The Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act is now in the hands of the full House of Representatives after a late-night vote by the Rules Committee slashed allowable amendments to 209 from a record 1,502.
Approved at 11 p.m. Tuesday by a nine to four vote split on party lines, the bill ended up with a few additions pertaining to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) defense activities, including detection of nuclear explosions outside the U.S. and deployment of microreactors for defense purposes.
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) successfully offered an amendment to officially appoint the NNSA as the interagency lead on nuclear forensics, “making NNSA responsible for integrating the National Technical Nuclear Forensics (NTNF) activities in a consistent, unified strategic direction.”
“The majority of our nuclear forensics analytic capabilities, including the technical expertise, the infrastructure, all reside within the [Department of Energy] national laboratories, and while many agencies have a peripheral role, it is only NNSA within DOE that works across every aspect of nuclear forensics and understands the very classified details of our weapons designs and the weapons designs of our of our enemies,” Foster said in defense of his amendment.
Another of Foster’s amendments, also made in order, calls for an assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, coordinating with the Director of National Intelligence, of the U.S. ability to detect and monitor supercritical nuclear weapons tests conducted at very low yields. The amendment does not specify what magnitude of explosion constitutes a “very-low yield” but points fingers at the Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site in Russia and the Lop Nor nuclear test site in China.
Rep. John Garamendi’s (D-Calif.) amendment eliminating the requirement that the NNSA produce at least 30 war reserve plutonium pits per year “during 2026” and 80 pits “during 2030,” was not in order. Garamendi sought to give the NNSA administrator a chance to reach the milestones ‘‘during a period that the Administrator for Nuclear Security determines technically achievable and cost-effective.” It was the second time the dovish Garamendi failed to amend the bill this way since debate began in the Armed Services Committee.
Meanwhile, an amendment offered by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) that made it into the House NDAA codifies congressional support for Project Pele, a program headed by the Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office to develop, demonstrate and deploy a portable nuclear microreactor “to bolster American national security and reduce fuel-related logistical challenges.”
While the U.S. has long powered its submarines and aircraft carriers with nuclear reactors, Congress is now interested in deploying micro-reactors to reduce the fuel logistics burden for other military services, including the Army and Space Force.
Another of Donalds’ amendments would have the Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the National Guard, develop a strategy for deploying microreactors that could provide power in the wake of natural disasters like hurricanes.
Donalds also successfully offered an amendment requiring the Space Force to submit a report on its plans for using nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion to power space vehicles and “how these nuclear-powered space vehicles can bolster America’s national security.”
Yet another of Donalds’ amendments to the bill calls for an assessment of how advanced nuclear reactors can improve domestic and international military operations while reducing fuel-related logistical challenges.
