Department of Energy FY 2012 Congressional ... - The FIRE Place

FY 2010
Actual
Approp
(dollars in thousands)
FY 2011
Request
FY 2012
Request
Civilian Nuclear Sites 63,481 59,027 59,117
The Civilian Nuclear Sites program element improves security at 31 civilian nuclear sites (18 Russian
sites and 13 sites outside of Russia). The basic MPC&A upgrade objective is to employ a costeffective,
graded approach with an initial focus on installing upgrades for the most highly proliferantattractive
nuclear material at each site. Rapid MPC&A upgrades are installed to mitigate the
immediate risk of theft and diversion, until long term, more comprehensive MPC&A upgrades are
designed, installed, and placed into operation. Following the completion of initial rapid and
comprehensive site upgrades, U.S. funding will continue at a reduced level to: (1) help foster site
capabilities to operate and maintain installed security systems, and (2) support replacement of
equipment and possible additional security enhancements, e.g., perimeter upgrades, as warranted. This
program element will also continue to support those sites with completed MPC&A comprehensive
upgrades.
In FY 2012, INMP&C plans to provide sustainability support to 15 civilian nuclear sites with
completed MPC&A upgrades including support for training, procedures, maintenance, equipment
repair, critical spare parts, performance testing, and other activities at these sites, in order to ensure the
sustainability of those upgrades and support additional MPC&A upgrades focused on addressing
outsider and insider threats within the Civilian Nuclear sites. Sustainability support is not being
provided to four Russian Civilian sites because three sites have withdrawn from cooperation, and all of
the highly attractive nuclear material has been transferred from the fourth site.
In addition, in FY 2012, INMP&C plans to continue to cooperate with countries outside of Russia and
the Former Soviet States in order to increase MPC&A awareness and to provide assistance to protect
weapons exploitable materials. This will include engagement with China on modern nuclear material
security methodologies and best practices. Planned activities generally include training, technical
exchanges, and consultations to improve security at nuclear material locations. It may be appropriate
with some partners to support security upgrades for sites with weapons exploitable nuclear materials
which are the most vulnerable to theft and/or diversion. This MPC&A assistance is expected to
significantly reduce the risk of theft and/or diversion of weapons exploitable materials by potential
terrorists seeking to produce nuclear weapons.
Material Consolidation and Conversion 13,611 13,867 14,306
The Material Consolidation and Conversion (MCC) program element reduces the complexity and the
long-term costs of securing weapons exploitable nuclear material. The MCC project is designed to
significantly reduce the proliferation risk associated with weapons exploitable nuclear materials by
consolidating excess, weapons-useable HEU and plutonium into fewer, more secure locations.
This approach can decrease the number of proliferant-attractive theft targets and the equipment and
personnel costs associated with securing such material. The MCC also converts weapons exploitable
Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation/
International Nuclear Materials
Protection and Cooperation Page 363
FY 2012 Congressional Budget