Global Security Newswire

U.S. President Barack Obama could eliminate efforts to design a next-generation nuclear warhead while scrapping other nuclear-weapon programs, the Albuquerque Journal reported Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 12).

The Obama administration might deliberately move to end all direct funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program as well as appropriations for studies with a bearing on designing the weapon, according to an administration memorandum addressing aspects of the fiscal 2010 budget.

"The RRW program, both explicitly and implicitly, is canceled," the document states.

The administration could also delay buying new supercomputers to manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal (see GSN, Feb. 3) and limit nuclear warhead core production at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to 20 plutonium "pits" annually.

The memorandum does not address the potential fate of the proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement facility (see GSN, May 19).

The administration would support funding programs for nuclear disarmament efforts. The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the U.S. nuclear arsenal, would receive a 1.5 percent budget increase under the plan (John Fleck, Albuquerque Journal, Feb. 14).