we should all recognize the accomplishments of nnsa in 2024. [applause] i will start my comments by discussing the current global environment and its impact on our mission. then i will go through accomplishments in detail and updates over the last year that demonstrate how we are adapting and tackling the changing landscape. this hat -- as has been the case for several years, we are confronted by an international security lengths tape -- international nuclear security landscape with overlapping challenges. i often say these are unprecedented times. not since the cold war have we had seven simultaneous weapons programs and not since the manhattan project have we so fundamentally overhauled our infrastructure. combining the two together is surely unprecedented. the global nuclear environment remains dynamic with a mix of long-standing and novel challenges. russia maintains the world's largest nuclear arsenal and has lowered the threshold on nuclear use. at the same time, china represents a unique long-term challenge for nnsa. although there nucle

we should all recognize the accomplishments of nnsa in 2024. [applause] i will start my comments by discussing the current global environment and its impact on our mission. then i will go through accomplishments in detail and updates over the last year that demonstrate how we are adapting and tackling the changing landscape. this hat -- as has been the case for several years, we are confronted by an international security lengths tape -- international nuclear security landscape with overlapping challenges. i often say these are unprecedented times. not since the cold war have we had seven simultaneous weapons programs and not since the manhattan project have we so fundamentally overhauled our infrastructure. combining the two together is surely unprecedented. the global nuclear environment remains dynamic with a mix of long-standing and novel challenges. russia maintains the world's largest nuclear arsenal and has lowered the threshold on nuclear use. at the same time, china represents a unique long-term challenge for nnsa. although there nucle

he worked with nnsa, we made a big deal who worked with nnsa to get our salaries aligned with what the market would provide. worked on benefits. i will talk about one in a minutes. back to the work to implement trying to move some of these death by a thousand cuts that are happening, and how difficult it was to get things done at the laboratory. and i'm happy to say now, our attrition numbers are less than they were pre-covid. and in hot fields, like you would never believe people with ai experience would be willing to even work for market conditions, we can negotiate with nnsa, our attrition number is less than 1%. and they get to work on machine learning and ai to actually help with nuclear deterrence. we've got things like creating bots that are design experts, working at making everything procurement to training more efficient for engineers and scientists. the one thing that blew us away that nnsa allowed to negotiate our benefits is two floating holidays. i thought, that's great. always like to have a couple extra days off. and turned out that was a huge deal to our employees. bec

in keeping with our objective to strengthen international partnerships, on material reduction, nnsa partnered with japan to convert the first of two reactor cores at kyoto's university critical assembly from highly enriched uranium to halu following a decade-long effort. finally, last year we eliminated more than 75 devices at home and abroad that contain high activity radioactive materials. this permanently reduces proliferation and nuclear terrorists by preventing those materials from falling into the wrong hands. -- recapitalize ends infrastructure in the naval nuclear propulsion p >> we are going to break away from this from this point that you can watch this program anytime if you go to our website. live now to hearing on permanently as defined internal as a schedule one drug. substances that have no accepted medical use in a high abuse potential, fentanyl's current temporary classification is set to expire at the end of march. you are watching live coverage on c-span 3. >> including parents of kids who have tragically died from fentanyl poisoning as well as law enforcement officers who