Highlights of the FY 04 Energy Department Budget Request
Victoria Samson, Research Associate, vsamson@cdi.org
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham released his department’s fiscal year 2004 budget request of $23.4 billion on Monday, Feb. 3. After pointing out that Congress’s failure to yet pass a 2003 budget has hampered activities greatly, he went on to say that the amount of this year’s budget request marks a 25 percent increase over the past three years. Of this amount, $1.3 billion has been earmarked for nonproliferation activities, a 30 percent increase over last year’s authorization. However, a significant portion of this money -- $402 million -- is allotted domestically toward building a mixed oxide fuel (MOX) facility in South Carolina. Supporters claim that this would prevent the proliferation of plutonium, but it seems a curious prioritization, considering that only $34 million was requested for security upgrades at Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (MINATOM) sites, or that $24 million was requested for security upgrades at Russian Strategic Rocket Forces nuclear warhead facilities.
Also included in the FY’04 budget request was $15 million for a robust nuclear earth penetrator, or RNEP. Popularly known as " bunker-busters, " these weapons have been promoted as a way of targeting hardened or deeply-buried underground facilities. The only such weapon currently in the U.S. arsenal, the B-61 Mod 11, burrows 20 feet underground -- too shallow to reach most of today’s underground facilities. The FY’03 budget authorization included a little over $15 million for an RNEP, and restricted spending until a Department of Defense report on its limitations could be completed. According to senior DOE officials at Monday’s briefing, that report is in draft form and close to being finished. While the DOE has been careful to call the RNEP funding a "study" and not a new nuclear weapon, critics are concerned that this could lead to new weapons development and a resumption of nuclear testing.
Along those lines, Abraham called stockpile stewardship a "presidential priority" and said that DOE was asking for $6.4 billion in FY’04 for the program, an increase of $532 million from the FY’03 authorization. DOE officials later explained during the briefing’s question and answer period that they did not expect that they will have to test the stockpile in the immediate future. They would not, however, rule out the possibility. As such, they are pushing for an 18-month test readiness posture – the amount of time that would elapse from the moment a decision to resume testing was made until testing could actually occur -- halving the current readiness schedule of three years.
Finally, DOE officials clarified what funding and responsibilities have been transferred to the new Department of Homeland Security. All of the research done on chemical and biological defense – for which $70 million was requested -- has been shifted over, as has efforts to attempt to detect nuclear smuggling ($10 million) and assess the accuracy of reports of nuclear weapons ($6 million). DOE’s Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST), which responds in case of nuclear terrorist threats against the United States, will still remain under the control of DOE. But if it is deployed during an actual emergency, it would function under the authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security.
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