Samuel W. Bodman Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator

Testimony of Secretary Samuel W. Bodman U.S. Department of Energy Before the Committee on Armed Services United States Senate February 15, 2005

Chairman Warner, Senator Levin, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Administration’s priorities for nuclear weapons, threat reduction programs, and DOE’s environmental cleanup program. Before I start, I also want to thank all of the members for their strong support for our critical national security activities. Let me first address national security programs under the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). NNSA’s

FY 2006 budget request supports three fundamental national security missions:
· assure the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile;
· reduce the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and
· provide reliable and safe nuclear reactor propulsion systems for the U.S. Navy.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMS

Our Nation continues to benefit from the security provided by safe, secure, reliable and effective
nuclear forces. In this, I am pleased to report that for eight consecutive years, the Secretaries of
Defense and Energy have reported to the President that the nuclear weapons stockpile remains safe, secure and reliable. I will join the Secretary of Defense soon in my first such assessment. This assessment is based not on nuclear tests, but on cutting-edge scientific and engineering tools, and extensive laboratory and flight tests of warhead components and subsystems. Each year, we are gaining a more complete understanding of the complex physical processes underlying the performance of our aging nuclear stockpile.

The FY 2006 request supports the requirements of the Stockpile Stewardship Program consistent
with the Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and the revised stockpile plan submitted to the Congress in June 2004. Over $1.4 billion in FY 2006 is requested to support the Directed Stockpile Work that will ensure the operational readiness of the nuclear weapons in the nation’s stockpile. Our request places a high priority on accomplishing the near-term workload and supporting technologies for the stockpile along with the long-term science and technology investments to ensure the capability and capacity to support ongoing missions. We are requesting $4 million to restart the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator study and $14 million in FY 2007 to complete the study.

In our FY 2006 budget, $2 billion is focused on scientific and technical efforts essential for certification, maintenance and life extension of the stockpile which has allowed NNSA to move to “science-based” certification and assessments for stewardship. Specifically, $491.7 million provides the basic scientific understanding and the technologies required for the directed stockpile workload and the completion of new scientific and experimental facilities. This includes $70.3 million for the Microsystem and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA)complex which will enable us to continue a path of completion in FY 2010. We will continue our efforts to maintain the ability to conduct underground nuclear testing and complete the transition to the18- month test readiness posture that is mandated by Congress.

With a request of $660.8 million for the Advanced Simulation and Computing Campaign, we will be able to remain on schedule to develop experimental and computational tools, and facilities and technologies necessary to support continued certification of the refurbished weapons and aging weapons components without underground nuclear testing. As we enhance our computational tools to link the historical test base of more than 1,000 nuclear tests to computer simulations, we can continue to certify whether the stockpile is safe, secure and reliable without resorting to nuclear testing. This will also include bringing on-line in FY 2006 a 100-teraflop system that will provide the supercomputer capabilities and three-dimensional modeling required for stockpile certification.

Secretary Samuel W. Bodman U.S. Department of Energy FULL TEXT in PDF format