National Nuclear Security Administration releases annual Stockpile Stewardship, Nuclear Nonproliferation report

The Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recently released its annual reports outlining its efforts to maintain the U.S. nuclear stockpile and prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

“The Trump Administration’s 2018 Nuclear Posture Review sets a clear course to modernize the Nuclear Security Enterprise for 21st-century threats,” Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator, said. “NNSA began work immediately to implement this guidance, and these two reports reflect our commitment to maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent and to reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.”

The Fiscal Year 2019 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan (SSMP) and the Prevent, Counter, and Respond—A Strategic Plan to Reduce Global Nuclear Threats (NPCR) outline NNSA’s strategic direction for maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile as well as the agency’s efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons around the world and respond to nuclear and radiological threats, accidents or incidents. The reports also address infrastructure modernization and management of strategic materials.

This year’s SSMP addresses policy introduced by the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review and includes information on three warhead life extension programs and one major warhead alteration.

The FY 2019 NPCR provides an updated overview of NNSA’s “prevent-counter-respond” framework for the range of nuclear threats in today’s geopolitical environment. Challenges to the global nuclear nonproliferation regime include concerns about the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran; terrorist threats in Europe and the United States; frequent and sophisticated cyberattacks; and the emergence of new and potentially proliferation-relevant technologies, NNSA said. The NPCR outlines a defense-in-depth strategy to reduce these threats.