Reports on the Defense Nuclear Complex

2021

The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Overview of Department of Energy Sites
Congressional Research Service - Updated March 31, 2021

On March 31, 2021, the Congressional Research Service released an updated overview of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, featuring the Department of Energy (“DOE”) sites. The nuclear weapons complex (referred to as the Nuclear Security Enterprise by DOE) consists of namely nine government-owned, contractor-operated sites in seven states and a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear reactor. These nine sites include three laboratories, five component fabrication/materials production plants, one assembly and disassembly site, a geologic waste repository, and one testing facility that now conducts research. The overview summarizes operations at each of these sites.

National Labs:

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Sandia National Laboratories

Testing and Research:

Nevada National Security Site

Production:

Kansas City National Security Campus

Savannah River Site

Pantex Plant

Y-12 National Security Complex

TVA’s Watts Barr Reactor

Support:

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

In a 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) prepared by Department of Defense (DOD), concern was expressed over the aging and funding levels for the U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure. Funding for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semiautonomous DOE agency, has increased in both budget request funding and actual funding appropriation levels each fiscal year. Most recently, NNSA received budgetary increases to achieve the goal of producing 80 nuclear pits per year, which would take place at Los Alamos (30 pits) and the Savannah River Site (50 pits). There is some skepticism over the feasibility of this two-pronged approach.

The report moves through summarizing the background, origins, and organization of the Nuclear Weapons Enterprise beginning with the Manhattan Project. Most significantly, the report provides an updated overview of the nine sites along with the TVA reactor.

  • Los Alamos: solely responsible for the nuclear design and engineering of the B61, W76, W78, and W88 warheads. It also manages the life extension and alteration programs affecting the W76 warhead, the B61-12 bomb, and the W88 warhead.48 These programs replace aging components in existing warheads with “newly manufactured and sometimes modernized components.” Los Alamos has the unique capability within the weapons complex for plutonium processing and fabrication.

    • FY2020: operating budget $2.58 billion, with $1.95 billion (76%) allocated to nuclear weapons activities

    • FY201 request: $3.43 billion, with $2.91 billion (85%) allocated to weapons activities

  • Lawrence Livermore: solely responsible for nuclear design activities for the B83 bomb, W80 warhead, and W87 warhead. It is also responsible for the life extension program for the W80-4 cruise missile warhead and for the development of the first interoperable warhead (IW1).

    • FY2020: operating budget $1.89 billion, with $1.59 billion (84%) allocated to nuclear weapons activities

    • FY2021 request: $2.02 billion, with $1.79 billion (89%) allocated to nuclear weapons activities

  • Sandia: designs, develops, and tests the nonnuclear components that are required to arm, fuse, and fire a weapon to military specifications. Sandia is also responsible for the systems integration of U.S. nuclear weapons, including integration with DOD’s nuclear capable delivery vehicles. In addition, Sandia participates in the warhead life extension programs, as it is responsible for the nonnuclear components of each weapon

    • FY2020: operating budget $3.92 billion, $2.52 billion was provided by NNSA, and $2.06 billion (82%) was allocated to nuclear weapons activities

    • FY2021 request: $2.8 billion included $2.4 billion for weapons activities

  • Nevada National Security Site: the site is not only the primary location where experiments using radiological and other high-hazard materials can occur but is also the only location where “highly enriched-driven plutonium experiments” can be conducted.

    • FY2020: operating budget $510 million, with $357 million (70%) for nuclear weapons activities

    • FY2021 request: $744 million, with $588 million (79%) was allocated to nuclear weapons activities

  • Kansas City National Security Campus: is responsible for the procurement and manufacturing of nonnuclear mechanical, electronic, and engineered material components for nuclear weapons. While some of these components are produced at Los Alamos National Laboratories, about 85% are produced at Kansas City. According to NNSA, the NSC is also responsible for evaluating and testing nonnuclear weapon components

    • FY2020: $1.01 billion, with $957.6 million (95%) for nuclear weapons activities

    • FY2021 request: $1.2 billion, with $1.13 billion (94.6%) allocated to weapons activities

  • Savannah River Site: SRS no longer operates its nuclear reactors, and, therefore, no longer produces tritium. It does, however, recycle tritium from dismantled warheads. It also extracts tritium from tritium producing burnable absorber rods irradiated in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Watts Barr commercial power reactors 1 and 2 in Tennessee. SRS also provides interim storage for much of the excess plutonium in the United States and maintains responsibility for the surplus plutonium disposition program, although this effort is in flux.

    • FY2020: $2.41 billion, with $753 million (31%) weapons related

    • FY2021 request: $2.62 billion, with $867 million (33%) for weapons activities

  • Pantex Plant: Since 1975, it has been the only facility in the United States where nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled. Pantex is also responsible for the development, testing, and fabrication of high-explosive components.

    • FY2020: $885 million, with $879 million (99.3%) directed to weapons activities

    • FY2021 request: $1.0 billion, with $992 million (99.1%) allocated to the weapons activity

  • Y-12 National Security Complex: The Y-12 site continues to manufacture nuclear weapons components from uranium and lithium. It manufactures all U.S. nuclear weapons secondaries, canned subassemblies (CSAs), and radiation cases, and it is the only source for enriched uranium components for nuclear weapons. It also contributes to life extension programs by producing refurbished, replaced, and upgraded weapon components. In addition, Y-12 serves as the main storage facility for highly enriched uranium; conducts dismantlement, storage, and disposition of highly enriched uranium; and supplies highly enriched uranium used in naval reactors.

    • FY2020: $1.89 billion, with $1.84 billion related to weapons activities

    • FY2021 request: $2.24 billion, with $750 million allocated to weapons activities

  • TVA Watts Barr Reactor: NNSA has been producing tritium by irradiating Tritium-Producing Burnable Absorber Rods (TPBARs) in the Watts Bar Unit 1 (WBN1) nuclear power reactor owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).101 In addition to producing tritium, this reactor burns domestically produced low-enriched uranium and produces electricity for domestic use.

  • Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: WIPP missions include: (1) disposal of TRU waste generated by ongoing nuclear weapons production activities; (2) disposal of TRU waste generated during “cleanup” operations by DOE’s Environmental Management program, and (3) disposition of plutonium declared “surplus” from stockpile needs.

    • FY2020: $400 million

    • FY2021 request: $388 million, $413 million enacted

2020

Nuclear Waste Storage Sites in the United States
Congressional Research Service - Updated April 13, 2020

The report identifies all of the sites where nuclear waste is stored in the US including the DOE/NNSA sites, nuclear energy production sites and other (stranded) sites.

The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Overview of Department of Energy Sites
Congressional Research Service - Updated February 3, 2020

The report is the current background on the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, which the Department of Energy (DOE) refers to as the Nuclear Security Enterprise, the current incarnation of an evolving infrastructure designed to meet the requirements mandated by the Atomic Energy Act to “ensure ... the [U.S. nuclear] stockpile is safe, secure, and reliable to perform [as intended] as the Nation’s nuclear deterrent.”