ARLINGTON, Va. — The director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory said Tuesday he is “confident” the Northern New Mexico nuclear weapons site could help create the low-yield nuclear warheads the Donald Trump administration requested in the Nuclear Posture Review released in early February.
“Again, I go out on a branch, but I know from our nuclear weapons experts if we had the right box to put around that, we’re confident we could do that,” Terry Wallace said in a question-and-answer session following his presentation to the ExchangeMonitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
The Nuclear Posture Review the Pentagon released earlier this month calls for developing two new low-yield warheads, one or both of which might be submarine-launched. The first of the two would be a low-yield warhead for existing Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Then-acting NNSA Steve Erhart confirmed this week the new submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead would be a modified W76: the same warhead used on the current generation of Trident missiles. NNSA could dial the warhead’s yield back by removing the thermonuclear weapon’s secondary stage, Erhart said. However, the design is not yet official NNSA policy and may need approval by Congress.
Wallace, a longtime manager at the lab, took over as director of LANL and president of LANL prime contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) on Jan. 1. He replaced longtime lab Director Charles McMillan and is expected to serve only until LANS’ contract expires — currently scheduled for Sept. 30.
The Department of Energy expects to award a follow-on contract to LANS’ expiring management pact in April or May. Asked about his subsequent career plans, Wallace dodged, saying he was focused on supporting the transition to the new contractor:“After that time I’ll decide whether a Wal-Mart desk works for me.”
