JASON DEFENSE ADVISORY GROUP SIGNS OFF ON NNSA’S B61 PLANS

A recent review of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s refurbishment plans for the B61 nuclear bomb by the JASON Defense Advisory Group reveals no technical show-stoppers while suggesting that the biggest risks to the project involve money. “There are no radical new technologies being introduced into the NEP that cause JASON to have a significant technical concern about certification,” the group wrote in an August working paper delivered to the NNSA, which was obtained by NW&M Monitor. “Most of the uncertainty regarding the ability to execute this LEP [life extension program] appears to derive from unpredictable funding and the attendant risk to the 2019 FPU [First Production Unit] schedule, rather than unsettled military requirements or new and unproven technologies.” Funding, however, could prove to be a major issue for the program. Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) revealed earlier this year that the estimated cost for the refurbishment effort has skyrocketed over the last year, reaching $7.9 billion according to an NNSA estimate and $10 billion according to a Pentagon assessment. In its Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, the NNSA said it was delaying the completion of a FPU on the bomb two years, until 2019.