U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, shown last month, presented his department’s budget request yesterday (Tim Sloan/Getty Images). New Warhead Funds More Than Tripled in ’08 Budget Request By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s spending plan for fiscal 2008 includes a more than three-fold increase in funds for the development of a next-generation nuclear warhead (see GSN, Jan. 26). Funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, envisioned three years ago by Congress as a way to improve the reliability and longevity of the nuclear arsenal without underground testing, was last set for fiscal 2006 at $25 million...Full Story

Budget Cuts to First-Responder Grants Draw Fire By Chris Strohm CongressDaily WASHINGTON — The U.S. Homeland Security Department’s fiscal 2008 budget request would provide less money than is now being spent on politically popular grant programs for first responders, a move that drew immediate criticism Monday from Democrats and Republicans alike (see GSN, Jan. 9)...Full Story

U.S. Seeks Quick Disarmament Action by North Korea North Korea should follow through within three months on any pledges it makes this week to suspend components of its nuclear program, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said today (see GSN, Feb. 5)...Full Story

	Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Budget Cuts to First-Responder Grants Draw Fire By Chris Strohm CongressDaily WASHINGTON — The U.S. Homeland Security Department’s fiscal 2008 budget request would provide less money than is now being spent on politically popular grant programs for first responders, a move that drew immediate criticism Monday from Democrats and Republicans alike (see GSN, Jan. 9). The budget would provide about $2.2 billion for state and local grants and training programs, which is about $1.2 billion, or 35 percent, less than Congress enacted for the current fiscal year. Significantly, funding for state homeland security grants would be less than half the current level, falling from $510 million to $250 million. Grant assistance to firefighters would be cut from $662 million to $300 million. And law enforcement terrorism prevention program grants would drop from $363 million to $262 million. A Homeland Security spokesman countered by noting that the department is requesting about the same amount for grant programs as was sought in its fiscal 2007 budget. Congress increased funding levels in the enacted fiscal 2007 spending bill. The Homeland Security and Commerce departments also plan to distribute about $1 billion in new grant funding next fiscal year, specifically to help state and local public safety agencies buy interoperable communications equipment. The spokesman said the new grant program will compensate for reduced funding in other grant programs. “We are putting our money where our mouth is,” the spokesman said.  “We talk very seriously about the priority we place on interoperability.” Reducing money for existing grant programs, however, will be a tough sell on Capitol Hill. House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Price (D-N.C.) called the proposed funding levels for programs that help first responders “particularly disappointing.” “One of my top priorities as chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee will be to ensure that our first responders — our nation’s first line of defense during a disaster of any kind — are well equipped to perform their jobs,” Price said. House Homeland Security ranking member Peter King (R-N.Y.) said he has “serious concerns” about the proposed reductions. “These brave men and women are on the front lines in our homeland security efforts, and we need to be certain they have the resources they need,” King said. “I plan to examine this issue very closely and work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure our first responders have the necessary funding to keep our homeland secure.” Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine), were equally critical. “The president’s FY 2008 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security represents a serious disconnect between his rhetoric and the reality of protecting Americans from terrorist threats and natural disasters,” Lieberman said. Collins said the budget request “again highlights the chronic and troubling under funding of first-responder grant programs.”  She added that a reduction for the state homeland security grants program “will be a severe blow to states’ abilities to prevent, prepare for, and respond to terrorist attacks and other emergencies.” House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) did not take a position on the funding requested for grants, saying instead that the subcommittee will hold hearings to examine the budget. “We will hold some 25 hearings in the months ahead that examine what we’re accomplishing and how to make every penny count,” Rogers said. Back to top

New Warhead Funds More Than Tripled in ’08 Budget Request By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s spending plan for fiscal 2008 includes a more than three-fold increase in funds for the development of a next-generation nuclear warhead (see GSN, Jan. 26). Funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, envisioned three years ago by Congress as a way to improve the reliability and longevity of the nuclear arsenal without underground testing, was last set for fiscal 2006 at $25 million. Congress failed to finalize a spending bill for the present fiscal year, but a House draft more than doubled spending to $52.7 million, indicating a level of commitment to the program (see GSN, May 22, 2006). The current long-term resolution passed by the House of Representatives this month to fund the government through to 2008 maintains the current spending level at $25 million.  The Senate must still pass the resolution. The White House budget request for fiscal 2008, released yesterday, would increase spending to nearly $89 million, about double the level requested for the current fiscal year. The significant increase in requested funding coincides with a move to a more advanced stage of design and a cost study for the weapons program, Energy Department officials said. The Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories have each submitted proposed designs for the new warhead.  An interagency Nuclear Weapons Council is expected to announce a design within weeks that combines elements of both submissions.  The announcement was originally expected in November of last year (see GSN, Jan. 8). A preliminary judgment on the warhead design proposals has been made and consultations are now ongoing with military representatives in the Defense Department, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said yesterday while presenting the budget to reporters “It’s been my experience that things go better if everyone is happy and understanding of why various decisions have been made, and so we’ve had a delay in the announcement,” he said.  “So, the big jump is we’re committed to moving forward … to the design.” Work in 2008 is set to include production and design engineering and hydrodynamic experiments to “know what we’re getting into,” said Thomas D’Agostino, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.  Hydrodynamic experiments are a way to model the compression necessary to spark a fission reaction, using high explosives and a nonfissile, heavy isotope as a surrogate for plutonium. Current DOE plans call for engineering development to begin by fiscal 2010 and a deployable warhead to be available by 2012.  It would be at the  discretion of Congress to fund the program as requested, change or cancel it. Critics say the current life-extension program is adequate to maintain the U.S. arsenal of warheads and suggest that despite a goal to the contrary, RRW research would necessitate a return to underground nuclear testing. Overall, nuclear weapons activities, such as stockpile maintenance and research into increasing the life of current warheads, would receive a budget increase of $103 million to more than $6.5 billion in the fiscal 2008 request.  That represents a $1.6 percent increase over the fiscal 2007 request. The nuclear weapons laboratories, however, would see a decrease in defense program funding over the 2007 request.  Funding for Los Alamos would fall to $1.55 billion from $1.65 billion requested, but the laboratory would receive $46 million for upgrades in security, an area where it has an especially blemished record (see GSN, Feb. 1).  Due to the impasse over the fiscal 2007 budget, the laboratories are currently funded at fiscal 2006 levels. The budget request for DOE defense nuclear nonproliferation programs fell by slightly more than 3 percent, or $53 million, from the level requested by the president in fiscal 2007.  The 2008 mark at $1.67 billion, while a decrease from the 2007 request, is a jump up from the $1.62 billion requested and funded in 2006 (see GSN, Feb. 1). A decrease in some nonproliferation categories is due to a number of threat reduction projects designed to secure nuclear material and weapons in the former Soviet Union drawing to a close, DOE officials said. International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation, which seeks to secure civil military nuclear sites in Russia and elsewhere, would see a $41 million decrease from fiscal 2007 levels. For surplus disposition of fissile material in the United States, the mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina would see a more than $25 million increase to support construction of several buildings in 2008. Funding for the parallel Russian facility, which would convert excess plutonium to a proliferation-resistant nuclear fuel, would fall nearly $35 million as unused funds for that project are carried over (see GSN, Sept. 18, 2006). Global Threat Reduction Initiative funding would increase $13 million over the level requested in 2007 to nearly $120 million. That program seeks to repatriate U.S. and Russian spent reactor fuel being used in other nations, and to convert research reactors from using highly enriched uranium to more proliferation-resistant low-enriched fuel (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2006). The most significant increase is in a program to secure nuclear material in Kazakhstan, from $4 million requested in fiscal 2007 to $32 million.  The increase reflects production and delivery of 27 100-ton casks to store 10,000 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and 3,000 kilograms of plutonium in the former Soviet state. Elsewhere in the DOE budget, the White House provides for a $26 million increase in nuclear weapons incident response, a 20 percent jump over the fiscal 2007 request to more than $160 million.  The increase is for two new programs, National Technical Forensics, which would support both pre- and post-detonation analysis of nuclear material, and Stabilization Implementation, a research project to develop technologies to stabilize a nuclear device until response teams can arrive. The Bush administration would provide an extra 17 percent above 2007 levels for the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, which coordinates the nation’s nuclear detection efforts and is spearheading an initiative to improve to track nuclear material to its source. The budget includes $563 million for the office, representing a more than 400 percent increase in funding since the division was launched in 2005 That includes $178 million for the installation of both fixed and mobile radiation detectors at nation’s ports and border crossings.  None of those funds would be made available until the Homeland Security Department verifies to Congress that the next-generation radiation detectors it plans to install are more effective than those currently being employed (see GSN, Oct. 3, 2006). An additional $30 million would go to a program launched to ring major urban areas with equipment to detect nuclear or radiological material before it can be smuggled inside a city. The White House request includes a $15 million increase for the Homeland Security Secure Freight Initiative, a program to screen U.S.-bound cargo for nuclear material, and a $47.4 million increase for research and development of nuclear detectors and other technology. Within the Health and Human Services Department, the proposed budget carries a more than 3 percent increase in biodefense spending, a jump of $141 million over fiscal 2007 to $4.3 billion.  That includes a $135 million increase for development of medical countermeasures against biological agents (see GSN, Jan. 16). Within the Defense Department, the budget includes $9.78 billion for ballistic missile defenses, a decrease of $560 million, or nearly 6 percent, from the level requested in 2007. Back to top       U.S. Seeks Quick Disarmament Action by North Korea North Korea should follow through within three months on any pledges it makes this week to suspend components of its nuclear program, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said today (see GSN, Feb. 5). Talks are scheduled to resume Thursday.  Reports have indicated that Pyongyang might agree to freeze work at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors back into the country, in return for concessions by the other nations participating in the negotiations. Hill said any such actions should come to pass in “single-digit weeks,” according to the U.S. Embassy in Japan. He acknowledged, though, that further work would be needed to resolve the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program, Reuters reported. “Whether we can make some progress, and I was emphasizing that if we make some progress, we’re not going to be able to resolve the nuclear issue and achieve the complete implementation of the September 2005 agreement in one step,” Hill said in Tokyo.  “We are going to need several steps” (Teruaki Ueno, Reuters/AlertNet, Feb. 6). Washington hopes to end nuclear negotiations in early 2008, and then to move on to talks regarding Pyongyang’s missile development program, The Korea Times reported today. The State Department fiscal 2008 budget summary states that it aims to “complete nuclear-related dismantlement negotiations with North Korea by early calendar year 2008.” The agency wants to “further refine the operational requirements for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program and its associated dismantlement verification regime and, if appropriate, take steps to secure necessary long-lead critical items.” Washington next year would seek talks “on a verifiable missile export ban and limitations on indigenous missile programs, including elimination of all indigenous Missile Technology Control Regime Category 1 missiles and associated programs,” the summary states. Missiles with a payload of 500 kilograms or more and a range of at least 300 kilometers are included in Category 1 (The Korea Times, Feb. 6). Experts have questioned whether North Korea would ever agree to eliminate its entire nuclear weapons program. “The six-nation process will never reach a stage at which North Korea abandons all its nuclear programs,” Hideshi Takesada, chief analyst at the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo, told Agence France-Presse. “We have not tested them adequately to find out the answer to that question, but the price the North would demand for denuclearization went up after the nuclear test last October,” said Peter Beck, Northeast Asia director for the International Crisis Group (Dan Martin, Agence France-Presse, Feb. 6). Pyongyang demanded at least 500,000 tons of oil, lifting of U.S. financial sanctions, commitment by other nations to build civilian nuclear reactors, and normalized relations with the United States in exchange for its freeze and Yongbyon and opening doors to inspectors.  Those steps would not touch its plutonium stockpile or prevent Pyongyang from resuming work if negotiations fail, the Washington Post reported.  Work at nuclear sites other than Yongbyon would not halt. “They are willing to take the first step,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for International Security in Washington.  “This may be the only step.” The demand is more than what North Korea sought under the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States.  Pyongyang agreed to suspend and “eventually dismantle” plants that produce plutonium and was slated to receive light-water reactors.  The deal fell apart after the Bush administration in 2002 said North Korea had acknowledged operating a secret uranium enrichment program (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Feb. 6). Back to top       U.S. Seeks to Pressure Iran With More U.N. Sanctions, Less IAEA Cooperation The United States plans to boost pressure on Iran by seeking incrementally escalated sanctions in the U.N. Security Council and by urging the International Atomic Energy Agency to further reduce its technical cooperation with Tehran, wire services reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 5). U.S. officials said the sanctions strategy is supported by recent reports that Iran has installed more than 300 centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Iran appears to be headed “down the path of isolation,” U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday.  Washington would recommend “incremental” sanctions to the Security Council, he said (Associated Press/Boston Herald, Feb. 5). In Vienna, home to IAEA headquarters, U.S. diplomats have urged the agency to cut half of its technical assistance programs with Tehran to meet the requirements of a December Security Council resolution that banned any aid that could benefit an Iranian nuclear weapons program.  Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to release his recommendations this week, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. The agency cut some programs last month and is now examining a list of 80 additional direct or regional programs that benefit Iran, according to AFP (see GSN, Jan. 18).  The agency’s governing board also refused to fund some assistance programs late last year (see GSN, Nov. 27, 2006). Members of the Nonaligned Movement have expressed concern that cutting the aid could create a precedent that would affect their own programs. “Political interference in aid programs is not something developing nations will look at positively,” said one NAM diplomat. Another NAM diplomat, however, said Iran was “preying on this feeling among nonaligned states” to undermine the U.S. push. The 80 projects under examination include efforts to develop radiopharmaceutical kits, cancer treatments and nuclear waste disposal technologies.  U.S. officials have suggested ElBaradei cut funding for projects that: — assist the development of a nuclear technology center; — help develop human resources; — study a research reactor upgrade; — give waste disposal training; and — teach how to maintain and repair nuclear instruments (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Feb. 5). At Natanz, Iran plans to soon begin testing the new centrifuges, according to a diplomat who closely monitors Iranian and IAEA affairs. “It is a matter of hours, or of days, before the Iranians test the centrifuges on a vacuum, prior to putting in the (uranium hexafluoride) gas used to make enriched uranium,” the diplomat said (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Feb. 6). Back to top

Tennessee Man Admits Ricin Possession A Nashville, Tenn., man is due to be sentenced to seven years and three months in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to possession of the toxin ricin and other weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 21, 2006). William Matthews accepted the 84-month sentence in a plea deal with prosecutors.  He is scheduled for sentencing on April 27. “Mr. Matthews, I think, chose this (deal) as the best of the available options,” said public defender Sumter Camp.  Matthews could have received a life sentence for the ricin charge. There was no immediate word on why Matthews was in possession of ricin, a poison derived from castor beans. Authorities, acting on a tip from his estranged wife, found the toxin in a sealed baby jar on May 31, 2006.  They also found two pipe bombs, five firearms silencers, three blasting caps and materials for making explosives, AP reported. Matthews acknowledged in his plea deal that he had 5.68 grams of ricin (Beth Rucker, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 5). Back to top

OPCW Inspects Blue Grass Chemical Weapons Depot A team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons last week inspected the weapons stockpile at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the U.S. Army said (see GSN, Oct. 27, 2006). The international group of inspectors verified that all weapons remained in place and that the depot was in compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. This was the 11th OPCW inspection at Blue Grass (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, Feb. 1). Back to top

Czech Republic Seeks Delay on Missile Defense A decision on the Czech Republic’s participation in the U.S. missile shield might not come until spring 2008, United Press International reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 1). Czech Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanova said debate is needed in parliament before lawmakers vote on whether the country will house a U.S. radar base, according to Praha Radio. The radar could begin operations in 2011.  Washington also hopes to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland (United Press International/Washington Times, Feb. 5). A high-level Ukrainian official spoke out against the U.S. plan, the Associated Press reported yesterday. “First of all, missiles deployed near our territory are objects for attack by any sides.  So it is a threat to involve Ukraine in a direct conflict,” said First Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in comments released yesterday. A senior U.S. Missile Defense Agency official last week expressed interest in involving Ukraine in the missile shield (see GSN, Jan. 31; Associated Press/Kiev Post, Feb. 5). Back to top       Indian FM Speaks Against Space Weapons Space should remain free of weapons, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Sunday (see GSN, Feb. 2). “India has invested heavily in the peaceful uses of space and has a well-diversified and growing civilian space program,” he said during an international aerospace seminar in New Delhi, according to Agence France-Presse.  “The security and safety of assets in outer space is of crucial importance for global economic and social development.  We call upon all states to redouble efforts to strengthen the international legal regime for the peaceful uses of outer space.” China on Jan. 11 used a modified ballistic missile to ram and destroy one of its own weather satellites. Afterward, Indian air force chief Shashi Tyagi said New Delhi planned to develop an agency, akin to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, to provide defense against potential space-based attacks (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Feb. 5). Back to top

U.N. Reform Plan Raises Questions U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s plan to modify the U.N. bureaucracy continues to raise questions among Nonaligned Movement nations, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Jan. 30). Ban had sought to streamline some U.N. activities by combining the political affairs and disarmament departments.  Following NAM protests, he adjusted that plan last month by proposing to keep the offices separate but to downgrade the standing of the disarmament office. That plan has also drawn questions, which Ban fielded in a three-hour, closed-door meeting yesterday with NAM leaders, AP reported. “I can’t say there is opposition as much as there are questions and concerns raised,” said Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz.  “But if these questions and concerns are overcome,” then the General Assembly could approve the moves, he added. Many NAM countries have expressed concern that nuclear-weapon states have not moved toward disarmament as they pledged to do under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  Downgrading the status of the disarmament department might serve only to ease international pressure to continue arms reductions, according to some NAM diplomats. There is “a big problem with downgrading disarmament,” said Danish Deputy Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Feb. 5). Back to top

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