hruby, outgoing administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration completed the last production unit of the B61-12 life extension program in December, the agency said Tuesday. With production complete for the B61-12 life extension program, the press release said, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will now transition to producing the B61-13 gravity bomb, a new, higher-yield variant of […]

Responding to a 2024 article about the weapons potential of fuel used by some advanced reactors, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration last week said the agency aims to evaluate risks of high-assay low enriched uranium. “It is important that U.S. [advanced and small modular reactor (A/SMR)] designs compete favorably in the global […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will by March issue a final request for proposals for managing the Savannah River Site, according to a Dec. 31 notice. The presolicitation synopsis was posted on the government contracting databases sam.gov and FedConnect just before the New Year.  Jill Hruby, outgoing administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told […]

Department of Energy defense-nuclear programs will keep their 2024 budgets for almost half of fiscal year 2025, under the year’s second continuing resolution, signed into law Saturday. President Joe Biden (D) signed the bill early Saturday, the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, hours after federal funding had technically lapsed under the previous […]

The El Capitan supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will enter the classified network mid-March 2025, senior Livermore officials told the Exchange Monitor Tuesday at a press tour of the site. Sierra, the current Livermore supercomputer on the classified network, will retire when El Capitan takes over, Terri Quinn, the deputy associate director for high […]

Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Exchange Monitor Friday that the U.S. does not need to critically test, even in a new administration. “If it’s based on purely technical considerations, we are confident that we can get the information we need staying subcritical,” Adams said. “We […]

Roger Rocha was appointed president of the prime contractor at Nevada National Security Site effective Monday, the site announced in a press release Monday. Rocha, the interim president since September when his predecessor resigned, now will take responsibility for all activities overseen by the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) at the Nevada National […]

Federal and state agencies on Tuesday said they did not look for a radiation source, since recovered, that went missing in New Jersey earlier this month. Spokespersons for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection all said in emails Tuesday that they did […]

LIVERMORE, Ca. — The W80-4 warhead’s final design reviews are complete and its first production unit is still on track for fiscal year 2027, a senior official at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory official told the Exchange Monitor here Tuesday. “We’re in a phase called production engineering,” Brad Wallin, Livermore’s deputy director for strategic deterrence, […]

MERCURY, Nev. — The next subcritical experiment in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Nimble is scheduled to fire in April, senior officials at the Nevada National Security Site site told the Exchange Monitor Wednesday. The experiment, named Nob Hill, would be the second in the three-shot series of experiments. The first experiment, called Twin Peaks, took […]

LIVERMORE, Ca. — With development of the Sentinel missile largely paused, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory here is doing what “relevant flight testing” it can on the missile’s W87-0 warhead, a senior lab official at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told the Exchange Monitor Tuesday.  “There have not been Sentinel flights associated with it [the […]