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Summary
Under the direction of the Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, the Department of Energy (DOE) has requested $24.3 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2008 (FY 08), a 3.0 percent increase from the amount requested in FY 07. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking a 0.8 percent increase to $9.38 billion in FY 08. Increases in funding for weapons and stockpiles have occurred in the last two years due to DOE’s Complex 2030 program, while NNSA’s requested funding for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation activities will be 3.1 percent below FY 07 levels.
Weapons Activities
The FY 08 Weapons Activities budget request is $6.51 billion, an increase of $103.4 million from FY 07. While the entire NNSA budget went up by 0.8 percent, the request for weapons went up 1.6 percent. The total FY 08 request for Directed Stockpile Work is $1.45 billion and is a 2.8 percent increase from FY 07.
The Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program received an $89 million request, a 220 percent increase from FY 07, reflecting NNSA’s expectation that Congress will approve the transition from phase 2A (design definition and cost study) into phase 3 (implementation). The W80 Life Extension Program (LEP) has been terminated and thus funding was not requested here. Under the Stockpile Services program, $36.9 has been requested, which will help support the W76 and B61 LEPs.
There are several other key requests within the Weapons Activities budget that should be noted. The budget request for campaigns is $1.87 billion, a 3.5 percent decrease from FY 07. This includes allocation for several individual programs aimed at developing the advanced scientific and technological capabilities needed to maintain the moratorium on underground testing. These programs include the Science and Engineering Campaigns, the Inertial Confinement Ignition and High Yield Campaign, the Advanced Simulation and Computing Campaign (ASC), the Pit Manufacturing and Certification Campaign and the Readiness Campaigns.
However, not all of the individual campaigns expect to see budget cuts. The Science Campaign, which performs much of the Stockpile Stewardship Program, is requesting a funding increase of $9.3 million or 3.5 percent. The Pit Manufacturing Campaign is requesting an increase of $43.6 million, or 18 percent, including $24.9 million requested for work on the Consolidated Plutonium Center, this is the first year that funds have been requested for this purpose. The Nuclear Weapons Incident Response (NWIR) received a $161.7 million request, a 19.4 percent increase from FY 05, reflecting increasing responsibilities in areas such as nuclear terrorism response (in support of the Department of Homeland Security) and nuclear forensics. Finally, the Safeguards and Security request was increased by 17.4 percent to $847.1 million, reflecting steady growth in security costs at nuclear sites since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
The overall budget request for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation was $1.67 billion and reflected a 3.1 percent and $53.6 million decrease from the FY 07 request. NNSA requested $265.3 million for Nonproliferation and Verification R&D, 1.3 percent less than in FY 07. Nonproliferation and International Security received a 2.0 percent decreased request at $124.9 million. The International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation request was $371.8 million, a 10.0 percent decrease. As in FY 07, no budget allocation was requested for either the Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention or Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Transparency Implementation programs. The budget request for the Elimination of Weapons-Grade Plutonium Production program was decreased by 12.1 percent, from $206.6 million in FY 07 to $181.6 in FY 08. A decrease of $28.4 million to Fissile Material Disposition is attributed to the “use of prior year’s balances to continue planned activities.”[i] Most of this is due to carry-over funds from the Russian Plutonium Disposition Program.
The only increase in the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation budget request was a 12 percent increase for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), from $106.8 million in FY 07 to $119.6 in FY 08. In keeping with the Bratislava accords, this allocation will “convert additional research reactors and initiate longer time scale post-irradiation examinations.”[ii] The GTRI will also address near-term and long-term threat reduction goals including support for the BN-350 reactor in Kazakhstan. In addition, the initiative will attempt to return U.S.-origin spent HEU from foreign research reactors.[iii]
Items not included in the FY 08 budget
The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) program no longer appears in NNSA’s unclassified budget. Upgrades continue to the B61-11, the earth-penetrating weapon, or “bunker buster,” already a part of the current U.S. stockpile.
No request was made to support the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), in keeping with the Bush administration’s ongoing policy of not seeking ratification or entry into force of the treaty. While funding for Test Readiness has been in the range of $15 million to $20 million in recent years, no money is requested in FY 08, reflecting the fact that NNSA has completed the transition to a 24-month readiness posture, after several years of resisting Congressional pressure. After 2008, however, projected outyear requests are constant at $11.1 million. It is appears that efforts within this regard have been redirected to nonproliferation programs aimed at simulation and ignition research and kept in compliance with the moratorium on underground testing still in effect.
Not included in the Department of Energy’s FY 08 Budget Request, is the Department of Defense’s (DOD) share of the RRW program. DOD has requested $30 million for the RRW program for FY 08.
Table 1: Budget Request Breakdown by Category
(Figures in millions of dollars)
| |
FY 06 Appropriation |
FY 07 Request |
FY 08 Request |
FY 08 vs. FY 07 |
| $ |
% |
| Weapons Activities |
6,355 |
6,407 |
6,511 |
103.6 |
1.60% |
| Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation |
1,619 |
1,726 |
1,672 |
-53.57 |
-3.10% |
| Naval Reactors |
781 |
795 |
808 |
13.01 |
1.60% |
| Office of the Administrator |
354 |
386 |
394.66 |
8.08 |
2.10% |
| Total NNSA |
9,109 |
9,314 |
9,386 |
71 |
0.80% |
| Table 2: Budget Request Breakdown by Program |
| (Figures in millions of dollars) |
| |
| |
FY 06 Appropriation |
FY 07 Request |
FY 08 Request |
FY 08 vs. FY 07 |
| $ |
% |
| Directed Stockpile Work |
1372.33 |
1410.27 |
1447.24 |
36.97 |
2.62% |
| Reliable Replacement Warhead |
24.75 |
27.71 |
88.77 |
61.06 |
220.35% |
| Life Extension Programs (LEPs) |
317.73 |
312.66 |
238.69 |
-73.97 |
-23.66% |
| Stockpile Systems |
300.72 |
325.55 |
346.72 |
21.17 |
6.50% |
| Dismantlements |
59.4 |
75 |
52.25 |
-22.75 |
-30.33% |
| Stockpile Services |
669.73 |
669.35 |
720.81 |
51.46 |
7.69% |
| Science Campaigns |
276.67 |
263.76 |
273.08 |
9.32 |
3.53% |
| Test Readiness |
19.8 |
14.76 |
0 |
-14.76 |
-100.00% |
| Engineering Campaigns |
247.91 |
160.92 |
152.75 |
-8.17 |
-5.08% |
| Inertial Confinement Campaign |
543.58 |
451.19 |
412.26 |
-38.93 |
-8.63% |
| National Ignition Facility Construction |
140.49 |
111.42 |
10.14 |
-101.28 |
-90.90% |
| NIF Assembly & Installation |
101.31 |
143.44 |
136.91 |
-6.53 |
-4.55% |
| Adv. Simulation & Computing |
599.77 |
617.96 |
585.74 |
-32.22 |
-5.21% |
| Pu Pit Manf. & Cert. Campaign |
238.66 |
237.6 |
281.23 |
43.63 |
18.36% |
| Consolidated Plutonium Center |
0 |
0 |
24.91 |
24.91 |
- |
| Readiness Campaign |
216.57 |
205.97 |
161.17 |
-44.8 |
-21.75% |
| Readiness in Technical Base |
1654.84 |
1685.77 |
1662.14 |
-23.63 |
-1.40% |
| LANL CMR Replacement Project |
54.45 |
112.42 |
95.59 |
-16.83 |
-14.97% |
| Y-12 HEU Materials Facility |
80.54 |
21.27 |
77 |
55.73 |
262.01% |
| Env. Projects & Ops |
0 |
17.21 |
17.52 |
0.31 |
1.80% |
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