The federal agency that oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile recommended Thursday that the production of the plutonium cores that trigger nuclear warheads be split between South Carolina and New Mexico. Officials said the plan will boost the resiliency and flexibility of weapons manufacturing by not relying on a single site.
Post & Courier 11th May 2018 read more »
SOFREP 12th May 2018 read more »
The Trump administration is pulling the plug on a South Carolina facility designed to convert weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel that the U.S. government has already spent billions to partially build. Even though construction will end, the Trump administration wants to spend billions more to wind down the project and retrofit the plant for a new mission, namely, the production of triggers for nuclear weapons. The decision marks the culmination of a years-long effort by both the Trump and Obama administrations to end construction of the plant, actions that the South Carolina delegation in Congress blocked, preserving a source of jobs and federal funding in their districts.
Washington Post 11th May 2018 read more »
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has formally ended construction of a facility meant to reprocess weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for reactors, a key element in the nation’s longstanding efforts to contain the global nuclear threat. Perry executed a waiver on Thursday to terminate construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Business Insider 12th May 2018 read more »
Inside the Pentagon’s cyberwarfare unit, analysts have been closely monitoring internet traffic out of Iran. Six thousand miles away, Israel’s elite cyber intelligence Unit 8200 has been running war games in anticipation of Iranian strikes on Israeli computer networks. Government and private-sector cybersecurity experts in the United States and Israel worry that President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal this week will lead to a surge in retaliatory cyberattacks from Iran.
New York Times 11th May 2018 read more »
