The Challenging Trajectory of Pit Production: Lessons from History to Execute an Accelerated Production Strategy with Sean McDonald - National Institute for Deterrence Studies

When

March 6, 2026

10:00 am – 11:00 am

Where

Details

Join us for a timely discussion with Sean McDonald on the complex history and rapidly evolving future of U.S. pit production. Following the Cold War and the shutdown of Rocky Flats, the nation shifted toward science‑based stockpile stewardship and away from active pit manufacturing. As nuclear weapons aged and national priorities moved toward stockpile reductions and counter‑terrorism, critical production capabilities gradually diminished.

Today, with global geopolitical pressures intensifying, the U.S. faces urgent challenges in rebuilding and accelerating pit production at a pace that can meet emerging national security needs. McDonald will explore the historical link between pit production and geopolitical shifts, highlight recurring obstacles that have hindered previous restart efforts, and examine how the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is adapting its mission execution to respond to modern demands.

Speakers

Peter Huessy

Host of Huessy Seminars, Mr. Peter Huessy is President of his own defense consulting firm, Geostrategic Analysis, founded in 1981, and through 2021, Director of Strategic Deterrent Studies at the Mitchell Institute on Aerospace Studies. He was the senior defense consultant at the National Defense University Foundation for 22 years. He was the National Security Fellow at the AFPC, and Senior Defense Consultant at the Air Force Association from 2011-2016. Mr. Huessy has served as an expert defense and national security analyst for over 50 years, helping his clients cover congressional activities, arms control group efforts, nuclear armed states actions, and US administration nuclear related policy, budgets, and strategies, while monitoring budget and policy developments on nuclear deterrence, ICBM modernization, nuclear arms control, and overall nuclear modernization. He has also covered nuclear terrorism, counterterrorism, immigration, state-sponsored terrorism, missile defense, weapons of mass destruction, especially US-Israeli joint defense efforts, nuclear deterrence, arms control, proliferation, as well as tactical and strategic air, airlift, space and nuclear matters and such state and non-state actors as North Korea, China, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Qaeda. This also includes monitoring activities of think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and other US government departments, as well as projecting future actions of Congress in this area. His specialty is developing and implementing public policy campaigns to secure support for important national security objectives. And analyzing nuclear related technology and its impact on public policy, a study of which he prepared for the Aerospace Corporation in 2019.

Sean McDonald

Sean McDonald is the Senior Advisor for the Integrated Plutonium Program. This position advises NNSA leadership and coordinates decisions on the integrated plutonium program across the Nuclear Security Enterprise. Previously, he was the Senior Technical Advisor for NNSA Defense Programs. Prior to that, he was the program director of the Strategy & Planning office for the associate Laboratory directorate of Weapons Production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In this role, he was responsible for long-term strategic planning and risk management for the $1.5B portfolio, which includes plutonium pits and non-nuclear components. McDonald began his LANL career in 1991 as a graduate research associate, becoming a technical staff member in 1994. He has supported the nation’s weapons program in a variety of ways since then, including as a quality engineer and quality manager for primary detonators and plutonium pits and working with gas transfer systems and neutron generators. He was the program manager for Directed Stockpile Work Production and Readiness, where he managed a $50 million portfolio consisting of detonator production at LANL and neutron tube target loading for neutron generator production at Sandia National Laboratories, Weapons Quality, and the Readiness Campaign. In 2006, McDonald began LANL assignments based in Washington D.C. where he supported nuclear weapons stockpile management and nuclear policy.

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