President-elect Donald J. Trump has chosen Brandon Williams, a former naval officer and one-term congressman, to be the custodian of the nation's arsenal of thousands of nuclear bombs and warheads.
Mr. Trump's selection is a departure from the tradition in which the person who served as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration usually had deep technological roots or experience in the nation's nuclear complex. What is not publicly known is the extent of Mr. Williams' experience in the complex problems of how weapons work and how to maintain reliability for decades without igniting.
Terry C. Wallace Jr., former director of the Los Alamos Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico, expressed surprise at Trump's selection.
Dr. Wallace said he had “never met or spoken to” Mr. Williams, and based on his own decades of work in and around nuclear facilities, he believed that Mr. He characterized it as having “very limited experience” in the field.
Hans M. Christensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said Williams “will be faced with an incredibly complex and technical task.”
Williams did not respond to a request for comment about Trump's selection or qualifications.
The quality and credibility of whoever becomes NNSA's new leader will be under intense scrutiny, as Trump's advisers have suggested the incoming administration may propose resuming domestic nuclear testing. May be exposed. The move was technically and politically difficult, and the U.S.'s insistence on a global test ban that sought to end decades of costly and destabilizing arms races. will put an end to it.
Williams, a Republican, represented New York's 22nd Congressional District, an area of upstate New York that includes the cities of Syracuse and Utica, from 2023 until early this year. He lost to the Democratic Party in the November election.
Mr. Williams joined the U.S. Navy in 1991 and served as an officer on the nuclear submarine Georgia before retiring as a lieutenant in 1996.
In his Congressional career, Williams said he successfully transitioned into nuclear engineer training during his naval career, calling it a “very steep learning curve” encountered “despite great challenges.” called “curve”. The program is widely considered to be one of the most demanding programs in the U.S. military.
Trump announced his selection as the nation's nuclear weapons czar in a social media post Thursday morning, calling Williams a “successful businessman and former U.S. Navy officer who served as a nuclear submarine officer and strategic missile officer.” “Veterans.” ”
According to his Congressional bio, Williams is currently working on software that helps major industrial manufacturers modernize their production plants, protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, and pave the way to lower emissions through advances in artificial intelligence. A company was established.
Chris Wright, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Energy, a Cabinet-level post that oversees NNSA, described Williams as a “smart, passionate person who wants to protect our country and make things better,” according to the interview. ” Wednesday on the website Exchange Monitor.
Williams' lengthy 2022 profile described him as a millionaire who begins his morning reading a Bible verse. After high school, Williams attended Baylor University, a private Christian school in Waco, Texas, and then transferred to Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, the newspaper reported.
His Congressional biography says he earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Pepperdine University and then an MBA from the Wharton School, a weapon that would land him in a senior position in the country's nuclear power industry. This is in contrast to the advanced degrees in physics or engineering often found on developer resumes. Complicated.
Outgoing National Nuclear Security Administration Director Jill Looby stands in sharp contrast to Williams in terms of her technical background and nuclear experience. Prior to her appointment to this position in 2021, she spent 34 years at Sandia National Laboratories, retiring as director in 2017. After training, she became a mechanical engineer.
Sandia is one of three nuclear weapons laboratories in the country, and its headquarters are in Albuquerque. It is responsible for the non-nuclear part of the country's arsenal of atomic bombs and warheads.
Other NNSA administrators have backgrounds in scientific fields related to national security, nuclear operations, military, and nuclear technology. The first was an Air Force general and former deputy director of the CIA.
NNSA's overall responsibilities include the design, manufacture, and maintenance of the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons. Provide nuclear power plants to the Navy. and promote global nuclear safety and non-proliferation. The agency operates a vast base in Nevada, larger than Rhode Island, where the U.S. tested underground weapons at the end of the Cold War.
Dr. Wallace, a former Los Alamos director, said he has followed Mr. Trump's search for agency leaders and found that “every candidate is going to pitch for reopening.” He added: “This is more or less a disqualification for a recent director of a nuclear weapons research institute.”
Many experts believe a restart is unnecessary given the depth and breadth of the nation's non-explosive testing program, which NNSA conducts at a cost of approximately $10 billion annually. Experts argue that the program's decades of analysis have deepened our understanding of nuclear weapons and made us more confident in their reliability than in the days of explosives.
Dr. Wallace said Mr. Trump was supported in his hunt for a nuclear czar by Robert C. O'Brien, who served as national security adviser from 2019 to 2021. Mr. O'Brien, a lawyer, argued in Foreign Affairs magazine last year. The U.S. government “must test new nuclear weapons to ensure their reliability and safety in the real world,” he said. He added that the newly tested weapons would serve as a deterrent against China and Russia.
Republicans have long criticized the ban on testing and advocated reinstating testing. Democratic President Bill Clinton signed the agreement in 1996, but suffered a landslide defeat in 1999 when the Senate refused to ratify the Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty.
Despite the treaty's defeat, successive governments have informally complied with the terms of the testing ban. This position began to receive criticism during Trump's first administration.
In 2018, the Pentagon declared that “the United States must be prepared to resume nuclear testing.” John R. Bolton, who served as Trump's national security adviser from 2018 to 2019, has reportedly advocated for a restart, but little progress has been made.
In 2020, when O'Brien was national security adviser, the Trump administration reportedly discussed whether to detonate a nuclear test in a meeting with national security agencies.
Opponents of restarting believe that non-nuclear testing is more than enough to ensure the reliability of the weapon. “We're more confident today than we were when we stopped explosives testing,” Victor H. Reis, the program's architect, said in an interview.
Former Los Alamos director Siegfried S. Hecker argued that a restart would likely start a chain reaction of tests among the world's nuclear powers, perhaps even among the so-called critical states. Like Iran, they are believed to be close to being able to build a bomb.
Dr. Hecker pointed out that during the Cold War, China conducted 45 explosive tests, France 210, Russia 715, and the United States 1,030. He said China, which has rebuilt its nuclear testing base in recent years, has strong incentives to design and detonate a new generation of nuclear weapons. He argued that the weapon could make expanding missile forces more lethal.
Dr Hecker added: “China has much more to gain from resuming testing than we do.”
