REPORT ADVOCATES NNSA MODERNIZATION CUTS

A new report out by the Project on Government Oversight and Taxpayers for Common Sense suggests massive cuts to plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex as part of a plan that could reduce the nation’s deficit by $688 billion over the next 10 years. The report takes aim at a host of familiar nuclear-related targets, suggesting that $6.5 billion could be saved by cancelling the Uranium Processing Facility planned for Y-12 and another $4.9 billion could be banked by stopping construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site. The report also says cutting the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory—which the Administration already wants to defer for at least five years—would save between $3.7 and $5.9 billion, while $2.1 billion could be saved by making NATO allies pay for part of the cost of refurbishing B61 bombs that are deployed as part of the nation’s extended deterrent in Europe. Another $23 billion could be saved by down-blending more highly enriched uranium and selling it as low-enriched uranium, according to the report. “If Congress is serious about reducing the deficit, it can no longer treat the bloated Pentagon budget as if it were untouchable,” POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said in a statement. “The savings we have identified not only make sense, they can be achieved with no loss to our national security.”