Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON -- National laboratory directors raised concerns Tuesday that the Obama administration’s fiscal 2014 spending proposal, along with the possibility of increased federal oversight following the 2012 break-in at the Y-12 facility, could negatively impact their ability to maintain U.S. nuclear weapon stockpiles.

The budget plan calls for a 9-percent boost in funding for nuclear-weapon activities. That would bring spending to $7.87 billion, $654 million more than what Congress approved for fiscal 2012 and close to $300 million more than what it provided through continuing resolutions for the current budget year.

Much of that work occurs at Energy Department national laboratories in New Mexico and California. Fiscal 2014 begins on Oct. 1.

The administration has said its budget proposal accounts for cost increases associated with programs aimed at extending the life of W-78 and W-88 nuclear warheads, but the laboratory directors appeared unconvinced.

“The fiscal 2014 budget request undermines the execution of key stewardship activities,” Penrose Albright, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, told the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee.

Albright said he was concerned specifically about programs to extend the service life of the W-78 fielded on Minuteman 3 ICBMs and W-88s carried by submarine-launched Trident missiles. He suggested the budget asks for insufficient funds for technical planning during the early stage of the programs that could lead to complications and delays in future years.

Albright also raised concerns about cuts to the National Ignition Facility at his laboratory, which in part is meant to support the nonexplosive testing and sustainment of the nuclear arsenal. Albright said the facility provides “unmatched capabilities to provide data that is relevant to the nuclear performance of weapons.

“The request cuts $80 million from the unsequestered fiscal 2013 operating budget for NIF – a nearly 25 percent reduction that comes on top of a $30 million cut in the prior year,” Albright said “This will significantly affect our ability to utilize the NIF and undermine the stewardship program.”

In justifying the cut, the Obama administration has pointed to the fact that the facility “failed to achieve ignition in 2012 as scheduled.” Albright argued, though, such cuts could hurt the ability of the laboratory’s to retained skilled workers.

“When these people leave the laboratory you lose them, they’re gone forever,” Albright said.

During Tuesday’s hearing, lawmakers asked laboratory directors whether increased federal oversight on weapons complex facilities – suggested by some experts as a potential solution to problems such as the July intrusion into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, could also impact the schedule of life-extension programs.

Paul Hommert, director of the Sandia National Laboratories, suggested such increased oversight could have a negative impact on the programs.

“There’s some significant cost,” associated with federal oversight,” Hommert said. “Last year we had 73 independent external government audits. … You have to have certain amount of staff to interact at that level.”

Charles Shank, who co-chaired a committee charged with reviewing the quality of the management at the national laboratories, argued that the incident at Y-12 – in which an 82-year-old nun and two other peace activists were able to infiltrate the facility – does not suggest more oversight is needed at the laboratories. Prior the Y-12 incident, some of the national laboratories also have experienced security breaches in recent years.

“Certainly Y-12 is a very different kind of institution from the national labs,” Shank said. “If the answer is [to add] another level of oversight, rather fix and make more efficient and make sure oversight is effective, I don’t see a solution to the problem.”