Mr. Moniz's Nuclear Warning
Source: Wall Street Journal
The keeper of America’s arsenal sends an S.O.S. about its deterioration.
North Korea’s nuclear test last week is a reminder that we’re living in a new era of nuclear proliferation. Now comes a warning from U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz that the Obama Administration is neglecting America’s nuclear umbrella.
In a Dec. 23 letter that hasn’t been publicly reported, Mr. Moniz asked White House budget director Shaun Donovan to reconsider the fiscal 2017 budget proposal due to Congress by Feb. 2. “It would not be responsible to submit a budget with such obvious programmatic gaps,” he writes. Without an additional $5.2 billion for out-years 2018 to 2021, the budget will “lack credibility with Congress and stakeholders” and “fuel uncertainty” within the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Mr. Moniz went on to note that “a majority of NNSA’s facilities and systems are well beyond end-of-life.” Also, “infrastructure problems such as falling ceilings are increasing in frequency and severity,” as more than 50% of facilities are at least 40 years old and nearly 30% date to World War II. “The entire complex could be placed at risk if there is a failure where a single point would disrupt a critical link in infrastructure.” Yet the White House is set to request only half the funding needed for facilities between 2018 and 2021.
Higher-tech parts of the system are struggling, too. “There has been a steady decline in the performance of the nuclear weapons computer codes needed to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nuclear stockpile,” Mr. Moniz wrote, but the current budget seeks less than a third of what’s needed, despite an executive order on “strategic computing” issued six months ago. He added that uranium-enrichment programs and satellite systems are short some $715 million.
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Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/mr-monizs-nuclear-warning-1452644053
Although this an Opinion piece, it should be considered Latest Breaking News because it reveals the important contents of "a Dec. 23 letter that hasn’t been publicly reported", a letter by the head of the Department of Energy.
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