Life Extension Program for B61 Nuclear Bomb Costs Twice Its Weight in Gold

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CCNS NEWS UPDATE and ACTION ALERT

Runs 11/1/13 through 11/8/13

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

*  Life Extension Program for B61 Nuclear Bomb Costs Twice Its Weight in Gold

The Pentagon and the Department of Energy (DOE) have proposed to refurbish up to 500 B61 nuclear bombs with new military capabilities at a cost of $12 billion.  This is an expensive proposition.  Each bomb is estimated to weigh 700 pounds.  Gold is currently priced at over $1,350 per troy ounce.  In the extreme and at that cost, each bomb could be made out of solid gold and have an exact twin.

More than $2.65 billion of the work would be done at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque under the Life Extension Program.  About 180 of the B61 Cold War bombs are based in Europe.  Government officials in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, where many of the bombs are based, are asking that they be removed.

The costs of the program have increased exponentially over the years.  The Obama Administration requested $537 million for the B61 refurbishment in Fiscal Year 14, which began October 1st.  The House Appropriations Committee fully funded the request, but the Senate Appropriations Committee cut the budget 31 percent, or $168 million.  Because of the recent Continuing Resolution, the B61 funding extends current, lower funding levels.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico has argued for some time that the Life Extension Program will give new military capabilities to the B61.  The Air Force is proposing to modify the tail kit.  Jay Coghlan, Executive Director of the group, said that the tail kit assembly “will dramatically increase the targeting accuracy, functionally melding tactical and strategic variants.”  He added that the Department of Energy Life Extension Program “will transform a dumb analogue bomb into a digital nuclear ‘smart’ bomb for delivery by future super stealthy aircraft,” referring to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  Coghlan concluded by saying, “In my view, this combination clearly creates new military capabilities.”   http://www.nukewatch.org

Further, in June a coalition of religious organizations wrote to the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee arguing against funding the B61 nuclear bomb refurbishment.  They wrote, “In these times of fiscal constraints, when funding for social programs and services that promote human security by helping feed and house the disenfranchised and the needy are being reduced, it is morally unjustifiable to spend billions of dollars on nuclear weapons systems that we do not need.”

Joni Arends, of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, urged the public to contact their elected officials.  She said, “Now is the time to contact your elected congressional members and voice your concerns.  For more information and an electronic action alert, please visit the Friends Committee on National Legislation website at http://fcnl.org/issues/nuclear/.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  For more information, please visit our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

11-22-13 ACTION ALERT!

Contact your Senators to cut funding for the B61 Life Extension Program.  Sample comment letters are available at http://www.fcnl.org.  Last week, Senator Corker (R-TN) introduced the following amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act:

SA 2338 <http://beta.congress.gov//amendment/113th-congress/senate-amendment/2338/>. Mr. CORKER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1197 <http://beta.congress.gov//bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1197/>, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of subtitle E of title X, add the following: SEC. 1046. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON B61-12 LIFE EXTENSION PROGRAM. (a) Findings.–Congress makes the following findings:

(1) During the debate in the Senate on the ratification of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, signed on April 8, 2010, and entered into force on February 5, 2011, between the United States and the Russian Federation (commonly known as the “New START Treaty”), leaders in both Congress and the executive branch acknowledged the critical linkage between the modernization of the nuclear arsenal and the ability to safely reduce the number of warheads in the nuclear stockpile of the United States.

(2) As proposed by the President, successfully executing the B61-12 life extension program would generate an 53 percent reduction in the total number of air-delivered gravity weapons in the active and inactive nuclear stockpile of the United States and an 87 percent reduction in the total amount of nuclear material utilized by air-delivered gravity weapons in the nuclear stockpile of the United States.

(3) The B61-12 life extension program has already been delayed by fluctuating appropriations and further delays in appropriations threaten the viability and credibility of the nuclear deterrent of the United States and the nuclear assurances provided to allies of the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and in the Pacific region.

(4) Alternative proposals to refurbish B61 nuclear weapons do not meet the military requirements of the United States Strategic Command and fail to address all of the concerns relating to aging faced by the existing B61 series of air- delivered gravity weapons.

(b) Sense of Congress.–It is the Sense of Congress that–

(1) further delays to the B61-12 life extension program would have unacceptable effects on the reliability and credibility of the nuclear deterrent of the United States; and

(2) it is critical that the United States ensure that there are no further delays in successfully executing the ongoing B61-12 life extension program, development of the associated tail-kit assembly, and development of a nuclear-capable F-35 Block 4 aircraft. ______

SA 2339 <http://beta.congress.gov//amendment/113th-congress/senate-amendment/2339/>. Mr. CORKER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1197 <http://beta.congress.gov//bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1197/>, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of subtitle E of title X, add the following: [[Page S8286 <http://beta.congress.gov//congressional-record/2013/senate-section/page/S8286>]] SEC. 1046. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON B61-12 LIFE EXTENSION PROGRAM.

(a) Findings.–Congress makes the following findings:

(1) During the debate in the Senate on the ratification of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, signed on April 8, 2010, and entered into force on February 5, 2011, between the United States and the Russian Federation (commonly known as the “New START Treaty”), leaders in both Congress and the executive branch acknowledged the critical linkage between the modernization of the nuclear arsenal and the ability to safely reduce the number of warheads in the nuclear stockpile of the United States.

(2) As proposed by the President, successfully executing the B61-12 life extension program would generate an 53 percent reduction in the total number of air-delivered gravity weapons in the active and inactive nuclear stockpile of the United States and an 87 percent reduction in the total amount of nuclear material utilized by air-delivered gravity weapons in the nuclear stockpile of the United States.

(3) The B61-12 life extension program has already been delayed by fluctuating appropriations and further delays in appropriations threaten the viability and credibility of the nuclear deterrent of the United States and the nuclear assurances provided to allies of the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and in the Pacific region.

(4) Alternative proposals to refurbish B61 nuclear weapons do not meet the military requirements of the United States Strategic Command and fail to address all of the concerns relating to aging faced by the existing B61 series of air- delivered gravity weapons.

(b) Sense of Congress.–It is the Sense of Congress that–

(1) further delays to the B61-12 life extension program would have unacceptable effects on the reliability and credibility of the nuclear deterrent of the United States; and

(2) it is critical that the United States ensure that there are no further delays in successfully executing the ongoing B61-12 life extension program, development of the associated tail-kit assembly, and development of a nuclear-capable F-35 Block 4 aircraft.