Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: November 2025

Nuclear weapons: 

The government shutdown has impact:

https://sourcenm.com/2025/10/22/national-nuclear-security-agency-confirms-furloughs-at-offices-in-albuquerque-los-alamos/

National Nuclear Security Agency confirms 152 furloughed at offices in Albuquerque, Los Alamos

Only 14 employees remain at the two sites By: Danielle Prokop-October 22, 2025

The NNSA confirmed 152 New Mexico employees charged with overseeing national laboratories’ nuclear weapons work were furloughed on Oct. 20, 2025. (Courtesy of NNSA)

The federal government this week sent home more than 150 federal New Mexico employees charged with overseeing national laboratories’ nuclear weapons work, with only 14 employees across two sites remaining at work, the National Nuclear Security Agency confirmed to Source NM.

The furloughs include 71 employees at NNSA’s Los Alamos field office and 81 at the Sandia National Laboratories location, NNSA Deputy Director of Communications Laynee Buckels told Source NM in an email. Seven employees remain at each site, working without pay, she said.

The field offices are responsible for “ensuring compliance with federal contracts to manage and operate the national security assets,” according to the NNSA website

To date there doesn’t appear to be furloughs at LANL, whose employees technically work for a contractor rather than the federal government. Congress is not furloughed, but Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the House out of session. As a result, legislation has come to a screeching halt.

Nuclear weapons testing: Just minutes before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump posted on his Truth Social media platform that “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.” House Speaker Mike Johnson soon followed on CNN saying, “I think it is an obvious and logical thing to ensure that our weapons systems work.”

There is so much wrong with Trump’s statement. Other countries are not testing nuclear weapons (North Korea was the last in 2017). The Department of War does not test, DOE does. But most of all U.S. testing would likely cause all or nearly all nuclear weapons states to resume testing, thereby pouring gas on the already accelerating new nuclear arms race. See our press release at: https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Trump-Orders-Nuclear-Weapons-Testing.pdf

Plutonium pit production: A recent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report on PF-4 makes it clear that LANL and the NNSA prioritize production over safety. Please see our press release at https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/LANL-Prioritizes-Plutonium-Pit-Bomb-Core-Production-Over-Safety.pdf

At the same time, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has lost its Board quorum, thereby substantially crippling it. As I put it in our press release,

“We are facing a perfect storm of expanding plutonium pit production and diminishing oversight by the Safety Board. LANL’s expanding nuclear weapons programs are sucking money from the Lab’s other programs that are truly needed, such as nonproliferation, cleanup and renewable energy research (which is being completely eliminated). NNSA’s prioritization of plutonium pit production for the new nuclear arms race and the erosion of nuclear safety could have disastrous results for northern New Mexico.”

Accelerating Arms Race

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his top officials to draft proposals on possible nuclear weapons testing after U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that the U.S. would resume such tests.

Defence Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that recent remarks and actions by the United States meant that it was “advisable to prepare for full-scale nuclear tests” immediately. Belousov said Russia’s Arctic testing site at Novaya Zemlya could host such tests at short notice.

“I am instructing the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry… the special services and relevant civilian agencies to do everything possible to collect additional information on the issue, analyse it at the Security Council and make agreed proposals on the possible start of work on the preparation of nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said.

What we know about the Poseidon, Russia’s new super torpedo

Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted this week that Russia has tested a nuclear-powered super torpedo, the Poseidon, that was unstoppable and more powerful than a nuclear missile, the second announcement in a week of Russian trials involving nuclear-capable weapons systems… The Poseidon is designed for stealthy underwater travel on its way to destroy critical coastal infrastructure, such as naval stations and ports. At 70 feet long, it’s too large for Russia’s largest submarines and requires its own purpose-built submarine to launch it.

 

Mary Illyushina and Alex Horton | The Washington Post

Read More

China denies Trump’s claim to 60 Minutes about nuclear weapons tests, calls on U.S. to ensure global stability   China’s Foreign Ministry responded on Monday to President Trump’s assertion that Beijing has conducted clandestine nuclear weapons testing with a flat denial… Asked about Mr. Trump’s claims on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters during a press briefing that as a “responsible nuclear-weapons state, China has always … upheld a self-defense nuclear strategy and abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.” Tucker Reals | CBS News