The man who would lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons branch, better than a $10-billion-a-year portfolio that includes the some of nation’s most sensitive and secret defense work, drew barely any attention Thursday in a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing.
The exception was Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who warned Charles Verdon that if confirmed he will be setting his foot in what Heinrich considers a plutonium quagmire.
The lawmaker effectively scooped DOE on the agency’s announcement later in the day that it planned to split production of plutonium pits — fissile cores for nuclear warheads — between the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
“Dr. Verdon, you’ve been nominated to a position that will be responsible for this program, and you and the NNSA need to know that this ill-conceived plan defies logic on all counts, and I believe will be rejected,” Henrich said from the dais.
Heinrich has regularly lambasted DOE for what he says was a faulty evaluation last year in favor of moving some pit production to Savannah River. However, he did not say that he would oppose Verdon’s nomination.
Verdon’s confirmation hearing happened about two-and-a-half months after the White House on Feb. 27 nominated the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory executive to lead the NNSA’s defense programs office. On Thursday, committee leaders commented on his fitness for the job.
If approved by the committee and subsequently confirmed on the Senate floor, Verdon will become the NNSA’s deputy administrator for defense programs. The committee will vote on whether to send Verdon’s nomination to the floor in a separate business meeting, which was not scheduled at press time Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
Verdon would fill a vacancy left by Philip Calbos, the office’s current No. 2. Calbos was the acting deputy administrator for part of 2017 but had to step aside because of federal laws that limit the time interim office heads may serve in positions that require Senate confirmation.
Verdon, a Ph.D nuclear engineer, is now principal associate director at Livermore’s weapons and complex integration directorate, in charge of the lab’s weapons activities. Livermore designs warheads and runs experiments to help ensure warhead potency without resorting to nuclear detonations.
The NNSA’s defense programs division manages the agency’s nuclear weapons work, including warhead life-extension programs.
