Salas O’Brien, an international employee-owned engineering and technical services firm, announced Wednesday it is purchasing Los Alamos-based TechSource, a government contractor that does work with the Department of Energy.
“Salas O’Brien has strengthened its ability to deliver solutions for the most complex federal government and infrastructure challenges with the addition of TechSource, a leading scientific and engineering consulting firm serving national security, nuclear, and high‑tech projects across U.S. national laboratories and federal agencies,” Salas O’Brien said in a press release.
Formed in 1997, TechSource has a team of more than 500 engineers and scientists, according to its press release. Salas O’Brien employs nearly 5,000 people worldwide. The California-based company has offices in the United States and overseas, according to its website. No sales price was listed in the release. In addition to DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), TechSource’s customers include Boeing, General Electric, national labs and several large government contractors.
The Congressional Budget Office last week estimated the cost to statutorily rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War to be between “a few million dollars” to $125 million.
The estimated range varies based on how widely the name change “was adopted and how intensively it was applied at each level of the department,” CBO wrote Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.), who sought the estimate.
President Donald Trump last September directed the use of the Department of War as a secondary title for the DoD.
The United States and Slovakia have entered into an intergovernmental agreement to bring new electric generation to the Slovakian civil nuclear program.
The agreement, announced by the U.S. Department of Energy Jan. 16, includes the development of a new state-owned American 1,200-megawatt unit at the Jaslovské Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant. For Slovakia, the agreement assists in efforts to diversify its energy portfolio, strengthen long-term energy security and incorporate American technology into Central Europe’s energy infrastructure, according to the release. Additionally, the deal helps Slovakia move away from Russian-designed reactors and towards a varied nuclear fleet through cooperation with Western partners, DOE said.
“The United States is proud to partner with Slovakia as a trusted ally as we expand cooperation across the energy sector,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said. “Today’s civil nuclear agreement reflects our shared commitment to strengthening European energy security and sovereignty for decades to come.”
The Trump administration has yet to provide Congress with budgetary and other information about the Golden Dome homeland missile defense program as directed, impairing congressional oversight of the multi-billion dollar effort, according to House and Senate conferees for the fiscal year 2026 Defense Appropriations Bill.
In approving the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year with $23 billion for Golden Dome activities, Congress mandated certain budgetary data be provided. Yet congressional appropriators on Monday in an explanatory statement for the 2026 appropriations bill said DoD has not provided them with a “comprehensive master deployment schedule; cost, schedule, and performance metrics; and a finalized system architecture and its components.” Meanwhile, the fiscal 2026 Defense Appropriations Bill agreement was released on Tuesday morning, and the only specific mention of Golden Dome funding in the bill is provision for $50 million within the Air Force’s research and development account for B-2 stealth bomber squadrons for nuclear command, control and communications, and Golden Dome initiatives.
President Donald Trump last January signed an executive order directing the Iron Dome for America—as Golden Dome was first called—and required DoD to submit a plan for building the “next-generation missile defense shield.” Golden Dome is intended to thwart ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and unmanned aircraft systems, some of which could originate from within the U.S.