Skip to main content

NNSA chief: Obama committed to nuclear security

Anonymously contributed:

NNSA chief: Obama committed to nuclear security

Special to the Oak Ridger
Posted Feb 21, 2011 @ 07:57 PM

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. —

In his first public remarks since the release of the fiscal year 2012 budget request, National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Thomas D'Agostino on Wednesday highlighted the Obama administration's commitment to nuclear security in a keynote address to the third annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.

Calling it an "unprecedented investment in ensuring the nuclear security of our country and our allies," D'Agostino said the FY 2012 budget request provides the resources to invest in NNSA's future, implement the president's nuclear security agenda and improve the way NNSA does business and manages its resources.

The budget request includes $11.78 billion for NNSA, an increase of 5.1 percent from the $11.2 billion requested for FY 2011. It includes $7.6 billion for the Weapons Activities appropriation, $2.5 billion for NNSA's nuclear nonproliferation program, and $1.1 billion for NNSA's Naval Reactors Program.

The following are excerpts of D'Agostino's remarks as prepared for delivery, courtesy of an NNSA release:

• On the President's commitment to NNSA: "Despite the economic challenges facing our nation and the budget pressures being felt throughout the federal government, the president demonstrated his commitment to our mission by proposing an unprecedented investment in ensuring the nuclear security of our country and our allies."

• On investing in the future: "These resources will help us invest in a modern, 21st century national security enterprise that can sustain the stockpile and support our full range of nuclear security missions. With these investments, we will be able to continue to move toward an enterprise that is safer, smaller, more secure, more efficient, more sustainable and more adaptable."

• On implementing the President's nuclear security agenda: "Taken together, this request includes significant investments in all of our core mission areas, and will allow NNSA to play a central role in implementing the president's nuclear security agenda."

• On improving the way we do business: "It is important for us all to recognize that these investments come at a time of severe economic challenges for our country and a renewed commitment to reducing the deficit. To maintain the consensus we have seen for supporting our programs, we have a responsibility to work together as one NNSA to improve the way we do business and manage our resources."

• On building one NNSA: "All of this is part of our effort to create "One NNSA," a true partnership between all of our programs and all of our partners to fulfill our common mission. We must break down stovepipes; work collaboratively across our programs and organizations; make sure our headquarters, site office and M&O partners are coordinated; and leverage all of our resources to meet our common objective -- making the world a safer place.”

Comments

Anonymous said…
“leverage”... Whew! – For a minute I thought D'Agostino was going to ramble on without using that over used word.

Do we have to give everyone a raise “to continue to move toward an enterprise that is safer, smaller, more secure, more efficient, more sustainable and more adaptable."?
Anonymous said…
"Taken together, this request includes significant investments in all of our core mission areas, and will allow NNSA to play a central role in implementing the president's nuclear security agenda."

Staff are apparently not a 'core mission area.'
Anonymous said…
D'Agostino - a shining example of truth in advertising! Bet that Bechtel corporate job is just around the corner . . .
Anonymous said…
He can spout all that PR blather because the credibility of DOE among the national lab employees has been lost long ago -- no one really believes or cares anymore what they say.
Anonymous said…
"On building one NNSA: "All of this is part of our effort to create "One NNSA,"

Uh, sorry there D'Agostino, it is still an us vs NNSA situation. But I will hand it to NNSA, it takes a lot of incompetence to make DOE look good.
Anonymous said…
D Agostino is worse than worthless.

His lying, that DOE is committed to a functional weapons complex, while actually degrading it by removing funding, dleludes the public into an inappropriate sense of safety.

He is a traitor,who serves the purposes of US enemies.
Anonymous said…
He is a traitor,who serves the purposes of US enemies.

February 24, 2011 2:00 PM

Oh come on. He is demonstrably a lying jerk, and probably a lousy person overall, but "traitor"? That's hyperbole that exemplifies what's wrong with public discourse in the country. Try to calm down. If it is really that important to you to slander someone that seriously, you have major problems. Get a grip.
Anonymous said…
We've gone from "Admiral" Brooks down to "Captain" D'Agostino over at NNSA.

I figure the next selection for head the of NNSA will be announced someday as "Ensign" Barney Fife!
Anonymous said…
Tom D'Agostino would better serve the country if he resigned. His misleading, soporific tomes deludes the citizenry that the complex is fine, as it falls apart.

Berea, Lenin's first state henceman could only dream of conducting such a Potemkin deception.

A mole in the right place or a fool in the wrong place, the effect is the same.
Anonymous said…
Somebody needs a nap.
Anonymous said…
I figure the next selection for head the of NNSA will be announced someday as "Ensign" Barney Fife!

February 24, 2011 8:31 PM

No, that would be Ensign Parker from McHale's Navy. Either way we would be a lot better off. Barney Fife was a Deputy Sherif.

Popular posts from this blog

Plutonium Shots on NIF.

Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...

Trump is to gut the labs.

The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will  have a huge negative effect on the lab. Crazy, juts crazy. He also wants to cut NEA and PBS, this may not seem like  a big deal but they get very little money and do great things.

LLNL un-diversity

Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it.  Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!