The National Nuclear Security Administration is looking for sea transport of nuclear materials from east Asia, according to a solicitation posted Friday on a government contracting database.
Offers are due August 16, and work would be done within two years of the solicitation, according to an unclassified statement of work appended to the solicitation.
The Senate Appropriations committee passed their version of a $852 billion 2025 defense budget bill.
Under the bill, the Navy’s nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile program would get $252 million above the White House’s request. The Senate would also give $500 million to the Navy’s next-generation fighter aircraft program, and $200 million for industrial base risk reduction and prototyping for the Air Force’s Sentinel program, according to a bill summary posted online Thursday.
The House passed its version of the 2025 defense appropriations bill in June, which would give $831 billion, $21 billion less than the Senate would give, to defense programs.
Jim Breuer, currently president of Fluor’s Energy Solutions group, becomes Fluor’s chief operating officer effective Monday, Aug. 5, CEO David Constable said during an earnings call Friday.
As chief operating officer, Breuer will report directly to Constable, and will oversee the company’s three business lines, including Mission Solutions, where the international engineering and construction company directs its Department of Energy weapons complex work. The COO job is a newly-created post at Fluor, a spokesperson said Friday by email.
According to his bio, Breuer has more than 30 years of industry experience and was previously president of the downstream business within Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals group.
U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, met with Japanese officials in Tokyo to discuss “extended deterrence” in the first ministerial meeting between the two countries.
According to Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, Austin said in the meeting that the bilateral relationship between the two countries, specifically one of “extended deterrence,” was “more important than ever,” adding that China, Russia, and North Korea are focusing on nuclear capabilities and thereby “threatening global security.”
“By holding discussions centered on extended deterrence, we can expect a further synergistic effect toward strengthening the deterrence of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” Japanese defense minister Minoru Kihara said at the meeting.
Media reported that North Korea could test a nuclear weapon in November, around the time of the U.S. presidential election, citing an interview with South Korean defense minister Shin Won-sik.
“North Korea has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test when a decision is made,” Won-sik said. “We cannot rule out the possibility of that decisive moment being right before or after the US presidential election to raise its leverage against the US.”
North Korea last tested a nuclear device seven years ago, specifically its “most powerful atomic bomb,” according to Bloomberg that was citing an institute based in Seoul.
Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security, the outgoing prime contractor for the NNSA’s Pantex Plant, raised over $100,000 in its local fundraising effort for wildfire relief in Amarillo, Texas, the company said this week.
“There has been an outpouring of Panhandle pride and spirit through donations, volunteer efforts, and assistance coming in from all over the area and across the state,” Colby Yeary, Pantex site manager, said in a press release. “We wanted to show our own support to our communities in need through our own fundraising efforts.”
The panhandle area surrounding Pantex experienced wildfires in March, causing a temporary shutdown for the nuclear-weapons assembly hub.
