NNSA Administrator: Continued Underfunding of Nuclear Modernization Programs Will Put U.S. Further Behind China, Russia

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), today questioned the Honorable Jill Hruby, Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration(NNSA), on how the Department of Energy's fiscal year 2023 budget request does not keep nuclear modernization programs on track.

Inhofe:Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary, you answered the question I was going to address adequately, and so, let me just mention to Administrator Hruby: in the past, NNSA officials argued for real, sustainable, annual growth to keep modernization on track. Now, how significantly will our programs be delayed if the NNSA faces annual shortfalls of a half-billion dollars? What's that going to do to us if that continues?

Hruby:Sen. Inhofe, the $500 million request is to assure that we don't get more behind by moving money up and making purchases earlier, based on information that we've learned as we've completed our large construction project - the uranium facility, and other projects at Los Alamos and around the complex. So, we're totally synced up with the Department of Defense on all of our weapons programs. Our deliveries of the modernization programs, it's challenging, but we stay in close contact and we're completely synced up. We're just trying to keep our infrastructure programs - with this request, trying to keep our infrastructure programs - in a way that we can execute those as quickly as possible.

Inhofe:In terms of - in my opening statement, I talked about the condition of some of the facilities that we have there. Do you have any comments on that? Have you looked into that to see what path forward would be appropriate at this time?

Hruby:Yeah,Sen. Inhofe, you know, since I've been confirmed in this position, I've visited the complex - every place in the complex, most of them, many times. In fact, we have a lot of infrastructure work to do, as you noted in your opening statement. We are developing a long-term infrastructure plan. We have some large projects going right now, and I think they're the right projects - not only the big projects in uranium and plutonium, but also projects in explosives, tritium, lithium, depleted uranium, and other activities. But we have so many needs that will go out for a long time. We are working on a long-term infrastructure plan that includes not only our production complex, but also our science and technology facilities.

Inhofe:In other words, you're on it.

Hruby:Well, this is going to be a long-term -

Inhofe:I know it is. I was saying that as a compliment.

Hruby:OK, well, I'll take the compliment.

Inhofe:OK, good. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.