FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Amanda Waldron awaldron@armscontrolcenter.org 202.264.9400 Laicie Heeley lheeley@armscontrolcenter.org 202.586.1851 Yesterday, President Obama submitted to Congress his Fiscal Year 2016 Defense Budget Request, which includes a $534 billon base budget—the largest in nominal terms in the history of the Pentagon, ripping past sequestration caps. The president’s spending plan includes an additional $50.9 billion for […]
Nuclear Weapons Myths Published in National Interest
5 Myths about America’s Nuclear Weapons Debunked By Phillip Coyle, Robert Gard, John Isaacs, & Greg Terryn The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced last week that it has decided to move its famed “Doomsday Clock” three minutes closer to midnight or, in effect, closer to the “end of humanity.” While this year, the Bulletin focused […]
News Flash: Nuclear Weapons Still Expensive
The Congressional Budget Office’s Report on the Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces has again undercut the tired myth that our current nuclear weapon plans are inexpensive. According to the report, the administration’s plan for modernizing the nuclear triad is expected to cost $348 billion over the next decade, an average of about $35 billion a year. But these costs reflect only the tip of the budgetary iceberg. Reports such as the National Defense Panel Review of the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review and the Trillion Dollar Triad estimate the entire modernization plan will likely cost $1 trillion over the next 30 years.
Nuclear Piggy Bank
Analysis of the DOE Nuclear Non-Proliferation Budget for Fiscal Year 2015
Curious how much money US lawmakers appropriated to prevent nuclear terrorism and the spread of nuclear materials for fiscal year 2015? Deep within the 1,600 page Cromnibus, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) received $1.616 billion dollars, a $337 million reduction from FY 14.
Some good programs went unfunded, like cooperative threat reduction work with Russia. Some bad programs were funded well above the Obama administration’s request, like the Mixed Oxide fuel program dubbed the “fuel to nowhere.”
** Click here for our full analysis of the NNSA’s FY15 nuclear nonproliferation budget
