Reduction of funding for nuclear security in the future

May 2019
By Kingston Reif

For the third year in a row, the Trump administration is proposing to cut funding for major US nuclear and non-proliferation programs in the semi-autonomous Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The budget request for fiscal year 2020 has raised concern among experts and lawmakers who have warned of the continuing threats of nuclear terrorism and diminishing international attention to security. nuclear.

Even NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty suggested that the submission was inadequate, informing a congressional committee last month that she would be happy to take additional funding beyond budget demand "to secure more nuclear material in the world, because they are less likely to be in the hands of terrorists or adversaries. "

The Trump administration is asking for $ 1.3 billion for the NNSA's major nuclear security and non-proliferation programs next year, a decrease of about $ 100 million, or 7 per cent, compared to the credits. open for the 2019 financial year.

Compared to what the NNSA had announced that it would be asking for these programs during the Obama administration's last year, the proposal for fiscal year 2020 is $ 200 million lower than forecast .

The largest reduction proposed in the application concerns the global materials safety program, which is tasked with improving the safety of nuclear material worldwide, securing orphaned or disused radiological sources, and enhancing the detection and protection of nuclear material. dissuasion of nuclear smuggling traffic. The program would benefit $ 342 million, a reduction of $ 65 million over the appropriations available for fiscal 2019.

According to the budget documents, the decrease compared to the level decreed corresponds to "a return to the basic budget" after specific increases in the Congress in 2019 in favor of programs dealing with the safety of radiological materials at national and international level and smuggling nuclear.

Asked at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on April 9, how could the NNSA invest an additional $ 80 million in international nuclear security programs, Gordon-Hagerty said? agency could acquire new cesium blood irradiators, undertake to help other countries with "security facilities".

The materials management and minimization program, which supports the disposal of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium worldwide and converts research reactors operating at the HEU and medical isotope production facilities using low enriched uranium, would receive $ 334 million, a decrease of $ 59 million compared to the credit open for the 2019 fiscal year.

The budget request would slightly increase funding for nonproliferation and arms control activities from an open $ 130 million credit for the 2019 fiscal year to $ 137 million. Spending on non-proliferation research and development, focusing on technologies used to track foreign nuclear weapons programs, illicit diversion of nuclear material, and nuclear detonations, is expected to increase to $ 495 million over one year. $ 477 million credit for fiscal year 2019.

Experts and legislators question the appropriateness of proposed reductions in NNSA funding for nuclear and radiological security activities.

A policy paper issued in April as part of Harvard University's "Managing the Atom" project stated that "the budget demand for programs to reduce the risk of nuclear theft and terrorism is too small to implement. the necessary ambitious approach ".

While efforts by the United States to improve nuclear security around the world have been successful, the summary notes that "the momentum is slowing down, raising serious doubts about whether national leaders are fulfilling their commitment to continue to make nuclear safety a priority ".

Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Chair of the House Energy and Water Credits Subcommittee, who oversees the NNSA's work on nuclear weapons and non-proliferation, expressed concern at a hearing on the NNSA's budget request, that "the administration takes its foot" the gas pedal with respect to major non-proliferation programs. "

In the first two years of the Trump administration, Congress provided nearly $ 300 million more than the administration had requested for its core nuclear security and nonproliferation programs.

Elsewhere in the NNSA's non-proliferation budget, the administration is demanding $ 220 million for the closure of the controversial mixed oxide fuel (MOX) complex and $ 79 million to support an alternative strategy to eliminate 34 tonnes of fuel. surplus plutonium from the US nuclear weapons program. (See ACTMarch 2019.)

The MOX fuel facility, designed to turn surplus material into fuel for civilian power reactors, has been affected by significant increases in costs and delays. The Energy Department has been seeking to end the program since 2014 in favor of
a cheaper alternative, called dilute and eliminate. This process would mix the plutonium with an inert material for direct disposal at the deep underground waste insulation pilot plant located in New Mexico.

The NNSA estimated last year that the process of dilution and disposal would cost $ 19.9 billion, or 40% of the $ 49.4 billion cost of continuing the MOX fuel program.