nuclear-news

No reliable cost estimates for new USA nuclear weapons

GAO Report Challenges Nuclear Weapons Spending Spree » FAS Strategic Security Blog By Hans M. Kristensen, 14 Feb 2011, At a time when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is asking Congress to authorize billions of dollars to modernize what it calls its “aging” nuclear infrastructure for maintaining and producing nuclear weapons, a new report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) concludes that “NNSA does not have accurate, reliable, or complete data on the condition and replacement value of its almost 3,000 weapons activities facilities.

”The new budget request to be released today is expected to request billions of dollars to modernize the nuclear weapons complex.In a blunt statement that appears to challenge the administration’s request for more money to build new nuclear weapons factories, the GAO report points out that “NNSA has not estimated total costs for the largest projects it is conducting—the Chemical and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. DOE regulations do not require a total cost estimate until the initial design phase is complete, but without reliable cost and schedule data NNSA does not have a sound basis to justify decisions and planned budget increases.”

GAO Report Challenges Nuclear Weapons Spending Spree » FAS Strategic Security Blog

February 15, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war