By Kerry Boyd
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The agency responsible for maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile said today that it does not want to accelerate existing warhead dismantlement programs to accommodate the U.S.-Russian Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (see GSN, July 10).

The treaty does not require either country to dismantle nuclear warheads, said Everet Beckner, deputy administrator for defense programs at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, in testimony before the Strategic Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Any plan to increase dismantlements prior to at least FY [fiscal] 2014 would compete for resources with critical refurbishment or evaluation work,” he said.  “NNSA prefers to retain flexibility in setting any resulting disassembly schedules [from the treaty] so as not to interfere with ongoing refurbishments and surveillance activities.”

In testimony earlier this year, U.S. officials said that some warheads removed from active service under the treaty would be dismantled (see GSN, July 25).

The United States already has “a busy dismantlement program,” Beckner said.  He added, however, that the pace of dismantlement has decreased because the NNSA has dismantled a majority of retired warheads.

The administration plans to complete disassembly of the W79 artillery-fired atomic projectile next year, Beckner said.  Work to disassemble W56 warheads for Minuteman II ICBMs will continue through fiscal 2005, and the Nuclear Posture Review “reaffirmed” that the W62 Minuteman III ICBM warhead will be retired by fiscal 2009, he said.  In addition, the NNSA plans to begin disassembly of the B53 strategic bomb and some excess B61 nonstrategic bombs soon, he added.

Extending the Life of Nuclear Weapons

Meanwhile, the United States is working to extend the life of warheads in the nuclear arsenal, Beckner told the subcommittee.

“The life extension work will involve the entire weapons complex,” he said, adding that life extension programs are essential to ensuring the United States has “a safe and reliable stockpile for the next 30 years.”

The White House has requested $367 million for fiscal 2003 for stockpile stewardship activities at the NNSA’s Pantex Plant in Texas, the only U.S. facility that assembles and dissasembles nuclear weapons, Beckner said (see GSN, May 2).  To maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the facility needs upgrades that include refurbishing more than 20 work areas where warheads are taken apart, he said.  The NNSA also plans to hire and train more than 100 new technicians to work at Pantex in the next 10 years, he added.

Work to refurbish the W87, currently the warhead on the MX Peacekeeper ICBM, is more than 60 percent complete, Beckner said.

“The warhead will be mated to the Minuteman III missile following deactivation of the Peacekeeper missile,” he said.

The NNSA is overhauling the W76, the warhead on Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and plans to replace the trajectory-sensing signal, neutron generators and tritium bottles for the W80, a cruise missile warhead, and will refurbish the secondary for the B61 bomb, Beckner said.

According to Beckner, general life extension plans include:

*         Manufacturing non-nuclear components at the Kansas City NNSA plant;

*         Refurbishing “the secondaries” at the Y-12 National Security Complex;

*         Producing gas transfer systems at the Savannah River Tritium Facility;

*         Producing neutron generators at Sandia National Laboratories;

*         Assembling and disassembling weapons at the Pantex plant, and

*         Using Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to certify nuclear warhead design performance.

For further information, see:

NNSA

U.S.-Russia Nuclear Reduction Treaty Text (U.S. State Department)

U.S. State Department Fact Sheet on Moscow Treaty

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