A State Department spokesperson said in a press briefing this week that despite comments made by an Iranian official last week on Iran’s nuclear doctrine, the Joe Biden (D) administration assesses that the Islamic Republic is not building a nuclear weapon.
The spokesperson was responding to a reporter’s question on Monday about a reported statement last week by a senior Iranian official and adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The advisor said that if Iran is threatened, particularly by Israel, the country will be forced to change its nuclear doctrine.
In Monday’s press briefing, the State spokesperson said the department believes Iran has not resumed the weaponization program it suspended in 2003. “President Biden, Secretary Blinken will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, period,” the spokesperson said.
The Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, recently launched a weather tracking mobile app called StrikeNet to help the public track weather conditions across the Texas Panhandle, according to a press release from the site prime contractor.
Pantex meteorologist Steve Kersh is working with private landowners and school districts to address Texas weather patterns by refurbishing weather stations in the area with new technology. Additionally, the app and website themselves include a drop-down menu for different maps and symbols for different weather types.
“Enhancing capabilities that track weather events to specific locations using our newly developed sensors is a huge step forward for the site and our surrounding area,” Colby Yeary, Pantex site manager, said in the press release by plant prime Consolidated Nuclear Security. Pantex employs about 4,500 people, according to the prime.
Karen Thole, a former research engineer for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will serve as the new Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan starting August 1, the university said in a press release.
Thole worked specifically for the Nuclear Test and Engineering Division of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She also served as the department head and University Distinguished Professor of Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering until 2021.
Rick Christensen, formerly the National Security Council director for nuclear threat reduction and counterterrorism, will become director of the Office of Nuclear Incident Response in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation (NA-80), according to an internal email seen by the Monitor.
Christensen joined NNSA in 2008 as part of the Future Leaders Program. He also served as the deputy director and chief of the Nuclear Counterterrorism Technical Program for NA-80’s Office of Nuclear Threat Science, where he coordinated NNSA’s response capabilities and development efforts.
Also this week, the Department of Energy announced Jessica Lee took over as head of congressional affairs for the NNSA. Lee joined the DOE nuclear-weapons agency this winter.
The prime contractor for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada National Security Site extended the deadline for a request for information from potential underground construction contractors until May 31, according to an updated request published Thursday online.
Last week, NNSS published a request for information on potential mid- to large-sized contractors’ capabilities to provide construction management and materials for the ZEUS Test Bed Facility project underground at the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation at the site’s U1a Complex. Deadline for responses has been extended two weeks, from May 16 originally.
NASCAR driver Cam Waters will debut an AUKUS-themed livery on his car at Sonoma Raceway when he debuts in the Cup Series.
The RFK Racing X account posted a picture of Waters’s car on Wednesday.
Obituary
Camille Minichino, a physicist who worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, died on May 6, according to an obituary posted online this week. She was 87 and died after a brief illness, according to the obituary.
Minichino received a Ph.D. in physics in 1968 from Fordham University in New York City. She then worked at Livermore for 30 years, where she provided technical support to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and worked with high-temperature and high-pressure physics.
