On February 1, the Obama administration proposed a 10 percent increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration's stockpile management programs. If approved, funding for the weapons complex including stockpile surveillance and warhead life extension programs would rise to just over $7 billion. The proposal would ensure funds for the agency to reach full production of the refurbished Navy W-76 Trident submarine warhead, to refurbish the B-61 bomb, and to study options for maintaining the W-78, the warhead in the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The request would also provide for a 10.4 percent increase, to $1.6 billion, in funds for additional work in science and technology to enhance confidence in the annual certification of the nuclear stockpile. An additional $2 billion would go to the long-term program to upgrade weapons-complex facilities, including a new plutonium facility for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a uranium manufacturing plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn.
What does it mean?