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LANL revenues uncertain as nuclear stockpile costs rise
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/lanl-revenues-uncertain-as-nuclear-costs-rise/article_e4de70a1-6e9f-59dc-9141-ce3e15477c5c.html
LANL revenues uncertain as nuclear stockpile costs rise
Posted: Sunday, January 12, 2014 8:00 pm | Updated: 6:10 pm, Mon Jan 13, 2014.
By Staci Matlock
The costs of maintaining and modernizing the nation’s nuclear weapons are spiraling upward, setting taxpayers up for sticker shock in the next decade, according to recent reports and nuclear watchdog groups.
The staggering costs — more than $350 billion over the next 10 years, according to one federal agency — already have been a source of tension between federal lawmakers and the White House as they prepare for a defense spending package and the omnibus budget. The final budget is due out soon.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of nuclear weapons, depends heavily on funding for the nuclear stockpile and is impacted by any cuts. More than half of the lab’s revenues come from federal funding to keep the plutonium pits used in warheads safe and secure, produce new pits and help redesign warheads.
A report last month by the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost to maintain and modernize the nuclear stockpile at $355 billion by 2023. A separate report this month by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury College goes further, putting the costs at more than $1 trillion over the next 30 years. That doesn’t include costs for cleaning up legacy waste from past nuclear weapons development, dismantling nuclear warheads or paying the pensions and health care of people working in the programs.
<snip>
LANL revenues uncertain as nuclear stockpile costs rise
Posted: Sunday, January 12, 2014 8:00 pm | Updated: 6:10 pm, Mon Jan 13, 2014.
By Staci Matlock
The costs of maintaining and modernizing the nation’s nuclear weapons are spiraling upward, setting taxpayers up for sticker shock in the next decade, according to recent reports and nuclear watchdog groups.
The staggering costs — more than $350 billion over the next 10 years, according to one federal agency — already have been a source of tension between federal lawmakers and the White House as they prepare for a defense spending package and the omnibus budget. The final budget is due out soon.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of nuclear weapons, depends heavily on funding for the nuclear stockpile and is impacted by any cuts. More than half of the lab’s revenues come from federal funding to keep the plutonium pits used in warheads safe and secure, produce new pits and help redesign warheads.
A report last month by the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost to maintain and modernize the nuclear stockpile at $355 billion by 2023. A separate report this month by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury College goes further, putting the costs at more than $1 trillion over the next 30 years. That doesn’t include costs for cleaning up legacy waste from past nuclear weapons development, dismantling nuclear warheads or paying the pensions and health care of people working in the programs.
<snip>