Nuclear Arms Labs Say ‘Fiscal Realities’ Weigh on U.S. Arsenal
July 15, 2010, 3:45 PM EDTJuly 15 (Bloomberg) -- Directors of the three U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories said today they are worried the nation’s fiscal troubles and a lack of political consensus may threaten their ability to maintain the stockpile of warheads.
While President Barack Obama’s proposed budget increase of more than $600 million for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 will help restore cuts of recent years, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio said he is concerned “that program expectations may already be out of line with the fiscal realities faced by the country.”
Anastasio and his counterparts at the two other labs testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington as lawmakers consider ratification of a new treaty with Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons held by each country. Republicans have criticized as insufficient Obama’s plans to spend $80 billion over 10 years to maintain and modernize the existing weapons.
“How we design, manufacture, field and evaluate the nuclear arsenal becomes increasingly important as we reduce the size of our stockpile,” said Arizona Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the panel.
The Department of Energy oversees the labs with the aim of ensuring a safe and reliable stockpile of nuclear weapons without the need for testing. The U.S. hasn’t built a nuclear weapon from scratch since the W88 in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said George Miller, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The government hasn’t conducted an atomic test since 1992.
1960s’ Components
Sandia National Laboratories, operated by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp., develops non-nuclear components of the arms and is working to extend the life of B61 bombs. Some have components dating to the 1960s, Paul Hommert, president and director of the Sandia facility, told the committee. Also, almost half of the lab’s staff experienced with major weapons programs is over the age of 55, he said.
“This puts a premium, going forward, on stable, multiyear program direction and resources to provide opportunities for new technical staff to work with experienced designers,” said Hommert, whose lab is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Los Alamos in New Mexico faces pension shortfalls of almost $200 million in two years, Anastasio said. Livermore, one of two nuclear design labs, has cut about 2,000 jobs since 2007, about a third of them “highly trained scientists and engineers,” Miller said.
The fiscal 2011 budget “does not include all of the things that we will need over the long term, but it is an extraordinarily good first step,” Miller said.
The directors discounted concerns by Republicans who cited a letter earlier this year from a group of former lab directors that said Obama’s nuclear strategy limits the methods that can be used to properly sustain the stockpile.
Anastasio said the restrictions provide an “adequate level of technical flexibility to carry out our mission,” while Miller said the guidelines are “workable.”
--Editors: Don Frederick, Edward DeMarco
To contact the reporter on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva in Washington at msilva34@bloomberg.net
