A disconnect between the designs being developed for the B61 Life Extension Program and available budgets posed a significant threat to the program in 2011, according to a newly released National Nuclear Security Administration document. Life extension options developed by Sandia National Laboratories “significantly exceeded the President’s budget” and earlier estimates, it was revealed in the NNSA’s Fiscal Year 2011 Sandia Performance Evaluation Report, released to NW&M Monitor under the Freedom of Information Act.
The disconnect between design plans and budgetary reality “places the B61 LEP at risk and may impact the overall commitment and the schedules to subsequent life extension programs,” the authors of the Sandia PER concluded in the heavily redacted report. Sandia Corp., the Lockheed Martin-run entity that manages the lab for the NNSA, received 85.3 percent of its at-risk fee ($8.5 million out of $9.9 million) and a total of $27.0 million for managing the lab in FY2011. The Sandia PER can be viewed in its entirety along with PERs from the NNSA’s other seven sites by clicking here.
