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WASHINGTON, D.C. – National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Thomas D’Agostino today highlighted the strong support for NNSA in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request, which was delivered to Congress earlier today. The $11.5 billion budget request will help NNSA achieve the President’s nuclear security objectives, including his four-year goal to secure vulnerable nuclear material around the world. The request represents an increase of 4.9 percent over the FY 2012 appropriation.

“The President’s budget continues to demonstrate his strong support for our mission, our enterprise, and the key role the men and women of NNSA play in achieving his nuclear security objectives,” said NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino. “It reaffirms his commitment to a 21st century nuclear security enterprise by giving us the resources we need to take innovative approaches to some of our greatest nuclear security challenges, make key investments in our infrastructure, and revitalize our existing facilities. We are committed to doing our part in this tough fiscal environment and being effective stewards of taxpayer dollars.”

The President’s FY 2013 budget reflects a thoughtful, pragmatic approach to 21st century nuclear security challenges at a time of fiscal austerity. It reflects his commitment to making the tough choices to reduce the deficit while investing in the priorities that make America stronger and more secure.

The President’s budget request will allow NNSA to continue its critical work to maintain the nation’s nuclear stockpile and ensure that it is safe, secure, and effective; work to achieve the President’s nonproliferation objectives; maintain its one-of-a-kind emergency response capabilities; help American sailors reach destinations across the globe safely and reliably through NNSA’s Naval Reactors program; and anticipate the future of nuclear counterterrorism and counter proliferation. It also includes critical investments in the innovation required to enhance our national security, which promotes the breakthroughs necessary to invest in an American economy that is build to last.

“We view this constrained budget environment as an additional incentive to continue to ask ourselves how else we can assure we have the capabilities we need, how we can innovate, and how we can get better,” said NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Neile Miller. “We’re an organization that has continuously improved the way we do business, and we’re always looking for ways to operate more efficiently, maintain effective oversight, and work as one NNSA.”

The FY 2013 budget provides $7.58 billion to implement the President’s strategy for the stewardship of the nuclear weapons stockpile in coordination with our partners at the Department of Defense. It includes $2.24 billion for facility operation and maintenance, and construction projects, helping NNSA modernize Cold War-era facilities, with increases are requested for the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the TRU Waste Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

$51.3 million is provided in FY 2013 to continue reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the United States’ stockpile. NNSA has committed to completing the dismantlement of all warheads retired as of FY 2009 by FY 2022. In FY 2011, NNSA completed the dismantlement of the last B53 nuclear bomb, one of the largest ever built, ahead of schedule and under budget. NNSA also eliminated the W70, the last warhead in the US Army’s arsenal.

$2.46 billion is requested to help achieve the President’s nonproliferation objectives and NNSA works toward meeting his four-year goal to secure vulnerable nuclear material around the world. This funding will help complete the removal or disposal of 4,353 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and plutonium in foreign countries, and provide NNSA with the necessary support to equip approximately 229 total buildings containing weapons-usable material with state-of-the-art security upgrades by the President’s deadline.

The President also continued to request funding for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility and Waste Solidification Building at the Savannah River Site, critical nonproliferation construction projects. The $569.5 million requested for MOX and related activities this year will lead to the permanent elimination of enough plutonium for at least 8,500 nuclear weapons.

The FY 2013 budget request gives NNSA the resources needed to maintain its one-of-a-kind emergency response capabilities, which allow NNSA to respond to a nuclear or radiological incident anywhere in the world. In FY 2011, NNSA was able to assist the U.S. military, military families, and the Japanese people by deploying its unique emergency response assets in the aftermath of devastating tsunami that affected the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  

To power the nuclear navy, the budget request includes $1.1 billion for the Naval Reactors program, which will support the OHIO class submarine replacement and modernize key elements NNSA’s infrastructure.