The FY 2011 budget request will be released on Monday, February 1, 2010. The Obama administration has laid out an aggressive nonproliferation agenda that includes deep reductions in nuclear stockpiles, ratification of a nuclear test ban, and decreased prominence for nuclear weapons in US defense policy. Despite this agenda, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) budget request will ask Congress to significantly increase nuclear weapons activities, including funding for construction of new facilities that will expand U.S. warhead production capacity. The DOE request will not reflect recent independent scientific conclusions that existing nuclear weapons can be reliably maintained for decades under current, well-established programs.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a national network representing communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear weapons facilities, is concerned that increased funding for nuclear energy and weapons research and production will rob precious resources for needed environmental cleanup and clean, sustainable energy solutions.
Items of interest:
The nuclear weapons activities budget will have a significant increase. DOE will ask for a $700 million (10%) increase in weapons activities. According to a recent administration internal memo, the Department of Defense has agreed to contribute $145 million of this increase for nuclear weapons surveillance. There will be significant increases for science and engineering campaigns.
There will be significant budget increases for construction of new U.S. nuclear weapons production facilities. Despite the groundbreaking report from the JASON group of scientists that plutonium pits last a century or more, funding for Los Alamos’s Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility for direct support of plutonium pit production will likely dramatically increase from last year’s $95 million. Similarly, the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 production plant near Oak Ridge, TN, designed for expanded production of new uranium “secondaries” for warheads, will see a big increase in funding. Instead of new production facilities, money is needed to support expanding dismantlement capabilities in light of a pending agreement with Russia to cut the existing stockpile.
The nuclear nonproliferation budget will increase, but not all of it is for nonproliferation. The Administration will ask for a 26% increase in spending for nuclear nonproliferation programs. A large part of the funding in this category continues to be the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant at the Savannah River Site, a facility that poses a unique proliferation threat as it would introduce nuclear reactor fuel containing weapons-grade plutonium into commerce. Increases in the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which includes securing fissile materials, and returning Highly-Enriched Uranium to the U.S., would be welcomed.
Funding for all Life Extension Programs, including the B-61 nuclear gravity bomb, is likely to increase significantly. Facing stiff opposition to programs for newly designed warheads like the Reliable Replacement Warhead, Congress authorized the stockpile management program. This program could be used to create new or significantly modified nuclear warhead designs within existing Life Extension Programs. The first warhead to be extended under this program will be the B-61, which is currently deployed in Europe. The Life Extension Program for the B-61 has been controversial because many European nations have indicated they no longer want the warheads in their countries.
Funding for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) will not decrease, despite construction being declared complete. Expect the budget detail to show significant construction and development activities continuing into FY2011. Additionally, expect that "ignition" at the NIF will be further redefined to the much lower bar of "ignition experiments" – and expect the ignition experiments to be delayed to the late FY2011/FY2012 timeframe, despite the fact that ignition had been promised originally in 2003. The budget numbers do not present complete costs according to a DOE internal report stating that at least 20% of NIF’s total costs have been hidden in other programs.
Funding will likely be provided to address long-standing Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) safety concerns at Los Alamos, which lab managers have yet to adequately address. DNFSB continues to report major deficiencies at the Plutonium Facility with regard to possible seismic accidents. The Board stated that LANL’s planned seismic upgrades rely inappropriately on safety systems that will not be implemented for many years and are not sufficient to adequately address the potential seismic accident scenarios.
Funding for the new Kansas City Plant will be omitted from the budget due to an accounting gimmick. In 2010 DOE plans to break ground on a new privately financed weapons production facility for non-nuclear components of nuclear warheads. This unneeded facility will cost taxpayers at least $1.2 billion in off-budget lease payments over the next 20 years.
Funding for nuclear weapons cleanup will be insufficient to meet legally required environmental obligations. Despite receiving $6 billion in ARRA funding, the Environmental Management program is still decades behind in meeting its obligations and billions of dollars short of the estimated $200 billion needed.
Will the Environmental Management (EM) budget request contain performance metrics for base funding and ARRA money? Performance metrics for base funding have been previously included in the annual budget request. The ARRA funds and performance metrics should also be included for the new request so that Congress and the public can understand the required funding and performance metrics for all of EM’s work. This is consistent with the transparency and accountability commitments made by the Obama Administration.
Hanford High-Level Waste Tanks are still leaking and under funded. DOE is seeking to extend the deadlines for emptying Hanford’s Single Shell Tanks by 22 years to the year 2040. DOE claims that retrieval of these wastes is a top priority, yet is not matching rhetoric with funding to complete the task earlier.
With Yucca Mountain declared “dead”, will funding be terminated? President Obama has promised to terminate Yucca Mountain as a geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste. White House Budget Director, Peter Orszag proposed cutting $46 million from Yucca funding, Energy Secretary Chu wrote back opposing this cut. DOE continues to push for R&D into reprocessing of commercial reactor fuel, a process that poses a proliferation risk as it would separate plutonium and magnifies the nuclear waste problem with numerous new liquid and solid waste streams.
Local Contacts
Scott Yundt, Staff Attorney, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment
Livermore, CA – (925) 443-7148
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