Senator Blocking Cabinet Nominee Over Funds for Failing Plutonium Plant

On the radar: Carolina pork holder; Gen. Kehler on Minot; Perspective on no first use; Nominations; New START by 2017; B-61 undermining/underpinning triad; and North Korean traffic cop gets state’s highest award.

May 10, 2013 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke

Pork hostage - Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested he might drop his hold on Ernest Moniz, the Obama administration’s nominee to be Secretary of Energy, if the administration doesn’t look into alternatives to finishing the $8 billion, embarrassingly mismanaged, Mixed Oxide plutonium plant in South Carolina.

--”The administration is right to want to lower costs of the MOX program. They’re wrong to want to study an alternative, and I fear that once you do the study the thing will be abandoned,” said Sen. Graham. Zack Coleman at The Hill has the story on pork, politics and the palmetto state. http://bit.ly/10xis0G

Inspections and confidence - Following the recent lapses in ICBM officer readiness at Minot Air Force Base, Gen. Robert Kehler, Commander of US Strategic Command, told a House Armed Services Committee panel that the Air Force Inspector General is going to do an additional review of the missile wing’s inspection.

--"As I sit here today, I don't see anything that would cause me to lose confidence" in the Minot missile wing’s ability to perform the mission, said Gen. Kehler. Robert Burns at AP has the story. http://yhoo.it/12lK0YM

”ICB-OMG” - That’s the title of Rachel Maddow’s segment on the Minot ICBM officers’ recent shortfalls. Full story from her show last night on MSNBC. http://nbcnews.to/134snvg

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Tweet - @MarkThompson_DC: GAO says DoD using "unproven targets" for missile defense. Makes sense against unproven threats. On Battleland, at http://t.co/ci0PZhjz0u

Nominations - President Obama nominated Rose Gottemoeller to the position of Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Gottoemoeller currently serves as acting undersecretary for the position and previously served as the lead negotiator for the New START treaty. Global Security Newswire has the story. http://bit.ly/17R8BrJ

Compliance - “The department is on track now to ensure that … compliance with the [New START] treaty is achieved, and at the moment, it looks like compliance can be achieved with about a six-month window to spare,” said Madelyn Creedon, assistant Defense secretary for global strategic affairs during a Thursday hearing of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. Global Security Newswire has the quote. http://bit.ly/15UcyP1

Context on No First Use - U.S. analyst often question China’s commitment to its long-standing no first use policy on nuclear weapons. Providing historical context, Greg Kulacki at notes that the original policy “was meant to communicate that China would be different [from the Soviet Union]; an attempt to justify its decision and persuade others that China would never use its nuclear weapons to coerce another state.”

--”This justification is central to China’s modern national identity as a leader of the developing world. For this reason, it is highly unlikely that China would abandon it, especially without a very public explanation, not necessarily to the United States, but to its intended audiences in Asia, Africa and Latin America.” Full post at All Things Nuclear.http://bit.ly/17Rg2PM

Tweet - @RANDCorporation: Expect continuity (with opportunity) in this weekend's Pakistan elections. http://t.co/4yCAjacDeX

Check your transcripts - A transcript from a Tuesday hearing showed the Director of Sandia National Labs as saying, “I am pleased to report that we are now nearly a year into full-scale engineering development on the B61, executing the minimum technical scope that addresses longstanding issues with the system and, when complete, will provide the nation with a capability that will undermine the air leg of the triad for decades to come.” Emphasis mine.

--Mark Thompson at Battleland asked for Sandia to double check that quote. Corrected: “will provide the nation with the capability that will underpin the air leg of the triad for decades to come.” Full post here. http://ti.me/11Yk1Gh

Sanctions backgrounder - “New U.S. Sanctions on Nuclear Program, Bank and Shipping.” Backgrounder on new sanctions from the Departments of State and Treasury by USIP’s “Iran Primer.” http://bit.ly/ZNwivT

Events:

--”Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence, Arms Control and the Triad” Breakfast talk with Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). May 14th from 8:00-9:00 am. RSVP here. http://conta.cc/162LaOe

Dessert:

Ri can be hero, just for one day - A North Korean “traffic girl,” Ri Kong Sim, received North Korea’s highest honor - The Hero of the Republic - for actions she took to put out a fire near a poster that had Kim Jong-un’s name on it. The award is usually reserved for military bravery or nuclear scientists, but Max Fisher at The Washington Post explains how propaganda preservation heroics somehow fit within North Korean regime’s official ideology. http://wapo.st/16mqn8n