Energy and Water Development: FY2017 Appropriations for Nuclear Weapons Activities

Summary

The annual Energy and Water Development appropriations bill funds civil works projects of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Energy (DOE), and several independent agencies.

The DOE budget includes funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a separately organized agency within DOE. NNSA operates three programs: Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, which secures nuclear materials worldwide, conducts research and development (R&D) into nonproliferation and verification, and operates the Nuclear Counterterrorism and Incident Response Program; Naval Reactors, which “is responsible for all U.S. Navy nuclear propulsion work”; and Weapons Activities.

The last is the subject of this report. The Weapons Activities account supports programs that maintain U.S. nuclear missile warheads and gravity bombs and the infrastructure programs that support that mission. Specifically, according to DOE’s budget documentation, these programs “support the maintenance and refurbishment of nuclear weapons to continue sustained confidence in their safety, reliability, and performance; continued investment in scientific, engineering, and manufacturing capabilities to enable certification of the enduring nuclear weapons stockpile; and manufacture of nuclear weapons components.”

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (P.L. 114-113) provides $12,526.5 million for NNSA, of which $8,846.9 million is allocated to the Weapons Activities account. The budget request for the FY2017 seeks $9,243.1 million for Weapons Activities within a total budget of $12,884 million for NNSA. This represents an increase of approximately 4.4% in the Weapons Activities Account over FY2016.

Weapons Activities has three main programs, each with a request of over $1 billion for FY2017, as follows:

Directed Stockpile Work supports programs that work directly on nuclear weapons. It includes life extension programs, maintenance, and other activities. The FY2016-enacted amount was $3,387.9 million; the FY2017 request is $3,330.5 million, a 2% reduction.

Research, Development, Test and Evaluation Programs, which advance the science, engineering, computation, and manufacturing, support Directed Stockpile Work. The FY2016-enacted amount was $1,818.5 million; the FY2017 request is $1,854.7 million, a 2% increase.

Infrastructure and Operations maintains, operates, and modernizes the National Nuclear Security Administration infrastructure. It supports construction of new facilities and funds deferred maintenance in older facilities. In the FY2016 budget, this program replaced the program known as Readiness in Technical Base and Facilities. The FY2016-enacted amount was $2,279.1 million; the FY2017 request is $2,721.9 million, a 19% increase.

Weapons Activities also includes several smaller programs, all of which are described in this report: Secure Transportation Asset, Defense Nuclear Security, Information Technology and Cybersecurity, and Legacy Contractor Pensions.

This report will be updated as necessary.