Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
5/22/2015
The National Nuclear Security Administration would receive a total of $8.9 billion for weapons activities under the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of committee this week. The bill would provide a $35.4 million increase from the NNSA’s budget request and $670 million more than current levels. The bill would provide $1.3 billion for life extension programs and major alterations, which would match NNSA’s request. “NNSA needs to ensure that Life Extension Programs are completed on time and on budget to prevent impact on other high priorities, such as modernizing aging infrastructure, critical nonproliferation activities to combat nuclear terrorism, and naval nuclear propulsion,” says the committee report accompanying the bill.
Bill Matches NNSA Request for B61 LEP
Within the funding provided for life extension programs, the bill would match the Administration’s $643.3 million request for B61 life extension and its $244 million request for W76 life extension, which the report states is the “Committee’s highest priority for life extension programs.” The bill would also match NNSA’s $220.2 million request to replace the arming, fuzing and firing system in the W88 warhead, a $54.8 million increase from FY 2015.
The bill would provide $74.1 million less than the President’s FY 2016 request of $939.3 million for stockpile services, and would direct NNSA to plan for two subcritical experiments per year “to ensure that the laboratories actively participating in life extension efforts are involved in critical peer review and to realize shorter cycle times in providing nuclear weapon designers needed experimental data,” the Committee report states. NNSA currently conducts one of these experiments every 18 months at the Nevada National Security Site, but the report notes that life extension efforts may require more participation, and “therefore, likely increased frequency of experiments.”
UPF Request Would be Fully Funded
In addition, the bill would largely match NNSA’s request of approximately $1.05 billion for the Readiness in Technical Base and Facilities activities. Within that funding, $430 million would be provided for the Uranium Processing Facility planned for the Y-12 National Security Complex, matching NNSA’s request. “The Committee expects the Secretary to ensure full compliance with the Department’s requirement to have a design that is at least 90 percent complete before approving the start of construction for the nuclear facilities,” the committee report states. “As such, the Committee specifically authorizes site preparation and other construction activities prior to completion of any required independent cost estimate for the project.”
The bill also would match the NNSA’s request of $155.6 million for new facilities to replace the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Committee report states this is to maximize use of the newly constructed Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building [RLUOB] and reuse lab space in PF-4 to transition plutonium capabilities out of the CMR building by 2019. The bill would provide $117 million for the RLUOB Equipment Installation Phase 2 sub-project, and $38.6 million for the PF-4 Equipment Installation sub-project which transfers material characterization and remaining analytical chemistry capabilities out of CMR to PF-4.
‘Shortfalls’ for Protective Forces
Senate appropriators provided $657.9 million for Defense Nuclear Security, noting concerns about “shortfalls” for protective forces, particularly at Y-12, as well as other sites. “The Committee is concerned that NNSA has been overly aggressive in forecasting savings from the new contract structure at Y-12 and Pantex, and has not budgeted for a sufficient protective force to support production work required in the life extension programs,” the report accompanying the bill states. “The Committee directs the Secretary to submit a report on the processes NNSA follows to coordinate across the various NNSA departments to ensure assumptions used in budget estimating for support functions, such as security, are synchronized with the primary missions of the site.”
