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Expert Calls Energy Department Nonproliferation Plans “Status Quo”
The U.S. Energy Department’s fiscal 2005 budget proposal for the most part maintains current funding levels for U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts, according to an analysis by the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council released yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 3). “This is a status quo budget,” said RANSAC Executive Director Kenneth Luongo in a statement. “It funds essential security programs but it is not aggressive in attacking the real and mounting global nuclear threat,” he added (RANSAC release, Feb. 4) Among other items, the analysis highlights a $45 million request for “International Nuclear and Radiological Cleanout” programs, an effort to secure weapon-usable materials from around the globe. The effort includes programs to transfer Soviet-supplied research reactor fuel from poorly secured reactors back to Russia. The analysis reports that Energy Department officials said the budget would support fuel removal activities at a dozen vulnerable reactors this year “in countries like Egypt, Libya and Vietnam.” The cleanout effort also encompasses existing programs to convert research reactors to use low-enriched uranium fuels and to secure materials that could be used for radiological weapons (RANSAC release II, Feb. 4)
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