Criticism Mounting Over Nuclear Budget Waste

On the radar: Hometown paper tires of NNSA; Congress displeased; UNGA speculations; Accidental apocalypse; All things Syria; and the Opulent atomic abode.

September 17, 2013 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke and Alyssa Demus

”Big government on steroids” - For years, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s MO “has included expectations of nearly automatic budget increases, bloated projects that are never finished, duplicative red tape and a bureaucracy that resists efforts to rein it in. Critics say it has become a massive jobs program,” writes the Albuquerque Journal in an editorial.

--”There’s no doubt NNSA’s work is critical to U.S. national security, but taxpayers also are tired of watching their money being thrown at an insatiable beast that too often fails to deliver results. As long as the NNSA remains impervious to calls for improving its culture and tightening up its accountability, the inefficiencies and waste will keep coming.”

--The paper notes that a congressionally appointed panel has begun studying whether or how to overhaul the agency. The editorial suggests, “It’s way past time for that talk. The panel should come up with a well-thought-out plan to either overhaul NNSA from top to bottom or outright kill it and let the DOE take on its oversight duties.” http://bit.ly/188QrBs

Congress displeased - “The funding differences [for the B-61 life extension program] between the House and Senate actually reflect diverse approaches to the same problem: the NNSA cannot be trusted to accomplish what it claims it can for a specific amount of money. The Senate wants the NNSA to pursue a less aggressive option, while the House is providing more money up front,” writes Eryn MacDonald. The House wants to add $24 million for the bomb, while the Senate cut $168 million in their respective appropriations bills for fiscal year 2014.

--”How the House and Senate differences in funding will be resolved is unclear, as the debates about funding for the entire government continue to get bogged down in largely political issues. What is clear is that Congress is tired of the NNSA producing slipshod estimates for how much things cost, how long they will take, and most importantly, what exactly is required to get the job done,” writes MacDonald. Full post at All Things Nuclear. http://bit.ly/1dlOAML

Welcome to Early Warning - Subscribe to our morning email or follow us on twitter.

--Have a tip or feedback for the editor? Email earlywarning@ploughshares.org earlywarning@ploughshares.org. Want to support this work? Click here.

Signals ahead of UNGA - “Signs are plentiful and growing that Iran and the United States are preparing to take advantage of the recent election of a centrist president in Tehran to break a logjam in stalled nuclear talks and ease a generation of mutual hostility,” writes Scott Peterson for The Christian Science Monitor.

--The basic contours of a nuclear deal that would cap Iran’s program are relatively clear, though it remains to be seen if negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 can translate the new spirit of compromise into a sustainable agreement that keeps Iran from the bomb. Full article here. http://bit.ly/14eHSpf

Ready for resolution - “This time we are coming with a more full-fledged...desire” to resolve a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear program said Ali Akbar Salehi, new Iranian atomic energy chief at an annual meeting of the IAEA. "I have come here with a message of my newly elected president to further enhance and expand our ongoing cooperation with the agency," said Salehi.

--While recent rhetoric out of Iran has been less combative than under the Ahmadinejad regime, “the proof will be in the pudding. The words have to be followed by concrete action,” said US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz at the meeting. Fredrik Dahl at Reuters has the full story. http://ow.ly/oWPPV

UNGA plans - “The White House said Monday there were no current plans for President Barack Obama to see Iran's new president at the UN next week, but did not definitively rule out a meeting,” reports AFP. http://bit.ly/15AckuJ

Spoiler alert - “Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Saturday that he was going to get Congress to authorize President Barack Obama to use military force to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program,” reports Newsmax. http://bit.ly/1aHVKK7

Nuclear close calls - “The idea that a socket could lead to a nuclear detonation is unbelievable – but there are other accidents in which somebody used a screwdriver instead of a fuse-puller and blasted a warhead off of a different intercontinental ballistic missile of ours,” says author Eric Schlosser in an interview with Rolling Stone about his new book “Command and Control.”

--”There was another case in which a navigator for a long flight decided to bring some rubber seat cushions onto a B5-2 bomber, and he put the cushions underneath his seat too close to a heat vent. The cushions caught on fire; the bomber wound up crashing with all of its nuclear weapons and almost hit one of our most important military bases. The notion that a nuclear detonation that could destroy one of our most top-secret bases could be caused by some rubber cushions catching on fire is just crazy.” Full interview here. http://rol.st/1a0uGVu

--”Neglecting our nukes” op-ed by Eric Schlosser in Politico. http://politi.co/18trajb

Syria roundup:

--”Forensic Details in U.N. Report Point to Assad’s Use of Gas” by Rick Gladstone of The New York Times. http://nyti.ms/1533ZfA

--Great list of official and expert reports via Harry at Arms Control Wonk. http://bit.ly/1aHNhXm

--United Nations “Report on the Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in the Ghouta Area of Damascus” (pdf) http://bit.ly/1eLd0Dw

--Analysis of delivery systems used in the chemical attack, from Brown Moses Blog. http://bit.ly/16h4y5z

--”Syria’s Chemical Weapons: Issues for Congress” by Mary Beth Nikitin, Paul Kerr and Andrew Peickert of CRS. (pdf) http://bit.ly/1532pdu

Tweet - @CNS_Updates: What are #chemicalweapons & how the heck do you destroy 'em? CNS explains via @washingtonpost http://t.co/u9fiJLoaF1

Events:

--Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test launch two Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors at short-range ballistic missile targets. Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, Central Pacific Ocean. Week of September 16.

--Book Discussion of Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety.” Eric Schlosser. September 19 @1:20-2:45 PM. New America Foundation. http://ow.ly/oUA74

Dessert:

Plush plutonium prevention pad- In suburban Las Vegas, hidden below a caretaker’s abode, down a set of stairs is a plush underground fallout shelter and full faux backyard replete with a sauna, two hot tubs, a swimming pool, and “outdoor” barbecue pit. “Unlike the dreary concrete bunkers associated with bomb shelters, this underground home in Las Vegas” built by Girard “Jerry” Henderson in 1978, “looks like a luxurious suburban home.” Intrigued? Its on the market for $1.7 million reports Thia Shi Min at TAXI. http://ow.ly/oWYMy