Costs Double for Securing U.S. Tactical Nukes in Europe

March 12, 2014 | Edited by Lauren Mladenka and Geoff Wilson

Costs double - “The cost of securing U.S. non-strategic nuclear weapons deployed in Europe is expected to nearly double to meet increased U.S. security standards,” writes Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists. “According to the Department of Defense NATO Security Investment Program, NATO has invested over $80 Million since 2000 to secure nuclear weapons storage sites in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. But according to the Department of Defense budget request, new U.S. security standards will require another $154 million to further beef up security at six bases in the five countries.”

--“In addition to the growing security costs, the United States spends approximately $100 million per year to deploy 184 nuclear B61 bombs in the five NATO countries. And it plans to spend an additional $10 billion on modernizing the B61 bombs and hundreds of millions on integrating the weapons on the new F-35A Lightning fighter-bomber,” Kristensen says. “No doubt the United States and NATO have more urgent defense needs to spend that money on than non-strategic nuclear weapons.” Full piece here. http://bit.ly/1cuKaqw

Supporting smart nuclear cutting - “Budget belt tightening seems to apply to everything but nuclear weapons,” writes Eric Tamerlani in a piece for Roll Call. “Basic necessities for United States citizens struggle to find funding, while the nuclear weapons budget is insulated from fiscal reality.” Indeed, “The 10-year cost of nuclear modernization is a steep $355 billion, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. A separate analysis by the Monterey Institute has the 30-year cost at an astonishing $1 trillion dollars.”

--“Luckily, several members of Congress have filed legislation that would curtail nuclear weapons modernization before bank-breaking costs start to soar. Last month Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., introduced near identical pieces of legislation. Markey’s ‘Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act’ and Blumenauer’s ‘Reduce Expenditures in Nuclear Infrastructure Now Act’ would save taxpayers $100 billion on nuclear weapons over 10 years… Markey and Blumenauer’s proposals are sensible and restrain excessive nuclear weapon projects.” Read the full piece here. http://bit.ly/1nLIlXQ

Tweet - @WomensAction: "The irrelevance of the Pentagon’s Cold War calibrations—like the US nuclear arsenal itself—has never been clearer." http://t.co/35Q5yXBGKg

LRSB price tag - “The U.S. Air Force is ‘holding tight’ to a target of $550 million for each new long-range bomber in a fleet of up to 100 aircraft, excluding research and development costs, an Air Force official said on Tuesday… He said the cost per aircraft would be higher if research and development costs and inflation were added. He acknowledged that ‘a number of people’ thought the $550 million target was too low to develop the requirements needed for a next-generation bomber. The Air Force planned to spend nearly $12 billion on the bomber program over the next five years, said spokesman Ed Gulick. He said the $550 million target was calculated in 2010 dollars, assuming a fleet of 100 bombers.” Read the full report from Reuters here. http://reut.rs/1nLvV21

Pleading for pork - “Several Republicans have asked South Carolina's governor to explore possible legal action to avoid the closure of a multi-billion dollar project to turn weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel,” writes Meg Kinnard for AP. “U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson implored Gov. Nikki Haley to work with state prosecutors to ‘explore any legal avenues’ to keep the mixed-oxide fuel project going at the Savannah River Site.”

--“The [Government Accountability Office] has said the project is more than three years behind its 2016 completion deadline — and at least $3 billion over budget, at $7.7 billion. In a report last month, the watchdog agency said the U.S. Department of Energy needed to get a better handle on why the plant's costs have ballooned by billions of dollars,” Kinnard says. “The Obama administration began the process of slowing down the project's funding last year, saying MOX ‘may be unaffordable.’ In his proposed 2015 budget sent to Congress last week, President Barack Obama essentially said he wants to mothball the program, putting MOX on ‘cold standby’ while officials evaluate alternative ways to dispose of plutonium.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/O1tNXz

Iron Dome may expand - “Israel on Monday signaled it was open to possibly extending its missile defense system to cover neighbors Egypt and Jordan,” Global Security Newswire reports. “Amman and Cairo both have longstanding peace agreements with Israel. Like their neighbor, Egypt and Jordan have been rattled by the continuing civil war in Syria and by Iran's atomic-energy development.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/1icT9MU

South Korea looks to upgrade missile defense - South Korea will sign a deal to upgrade its Patriot missile system by the end of this year, the defense procurement agency said on Wednesday, with the contract valued at around 1.5 trillion won ($1.41 billion). The upgrade, which is set to benefit U.S. defense firms Raytheon Co (RTN.N) and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), is part of South Korea's plan to increase its anti-ballistic capabilities against unpredictable North Korea, which has carried out two long-range missile tests and a nuclear weapons test in the past two years.” Read the full report from Reuters here. http://reut.rs/1fTIRSQ

India cuts Iran oil imports - “India has to cut its Iranian oil imports by nearly two-thirds from the first quarter after the United States asked it to hold the shipments at end-2013 levels, in keeping with the nuclear deal easing sanctions on Tehran,” Nidhi Verma reports for Reuters. Full story here. http://reut.rs/1hc3vKy

Tweet - @rjsmithcpi: Plutonium fever blossoms in Japan, helped by cronyism, influence-buying, and a stifling of dissent.. CPI story: http://t.co/mE1KLLuEgI

Bomb in the basement - “Government officials and proliferation experts say Japan is happy to let neighbors like China and North Korea believe it is part of the nuclear club, because it has a ‘bomb in the basement’ -– the material and the means to produce nuclear weapons within six months, according to some estimates. And with tensions rising in the region, China’s belief in the ‘bomb in the basement’ is strong enough that it has demanded Japan get rid of its massive stockpile of plutonium and drop plans to open a new breeder reactor this fall,” writes Robert Windrem for NBC.

--“According to a senior Japanese government official deeply involved in the country’s nuclear energy program, Japan has been able to build nuclear weapons ever since it launched a plutonium breeder reactor and a uranium enrichment plant 30 years ago… Japan now has 9 tons of plutonium stockpiled at several locations in Japan and another 35 tons stored in France and the U.K. The material is enough to create 5,000 nuclear bombs. The country also has 1.2 tons of enriched uranium.”

--“Technical ability doesn’t equate to a bomb, but experts suggest getting from raw plutonium to a nuclear weapon could take as little as six months after the political decision to go forward. A senior U.S. official familiar with Japanese nuclear strategy said the six-month figure for a country with Japan’s advanced nuclear engineering infrastructure was not out of the ballpark, and no expert gave an estimate of more than two years… Still, even without a bomb, Japan has achieved a level of nuclear deterrence without building a bomb and suffering sanctions.” Full story here. http://nbcnews.to/1cRkRK8

Tweet - @BulletinAtomic: How Beijing can help prevent nuclear terrorism #China #nukes http://bit.ly/1njYqHn

Events:

--“Iran Nuclear Deal: Breakthrough or Failure?” Discussion with Robert Einhorn, Karim Sadjadpour, and Bret Stephens, and Reuel Gerecht. March 11 from 5:00-7:00 at George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium, 805 21st St. NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1hFYrQn

--”The Future of Global Nuclear Security Policy Summit.” Discussion with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, former Sen. Sam Nunn, former Rep. Jane Harman, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Ambassador Kare Aas, former Ambassador Renee Jones-Bos, Matthew Bunn, and William Tobey. March 12 from 8:00-10:00am at Newseum, Knight Broadcast Studio, third floor, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1i0fzAt

--”Nuclear Materials Attractiveness.” Discussion hosted by the Institute of Nuclear Materials. March 13 from 11:30-1:30 at George Washington University, Lindner Family Commons, room 602, 1957 E St. NW. RSVP by email to joseph.glasner@nnsa.doe.gov

--”Nuclear Weapons Gone Missing: What Does History Teach US?” Discussion with Henry Sokolski, Charles Ferguson, Edwin Lyman, and Jodi Lieberman. March 13 from 3:15-5:00, room HC-8, Capitol Building. RSVP by email to monica.herman@mail.house.gov

--“Nuclear Security and Japan’s Plutonium Path.” Discussion with Douglas Birch, Jeffrey Smith, Matthew Bunn, and Ambassador Nobuyasu Abe; moderated by Robert Einhorn. March 14 from 1:30-3:00 at Brookings, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1jRpx7P

Dessert:

Telling secrets - Benjamin Bishop, a “civilian defense contractor accused of giving military secrets to a Chinese girlfriend half his age will be entering a guilty plea,” AP reports. “An FBI affidavit last year alleged the then-59-year-old gave his 27-year-old girlfriend classified information about war plans, nuclear weapons, missile defenses and other topics.” Bishop’s attorney insists that “the two were in love and that the case was about love, not espionage.” Get the full story here. http://wapo.st/1njMO79