National Nuclear Security Administration

National Nuclear Security Administration
Agency overview
Formed	2000[1]
Employees	at least 1,500 (2006)
Annual budget	$9.1 billion (2006)
Agency executives	Tom D'Agostino, Administrator William Ostendorff, Deputy Administrator
Parent agency	Department of Energy
Website
www.nnsa.energy.gov

The United States National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is part of the United States Department of Energy. It works to improve national security through the military application of nuclear energy. The NNSA also maintains and improves the safety, reliability, and performance of the United States nuclear weapons stockpile, including the ability to design, produce, and test, in order to meet national security requirements.

Mission and operations

NNSA has four missions with regard to National Security:

• To provide the United States Navy with safe, militarily effective nuclear propulsion plants and to ensure the safe and reliable operation of those plants.
• To promote international nuclear safety and nonproliferation.
• To reduce global danger from weapons of mass destruction.
• To support United States leadership in science and technology.

The NNSA maintains a database containing personal information on 37,000 persons who design and maintain nuclear weapons for the U. S. government.

The NNSA's Office of Secure Transportation (OST) provides safe and secure transportation of nuclear weapons and components and special nuclear materials, and conducts other missions supporting the national security of the United States of America. Since 1974, OST has been assigned responsibility to develop, operate, and manage a system for the safe and secure transportation of all government-owned, DOE or NNSA controlled special nuclear materials in "strategic" or "significant" quantities. Shipments are transported in specially designed equipment and are escorted by armed federal agents.

The agency works in more than 130 countries to recover nuclear materials. In its 12-year history it has collected 20,600 dangerous sources of radiation. In 2008, the agency recovered 3,153 radioactive sources. Its current backlog of uncollected items numbers 8,800. The program costs about $15 million a year. Most of the recovered material is stored at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.^[2]

Data security concerns

The NNSA was formed in 1999 in response to the Wen Ho Lee espionage scandal at Los Alamos National Laboratory.^[3]

In June 2006, the New York Times reported that sensitive information on nuclear weapons workers had been stolen from the NNSA, and stated that the theft had gone unreported for nine months following the theft.

On January 5, 2007, President Bush accepted the recommendation of Energy Secretary Bodman to designate Tom D'Agostino as Acting Administrator. Most recently, D'Agostino served as Deputy Administrator of NNSA for Defense Programs.

Hungarian Enriched Uranium

The NNSA, in cooperation with Russian and other agencies, helped transport 341 pounds of enriched uranium in 13 radiation proof casks weighing 17,000 lbs apiece from Budapest to Siberia. In late September 2008 the casks were secretly loaded onto trucks at the Budapest facility and then taken to the city's train station, where it was transported onto a special train for an eight-hour trip to the port of Koper in Slovenia on the Adriatic Sea.

The shipments then moved through the Mediterranean, through the Strait of Gibraltar, up the Atlantic and into the English Channel, the North and Norwegian seas and then on to Murmansk. From there the shipment was loaded on a train for the long trip to Siberia.

This operation was conducted by American and Russian officials to ensure the safe disposal of the radioactive uranium that is highly enriched and weapons-grade. The Hungarian reactor is now being converted to use low-enriched uranium that cannot be used in a weapon and will not be a potential terrorist target.^[4]

Facilities

• Bannister Federal Complex
• Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Y-12 National Security Complex

Notes

1. ^ NNSA Act (Title XXXII of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, Public Law 106-65)
2. ^ Paddock, Richard C., "A Hunt For Radioactive Castoffs: Little-known U.S. agency prevents old nuclear material from being used in a terrorist weapon", Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2009, p. 3.
3. ^ GAO-07-36, National Nuclear Security Administration: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Management of the Nation's Nuclear Programs
4. ^ http://nnsa.energy.gov/news/2189.htm

External links

• United States National Nuclear Security Administration
• United States Department of Energy
• New York Times story: Data Theft at Nuclear Agency Went Unreported for 9 Months, June 10, 2006
• Gusterson, Hugh (December 25, 2007). "Misadventures at the U.S. Energy Department". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/hugh-gusterson/misadventures-us-energy-department. Retrieved 2009-08-17. 

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