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Nuclear Security Official Outlines Future U.S. Weapons Plans

06 April 2006

NNSA planning for a smaller, more secure and reliable nuclear stockpile

Washington –- America’s nuclear security agency is planning for a significantly smaller and more efficient nuclear weapons stockpile by 2030, an Energy Department official says.

In testimony to the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces April 5, Tom D'Agostino, deputy administrator for defense programs at the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, said he envisioned “a smaller, safer, more secure stockpile, with assured reliability over the long term.”  Such a stockpile would need to be supported by an industrial and design capability that could respond to changes in technical, geopolitical or military needs, he added.

“It offers the best hope of achieving the president's vision of the smallest stockpile consistent with our national security needs,” D’Agostino told the members of Congress.  In 2004, President Bush called for reductions in the nuclear weapons stockpile of almost 50 percent by 2012.

D’Agostino highlighted five main elements of the NNSA plan:

• Developing a replacement warhead built for long-term reliability and safety to minimize the possible need for underground testing;

• Speeding up the dismantlement of warheads retired from the stockpile;

• Consolidating special nuclear weapons materials into fewer sites to increase security and reduce costs;

• Establishing a consolidated plutonium center for research, development, production and surveillance operations instead of constructing another pit facility; and

• Increasing efficiency by making technical and business practices more uniform and using more effective risk management.

The full text (PDF, 13 pages) of D’Agostino’s prepared testimony is available on the NNSA Web site.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)