KEY SENATE REPUBLICAN SIGNALS OPENNESS TO NNSA PU STRATEGY

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee appeared to open the door yesterrday to changes by the Obama Administration in its plans to modernize the nuclear weapons stockpile and arsenal. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the panel, has been among the most outspoken critics of the Administration’s modernization pullback, which Republicans have suggested was highlighted by the deferral of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility a year ago. The Senate and House Armed Services committees have opposed the deferral and a $120 million reprogramming request tied to an alternate plutonium strategy, but Sessions said during a hearing yesterday that he’d be open to a “modular” approach that has been proposed by the Administration as a potentially cheaper alternative to meet the nation’s plutonium needs. “Modernizing effectively our nuclear weapons arsenal is essential, it’s the right thing to do, and it’s not too much money to spend if it’s necessary but I would be willing to listen to the ideas you have for modular or other things and I think I would examine them carefully to see if we think those are feasible and would not result in further delays and uncertainties in this program,” Sessions said. “I am sure the [subcommittee] chairman [Sen. Mark Udall] and I would be delighted to have more information on it. That’s my firm view; that we need to be on track with this. I suspect we might be able to do it less expensive, and if so, I will be supportive of that.”