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

The DSW program also interfaces with other organizations and their mission areas including Campaigns
to coordinate component and manufacturing maturation to improve surety (safety, security, and use
control), reliability, and survivability of the stockpile; fill critical knowledge gaps in order to ensure
success of DSW mission; and provide the necessary tools and capabilities to assess and sustain the
reliability and performance of the nation’s aging stockpile. The Readiness in Technical Base and
Facilities (RTBF) program provides the facilities and infrastructure, and the personnel who maintain
them, are essential for being able to perform DSW work. In addition, the Secure Transportation Asset
provides secure movement of weapons and weapons components to enable execution of the DSW
missions.
The crosscutting mission of DSW increases the need for mature programmatic interrelationships beyond
those within the Weapons Activities appropriation. Nonproliferation, Nuclear Energy, Environmental
Management, and Homeland Security missions leverage technical capabilities such as those maintained
within the materials processing enterprises of plutonium, uranium, and tritium sustainment. Specifically
within DSW, the Plutonium Sustainment subprogram integrates with the overarching plutonium
program plans, campaigns, facilities, and the technical base (personnel and skills) and provides the
means to maintain necessary capabilities required for mission success. The DSW program sustains and
retains the technical skills and infrastructure critical to the nation’s ability to work with plutonium across
a range of applications. The skills and infrastructure historically retained by the weapons program serve
other national missions. Examples include: Pu-238 Heat Source production for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, Advanced Nuclear Fuels development, production of parts and
shapes for scientific experimental purposes, nuclear forensics support, capability development and
demonstration and minimal production of plutonium oxide from surplus pits for mixed-oxide fuel, and a
Pu-metal standards exchange program that distributes samples for analysis/calibration to participating
labs, which includes the United Kingdom’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) and the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The DSW derives its nuclear weapons stockpile requirements from the President’s NWSP. The DOE
and DoD jointly convene the Nuclear Weapons Council (NWC) and develop recommended actions for
presidential direction in the NWSP. The NWC also drives ongoing maintenance activities, warhead life
extension needs, stockpile surveillance and assessment, and research and development (R&D) of new
technologies needed to support the current and future stockpile. The DSW will, in coordination with the
DoD: (1) provide unique skills, equipment, testers, and logistics to enable nuclear weapons operations;
(2) develop, produce and replace limited life components; (3) conduct scheduled weapons maintenance;
(4) conduct surveillance and evaluations to assess weapons reliability and to detect/anticipate potential
weapons issues; (5) quantify margins and uncertainties in order to assess and certify the nuclear
stockpile; (6) develop options for enhanced safety, security, and reliability for insertion into Life
Extension Programs (LEP)/modifications/alterations; (7) efficiently extend the life of existing weapons
systems through authorized modifications to correct technical issues and enhance safety, security, and
reliability; (8) provide dismantlement and disposition of weapons and components for weapons retired
from the stockpile; (9) compile and analyzes information during the Annual Assessment process to
determine if problems exists, and (10) sustain the plutonium infrastructure to meet enduring national
requirements unique to this special nuclear material.
Weapons Activities/
Directed Stockpile Work Page 59
FY 2012 Congressional Budget