DNFSB reorg dead for now; Obama's undead new warhead, sole driver for immediate pit production, rescued again, almost certainly by Udall and Feinstein for the labs in their states
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September 11, 2018
For reference: previous letter(9/4/18): "Sink the RCLC; save the DNFSB"
Dear leaders on our New Mexico "short list" --
Today's letter is dominated by the contents of the first appropriations bill to be sent to the floor (possibly this week) to fund the government starting Oct. 1, which contains Department of Energy (DOE) programs including National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear warhead programs.
We worked with the local papers yesterday on this but it was too complicated to bring anything out in a few late and evening hours. So here are some of the key points to inform your actions and leadership.
First, pertaining to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), the House-Senate negotiations on the Energy and Water Development (EWD) appropriations bill contained these passages, sent to us by Senator Udall's office.
For expenses necessary for the [DNFSB] in carrying out activities authorized by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended by Public Law 100-456, section 1441, $31,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2020: Provided, That none of the funds made available by this or any prior Act for the salaries and expenses of the [DNFSB] shall be available to implement any reform and reorganization plan of the [DNFSB], including the plan announced on August 15, 2018, unless any such reform and reorganization plan is specifically authorized by law."
"The conferees are concerned with the recently issued Order 140.1, Interface with the [DNFSB], and the potential impacts on the ability of the DNFSB to carry out its Congressionally-mandated responsibilities. Not later than 30 days after the enactment of this Act, the Department shall provide to the Committees on Appropriations of both Houses of Congress a briefing on how the Order differs from the previous Manual, how the Department plans to incorporate concerns from the DNFSB and the public, and the Department's plans to implement the Order across the organization."
This is an outstanding result. Senators Udall and Heinrich really did follow up on this and deserve sincere thanks.
They were not the only ones. This Sept. 4 letter from Representatives Smith & Cooper of the House Armed Services Committee, to DNFSB Acting Chair Hamilton was truly and rightly scathing.
Note that the authors of this letter are likely to be in the majority in less than two months. (We have excellent communications with this committee, by the way. Please see this interview for what the likely new leadership thinks. Even if the House changes majority parties we will still be struggling against the hawks in both parties, however, which comprise a majority on most national security issues. But the situation would still be much improved.)
Since our last communication to you (Sept. 4), there was another letter from senators Udall & Heinrich re DNFSB, this time to DOE Secretary Perry addressing DOE Order 140.1.
So you see, they kept on the issue as we had hoped and asked them to do. Favorable press for them resulted (Sens. Heinrich, Udall ask Perry to suspend order on nuclear oversight, Santa Fe New Mexican, Sep 5, 2018).
So the "ask" from us on this issue is simply to thank the senators. Gratitude will need to be complemented by firm disapproval and questioning, however -- see the next item.
Second, the EWD conference product squandered (pp. 47-48) the foundation for oversight of NNSA's runaway nuclear weapons program that had been provided by the House especially over the summer. This is not simple to understand, I know.
The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee had fenced appropriations (p. 109) -- that is, stopped the program -- prior to any detailed design of an "interoperable warhead" ("IW-1") that was slated to begin in FY19, 20 days from now -- pending a comprehensive report on why in the world such a warhead would be a good idea, or why it would be cost-effective. The Navy has been trying to halt or delay IW-1 for years. Under Obama, they refused to budget money to test it on Trident missiles. And testing it will need. At the pit workshop the Study Group led in Washington on July 12, a senior national security scientist in the Obama White House told our shocked little gathering that reentry vehicles (that's the Air Force term; the Navy calls theirs reentry bodies) typically require anywhere from 65-100 tests, at a cost of about $100 million apiece. None present disagreed. Only a small part of these costs are in NNSA's budget.
And of our course there's the pits they need. NNSA says no other warhead will need new pits until IW-3, starting in 2041, whereas the IW-1 would need pits starting in 2030. (Of course, without an IW-1 there is no reason to think there would be an IW-3. The whole idea is fraught with enormous difficulties and expense. It is, basically, a way to keep the weapons labs in business -- indeed growing., even apart from the vast resources needed for pit production.) IW-1 is what is pushing NNSA to try and run the old LANL main plutonium facility PF-4 in round-the-clock shifts as soon as they can.
Well, those costs are income in the ledgers of the corporations involved, and the New Mexico senators (and all the representatives including both gubernatorial candidates) are all in favor of bringing in nuclear weapons money, no matter what the cost to the nation or the state's people and environment. Nuclear weapons money hurts the state in myriad ways, but nobody wants to talk about that. Not "progressives," certainly. More on that another time.
The EWD bill being reported waters down the House language to nearly nothing, replacing genuine oversight with a quick-and-dirty report from within NNSA while the program goes forward anyway. What the Senate negotiators have done is to replace oversight with bullshit. To repeat previous bulletins, at least half the military "customers" for this weapon have been trying to kill it for about 5 years, mas o minus. It is being kept alive by the weapons labs and pork-barrel interests in Congress.
Which pork-barrel interests are present in the Senate EWD subcommittee, but not the House? The short answer: Udall and Feinstein, who represent 3 nuclear weapons labs between them.
IW-1 is particularly important to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), which, in the context of the massive embarrassment of their flagship National Ignition Facility (NIF) -- now widely understood in the inertial confinement fusion community as never having, and never having had, even a remote chance of fulfilling its nameplate purpose: fusion ignition, a subject for some other time -- has been crying in congressional offices for years about not having enough new warheads of their own to design. And LLNL wants back into the Navy "market" (as they put it). The Navy has spurned LLNL designs since the W68 debacle in the 1970s. They don't like LLNL-style design. IW-1 is worth billions to LLNL but more than that it ensures LLNL's survival and the continued nuclear weapons loyalty of the CA delegation.
By the way, Senator Feinstein's husband Richard Blum is a University of California (UC) regent, i.e. is on the board of directors of the corporations running LANL and LLNL. He was Chairman of CB Richard Ellis, one of the world's largest commercial real estate firms (including in New Mexico). The URS corporation, one of LANL's operating contractors until it was purchased by AECOM (which is a partner in running LANL for a few more days), was one of Blum Capital Partners' first major investments. Not to belabor the point, but the amount of Democratic-oriented capital represented by Blum and the UC Regents is staggering. UC will be staying at LANL, as a partner in Triad.
IW-1 is important to LANL as a driver for many billions of dollars in capital and program investment in pits. So there you go.
There is other pit language present in the EWD conference report, which was more or less expected and is of less concern.
Also missing from the final EWD bill is any part of the language in the Senate EWD report (p. 104) calling for a new JASON study of pit aging and lifetimes. Poof -- it's gone, without a word. Here it was:
The Committee directs the Administrator [of NNSA] to enter into a contract with the group known as JASON for a study to assess the efforts of the NNSA to understand plutonium aging and the lifetime of plutonium pits in nuclear weapons...Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this act, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a report on the findings of the study. The report shall include recommendations of the study for improving the knowledge, understanding, and application of the fundamental and applied sciences related to the study of plutonium aging and pit lifetimes, an estimate of minimum and likely lifetimes for pits in current warheads, and the feasibility of reusing pits in modified nuclear weapons…
So here's the ask: Senator Udall and Senator Heinrich should be asked whether they support the new IW-1 warhead.
It's very expensive, which is just the beginning of the problems with it. NNSA's cost alone (p. 8-36) is currently estimated at $12 billion, without including the cost of building and operating one (or perhaps TWO) new pit factory(ies). DoD's costs are also going to be in the many billions -- much more than is being openly acknowledged so far. The warhead is, as the House said, a "high-risk" endeavor, even to complete.
This is pure weapons lab pork, at a time when humanity faces existential crises. Udall (and even more so Heinrich, in our estimation) need to be publicly shamed for not stopping this warhead. Either senator could do that. To repeat, the vast spending in LANL and Sandia National Laboratories nuclear weapons programs has only hurt New Mexico.
Thank you all,
Greg, for the Study Group
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