Senate OKs Study of Nuclear Agency
By Michael Coleman
Albuquerque Journal
Wed, Dec 5, 2012
WASHINGTON
– Sen. Tom Udall’s push for a congressional study of the National
Nuclear Security Administration gained steam Tuesday when the Senate
included his proposal in a bill authorizing defense programs.
The
New Mexico Democrat’s amendment would create an advisory panel to
suggest ways to reform NNSA, the federal agency that oversees New
Mexico’s nuclear laboratories.
Udall’s amendment was incorporated
in the Senate defense authorization bill, which unanimously passed the
Senate on Tuesday. The House version of the defense legislation,
approved in May, does not include Udall’s amendment, but it could be
added in House-Senate negotiations on a final bill.
The House
version does include a separate amendment sponsored by Rep. Ben Ray
Luján, D-N.M., that calls for an independent study of how best to
broaden the labs’ national security missions.
“Multiple reports
have called attention to the need to expand the labs’ mission in order
to strengthen their capabilities,” Luján said.
Udall said that
the NNSA is plagued by cost overruns, security breaches and management
issues and that the problems damage the science and nuclear stockpile
stewardship missions of the national labs.
“The ineffectiveness
of the NNSA is a serious national security issue, and our amendment will
take a good look at what is needed to reform it,” Udall said Tuesday in
a statement provided to the Journal.
The panel would “assess the
feasibility and advisability of, and make recommendations with respect
to, revising the governance structure of the National Nuclear Security
Administration,” according to Udall’s office.
The 12-member
panel’s membership would be bipartisan, with members appointed from the
House and Senate Armed Services committees. The members would be
appointed for one year and would be responsible for submitting a report
within 120 days of enactment of the amendment.
The report would
make specific recommendations, including how to improve scientific work,
safety and employee retention. The study would also explore ways to
diversify the national labs’ missions.
Among the directives in
the amendment is a requirement that the panel consider whether oversight
of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex should “remain with the
(presidential) administration or be transferred to another agency.” Some
NNSA critics have suggested the nuclear weapons labs should fall under
the purview of the Department of Defense.
5 comments:
NNSA can't be "reformed". Don't fall for that scheme once again. Just scrap it completely!
It's the labs that need to be broken up, reformed, discarded, whatever.
Great... another useless study leading to zero improvements or change at the Labs.
IMHO, all of the national labs (NNSA and DOE) need to be under the same office/agency. The mission of this office would be science and research first, not bottom line production and not profit generation for the contractors "running" the labs.
The hands-on aspects of nuclear weapons testing, production, dismantling can be in NNSA, but under a separate office/agency. That office/agency could enforce a strict rule based approach to oversight, and performance based incentives and fees for the contractors operating these sites - NTS, Y-12, Pantex, KCP, SRS.
To add to that sentiment, NIF, incapable of producing good science (for all the various sordid reasons) nor programmatic impact in stockpile stewardship, should be put under yet another agency. I say department of education. Maybe some of the programs supporting high school education can also help NIF figure out the appropriate way of determining the error bars on data.
Another study, more wasted paper. Nothing will change. Nothing will get fixed. Nothing.
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