Unwanted, Unnecessary, and Unaffordable

On the radar: Americans favor nuclear spending cuts; The HASC mark; CMRR budget shuffle; Trumping the Air Force on the bomber; BMD on the East Coast; 12 subs; Putin staying home; B-61 mismanagement and costs; Albright and Heinonen on talking with Tehran; Spring cleaning at Parchin; and Burying the element from hell.

May 10, 2012 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke and Mary Kaszynski

Poll - The American public is overwhelmingly in favor of cutting the defense budget, and nuclear spending in particular, according to a new poll from the Center for Public Integrity, the Program for Public Consultation and the Stimson Center. http://owl.li/aPeLB

--Highlights: Two-thirds of respondents supported nuke budget cuts. Respondents on average favored reducing nuclear spending by 27%. And 52% supported cancelling the new bomber program. http://owl.li/aPeNe

HASC mark - Yesterday the House Armed Services Committee completed its markup of the National Defense Authorization bill. Below is an Early Warning highlight reel of the nuclear elements within it.

CMRR amendments - The HASC approved two amendments to provide funds for the CMRR - a $6 billion Los Alamos plutonium lab that was given the budget axe by House and Senate appropriators, in line with the President’s budget request. The HASC amendments would allocate $160 million for the program, give construction of the facility to the military, and throw money at the program until it goes operational by a 2024 deadline.

Nuclearizing the bomber - The HASC also approved a requirement for the Air Force’s new strategic bomber to be nuclear certified from the start. Bloomberg has the story. http://owl.li/aPewP

--Background: The proposal would trump current Air Force plans to certify the new bomber after initial operating capability - a plan the Air Force is pursuing with hopes of better managing the costs and risks of developing its first bomber since the B-2 (which cost an average of $2 billion per plane). http://owl.li/aPezG

East Coast missile defense - HASC members approved $100 million for a missile defense shield on the East Coast, voting 28-33 against an amendment from Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) that would have stripped the provision from the bill. The Hill’s Jeremy Herb has the story. http://owl.li/aPerJ

Tweet - @nukes_of_hazard: Seapower/Projectn forces subcomm provision calling for 12 ballistic missile submarines forever, no matter what, goes unchallenged #13NDAA.

How it played - “In working on the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, House Armed Services Republicans have added billions of dollars in the coming years for facilities and capabilities that the military says it does not need, effectively flaunting a deficit reduction law many of them supported,” writes Frank Oliveri at CQ. (paywall) http://owl.li/aPeuA

Quote - “Hey, it’s not my fault the bill was crazy this year,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), ranking member on the HASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee, on why she offered so many amendments to the Strategic Forces mark.

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G8-1? - Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled out of attending the G8 summit at Camp David next weekend, citing a need to set up his administration’s Cabinet. The summit had been anticipated as an opportunity for Putin and President Obama to discuss nuclear and missile defense policies. http://owl.li/aPeJh

B61 costs skyrocket - The expected cost of the B61 Life Extension Program has risen to $6 billion. The 50% increase is due to mismanagement and ambitious modifications that NNSA and the Pentagon claim are necessary, Hans Kristensen reports.

--Not included in the $6 billion price tag: the new guided tail kit to increase the B61-12 accuracy ($800 million) and the cost of nuclearizing the F-35 ($340 million).

--“This level of nuclear cost increase and mismanagement is neither justifiable nor sustainable...The current B61-12 program should be stopped and reassessed to reduce cost and scope.” http://owl.li/aPeBZ

Building confidence with Iran - “Only by understanding Iran’s past military nuclear activities can confidence develop that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons today,” write David Albright and Olli Heinonen. “Iran’s forthright discussion of the PHRC could dramatically increase confidence in the negotiating process and open the door to a peaceful resolution of this crisis.” http://owl.li/aPeEB

Parchin pic - A new satellite photo of Iran’s Parchin facility shows “stream of water that appears to emanate from the building raises concerns that Iran may have been washing inside the building,” says ISIS’ David Albright.

--”This is not, to borrow a phrase, a smoking gun that might come in the form of a super-soaker,” writes Spencer Ackerman. “What it does show are grounds for the inspections that the IAEA wants.” http://owl.li/aPeZv

SM-3 Test - The Navy had a successful test intercept of the SM-3 Block 1B interceptor yesterday. The previous test in September failed, and there are two tests scheduled for the rest of 2012. Global Security Newswire has the story. http://owl.li/aPeP1

EPAA - “Just to be perfectly clear: NATO is trying to cram down the throats of the Russians an imaginary ballistic missile system that, if it worked -- which it doesn't -- could be used against Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since NATO is treating the system as if it were a reality, Russia must as well,” writes Kennette Benedict, Ploughshares Fund board member-elect, in The Bulletin. http://owl.li/aPeS4

Quote - “Our nation needs to be more concerned with our ability to get out of this fiscal slump and create conditions for a favorable and stable future, and less so with maintaining funding for outdated weapons programs,” writes Ploughshares Fund board member Edie Allen to the The Boston Globe. http://owl.li/aPeTC

Tweet - @Cirincione: Thoughts on global #nuclear threats, talks w/ Iran, & Pakistan, most dangerous country on Earth in @Forbes http://owl.li/aPefO

Burying the “element from hell” - The world needs to dispose of several hundred tons of plutonium to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation. Some countries (The US, UK, France, and Japan) are spending billions in attempts to use plutonium in Mixed Oxide fuel - an expensive solution with steep safety hazards.

--There’s a cheaper and safer option: immobilize the plutonium and bury it somewhere. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Von Hippel, Ewing, Garwin, and Macfarlane. David Biello at Scientific American has the story. http://owl.li/aPeVs

Pu Report - “Nuclear Proliferation: Time to Bury Plutonium” by Frank von Hippel, Rodney Ewing, Richard Garwin and Allison Macfarlane in Nature. (paywall) http://owl.li/aPeXW