Top generals with the U.S. Air Force on May 12 reaffirmed their call for continued modernization and recapitalization of the country’s nuclear capabilities.
“We must modernize our aging delivery platforms, nuclear weapons and supporting infrastructure so that America’s deterrent remains credible and effective in the future,” Gen. David Goldfein, the service’s chief of staff, and Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, wrote in a May 12 editorial in Politico Magazine.
The two officers cited the modernization and expansion of the United States’ adversaries’ nuclear capabilities as a key reason to support upgrades to U.S. nuclear forces. They said a reliable nuclear arsenal is also necessary to deter large-scale conventional war.
Goldfein and Rand highlighted the aging two Air Force legs of the U.S. nuclear triad: the decades-old intercontinental ballistic missiles, ICBM launch, and weapon storage facilities; and the bomber and air-launched cruise missile forces. All three legs of the triad are undergoing long-term upgrades at an estimated cost of approximately $1 trillion over 30 years.
Modernization of the nuclear deterrent would cost roughly 5 percent of the overall Defense Department budget in the coming 10 years, the generals said. “While not an insignificant bill, history has shown the nation’s outlays supporting our strategic deterrent are well worth the investment, especially when compared to the costs—financial and in lives lost—of world wars that we have not experienced since 1945,” they said.
The Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories came in at No. 20 in Forbes Magazine’s 2017 ranking of the best employers in the United States.
Forbes compiled its list based on surveys of 30,000 American workers who were asked how likely they were to recommend their employer to others. “Those results were the most important factor in determining a company’s ranking on this list,” the magazine said. The list of the United States’ 500 best large employers – those with at least 5,000 workers – was published in the magazine’s May 16 issue.
Costco Wholesale took the No. 1 spot, followed by Google and REI. Sandia was sandwiched between Genentech and SAS; it was also the top aerospace and defense entity on the list.
“Congratulations & thanks, as always, for your extraordinary service in protecting our great nation! Everyone in NNSA is very proud of you!” Frank Klotz, head of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees Sandia, said Friday on Twitter.
The Sandia National Laboratories has more than 10,000 employees in several locations – primarily in Albuquerque, N.M. – and operates on an annual budget of nearly $3 billion for its core mission of research and development to ensure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
“We are honored and thrilled to be on the Forbes’ Best Employers list,” Rob Nelson, Sandia’s director of human resources, said in an emailed statement. “I think we have an amazing opportunity at Sandia to connect the really great people who work here with meaningful and impactful national security work. I think our employees appreciate working on tough problems with other top scientists and engineers while also being able to have work-life balance because that’s Sandia’s culture.”
A Honeywell subsidiary this month took over as the laboratory’s management and operations contractor, ending Lockheed Martin’s tenure at the site.
The Department of Energy ranked at No. 273 among Forbes’ top employers, 46 spots behind the State Department and nine ahead of the Department of Defense.
The government of Kazakhstan, aided by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, on May 12 opened a nuclear security training center in the town of Alatau, the NNSA announced Monday.
The center is intended for the training of local and international personnel from various nuclear facilities and organizations in “advanced nuclear security topics,” including physical protection, nuclear material accounting and control, response forces, and secure transportation, according to an agency press release.
The NNSA noted that Kazakhstan announced at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit its plan to open such a center, which the U.S. agency then helped design and construct. The NNSA is now assisting the center’s staff in developing a curriculum, it said.
Alatau, located in the Almaty region, hosts the country’s Institute of Nuclear Physics for nuclear physics and nuclear technology development.
Kazakhstan is also home to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s low-enriched uranium fuel bank, which is set to open this August as an LEU reserve that IAEA member states may use in the event that they cannot otherwise obtain nuclear fuel.
