Bodman: DOE must be ready to restart nuke weapons tests

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said it is important for the Energy Department to meet its October 2006 goal to be ready to restart testing nuclear weapons within 18 months of a presidential order to do so.

The department is working to get the Nevada Test Site ready for weapons testing again, should tests be needed. There has been no call for tests at this point, but Bodman told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that the department was committed to being ready and is on track to meet the deadline.

The administration has requested $25 million for fiscal year 2006 for the effort.

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee wants detailed descriptions from Bodman on the department's plan for a new nuclear weapon trigger plant and how it intends to keep the country's nuclear weapons arsenal up to date, Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said.

Bodman appeared before the committee today to discuss the department's budget request for the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency within the department that controls nuclear weapons. The committee controls two-thirds of the department's budget.

Warner wanted Bodman to detail how the department is handling liquid radioactive waste in storage tanks in South Carolina, Idaho and Washington. Congress passed a law last year changing how waste would be treated in South Carolina and Idaho, but not in Washington.

Bodman said he expects a report soon from within the department on how it will address the new cleanup plans. The department also expects complete cleanup at three sites, one in Colorado and two in Ohio, this year.

Just two weeks into his job, Bodman did not know exact details of the department's plans for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, also known as the Bunker Buster, or its effort to build a new Modern Pit Facility, which would make plutonium pits or triggers for nuclear weapons, but gave general descriptions.

Bodman said he understands the Bunker Buster does not require nuclear testing, but experiments on how deep material can go and stay in tact.

Warner said the program was "essential and necessary" but wanted Bodman to submit a justification to the department for the money. The department requested $4 million to restart the program, which did not get any funding for this fiscal year, and $14 million for fiscal year 2007.

As for the pit facility, Bodman told Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that the United States is the only country with nuclear weapons that does not have a factory to make the triggers. A few can be made at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Bodman said.

The department requested $249 million to get the lab able to produce pits by 2007 as well as future planning fo a new pit factory.

The Nevada Test Site could be a site for the Modern Pit Facility.