Christoph Koettl | New York Times
New security features and other upgrades at a munitions depot in central Belarus reveal that Russia is building facilities there that could house nuclear warheads. If Russia does move weapons to this location, it would mark the first time it has stored them outside the country since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Timothy Gardner | Reuters
President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian enriched uranium on Monday, the White House said, in the latest effort by Washington to disrupt President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns.
Alia Shoaib | Newsweek
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country would be open to hosting U.S. nuclear weapons if war breaks out, becoming the second NATO country to make similar statements in recent weeks. Kristersson told Swedish public broadcaster P1 Morgon that the deployment of nuclear weapons would not be allowed during peacetime, but that the situation would be different in wartime.
João da Silva | BBC
US President Joe Biden has ordered a Chinese-owned cryptocurrency miner and its partners to sell land they own near a US nuclear missile base, citing spying concerns. MineOne Partners, which the White House says is majority-owned by Chinese citizens, has been given 120 days to sell the property, where it runs a crypto-mining operation. The land is less than a mile (1.6km) away from an air force base in Wyoming, where intercontinental ballistic missiles are stored.
Bryant Harris | Defense News
The draft legislation includes restrictions that prevent the downsizing of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It retains language that has hindered the Biden administration’s prior efforts to retire the B83 nuclear gravity bomb, which is at least 80 times more powerful than the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. The bill would also require the military to deploy at least 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The bill would allow the military to develop an alternative warhead for the sea-launched cruise missile nuclear program, which Congress formally institutionalized last year over objections from the Biden administration. It also prevents the retirement of the W76-2 warhead unless the Pentagon certifies that Russia and China do not possess similar capabilities.
Sharon Weiner | Scientific American
Bipartisanship seems rare in Congress these days. But one place to consistently find agreement between Democrats and Republicans is support for modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal—currently numbering almost 5,000 nuclear warheads, plus the triad of missiles, submarines and bombers to deliver them…Supporting nuclear modernization at any price is neither necessary nor affordable. Instead, Congress needs to improve, and be held accountable for, fiscal oversight of the nuclear arsenal.