FORMER NNSA CHIEF: FISCAL AUSTERITY WILL FORCE RESTRAINT ON LEPS

Future approaches to extending the lives of the nation’s nuclear warheads are likely to be restrained in their scope in the wake of the challenges faced by the National Nuclear Security Administration to contain costs on the B61 refurbishment, the former head of the agency said yesterday. Estimates to refurbish the B61 bomb have reached as high as $10 billion, even as some safety and security features have been dialed back, and former NNSA chief Linton Brooks said yesterday during a speech at the American Security Project that the future would likely bring more of the same. With the B61, “there were those who said this is our last chance to see these weapons for a very long time … and things to make it safer and more reliable, we should put those in,” Brooks said. “That proved in some cases to be unaffordable. I think we’ve learned, the nuclear community, has learned the lesson.” Brooks suggested that in the future, financial pressure would force restraint when it comes to life extension work. “These are extraordinarily safe weapons now and you look at the entire system, they’re extraordinarily secure so I think that the community is unlikely to spend lots of money to add some more decimal points to safety and security,” Brooks said. “There is this bias for let’s make it as good as we can. I think money is in the process of trumping that big time over the next couple years.”