DOD Memo Highlights Rising Costs of Nuclear Labs

On the radar: DOD on oversized nuclear labs; How Cold War weapons can nuke the economy; The strategic case against tac nukes; How to succeed in Baghdad; CMRR loses first round of budget battle; India’s ICBM; Nuclear politics; and Misleading Memes.

April 19, 2012 | Edited by Mary Kaszynski

Expanding the nuclear labs - A leaked DOD memo obtained by the Project on Government documents the DOE’s refusal to downsize its nuclear weapons laboratories to a post-Cold War scale. In fact, DOE took on new missions, and lab costs soared as a result.

--The bottom line, from POGO’s Peter Stockton: “The DOE’s push to expand the mission of its national labs flies in the face of all reason—both from a strategic standpoint and a fiscal one. When the U.S. is locked into reducing its nuclear arsenal, it makes no sense to be expanding the DOE’s nuclear weapons production facilities.” http://owl.li/anZFd

--The DOD memo is here. (pdf) http://owl.li/anZGO

The fiscal case against tac nukes - “This outdated nuclear standoff at the heart of Europe is costing cash-strapped governments on both sides of the Atlantic billions of dollars, rubles and Euros annually, money that is desperately needed for other things including deficit reduction.”

--Bringing it home: “Even Pentagon planners are open to new talks to reduce tactical nuclear weapons, given the budget pressures they are under. ‘They’d much rather have ships and drones – things with a demonstrated use, not tactical nukes,’ said Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the National Security Network, a Washington-based think tank. “But all that has to take place in negotiations with Russia.’” Merrill Goozner for The Fiscal Times. http://owl.li/anZSb

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“Archaic and unnecessary” - Tactical nuclear weapons “serve no legitimate strategic purpose...but bureaucratic inertia and/or political timidity explain why the United States and NATO haven't bitten the bullet and removed them completely,” Foreign Policy’s Stephen Walt writes.

--A bilateral deal with Russia would be best, Walt concludes, “but we ought to [remove U.S. tac nukes from Europe] even if Russia isn't interested.” Election politics makes progress unlikely till 2013, but “getting rid of these useless devices would be a very smart thing to do, no matter who the next president turns out to be.” http://owl.li/anZQj

New tone for talks - The last round of nuclear talks with Iran failed for a number of reasons, including division in the international community and lack of economic pressure on Iran. Many of these conditions have changed; now “incentives now seem to favor serious negotiations,” writes Larry Korb in The Bulletin.

--“For negotiations to succeed, the major powers must understand Iran's belief that it has been discriminated against in nuclear matters, and Tehran must agree to IAEA inspections.” http://owl.li/anZMw

E&W markup - The House Energy and Water Subcommittee zeroed out funding for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility in its markup of the FY13 appropriations bill. Up next: the full committee mark.

--Not mentioned in the subcommittee mark: the MOX plant at the Savannah River Site, the Uranium Processing Facility, and B61 Life Extension Plan, all candidates for funding increases. POGO’s Dana Liebelson reports. http://owl.li/anZJp

Tweet - @armscontrolnow: ‘"India Says It Successfully Tests Nuclear-Capable Agni 5 Missile" http://nyti.ms/JL0SwP in violation of UNSC Res. 1172 http://owl.li/anXFE’

Kyl election-year narrative - Outgoing Sen. Jon Kyl is pointing at the 5% increase in NNSA nuclear weapons spending to argue that the nuclear stockpile is at risk while linking it to President Obama’s reelection bid. Meanwhile, a GOP-controlled House Appropriations panel largely backed the President’s nuclear budget request.

--Read the full story for a preview of election season nuclear rhetoric. Douglas Guarino in Global Security Newswire. http://owl.li/anZTY

Framing - “Prepare yourself for warnings about how Iran is getting ‘the upper hand’” in negotiations, Robert Wright writes in The Atlantic. Hardliners employ misleading framing to try to scuttle diplomacy, Wright warns. http://owl.li/ao2eW