Nuclear proliferationBudget proposal cuts funds for nuclear nonproliferation programs

The White House’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal includes more than $220 million in cuts for nuclear security initiatives. The International Material Protection and Cooperation program, which aims to secure and eliminate vulnerable nuclear weapons and materials, will be allocated $305.5 million, or $114 million less than what was allocated in the fiscal 2014 budget. The White House is also seeking $108 million less than what was allocated in 2014 for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which supports the Energy Department’s efforts to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear and radiological materials that could be used in weapons of mass destruction.

USA Today reports that just a few weeks before President Barack Obama meets with world leaders at The Hague for the third Nuclear Security Summit, some nuclear security experts are questioning Obama’s commitment to nuclear security issues, despite the fact that Obama has made nuclear security a priority since his time in the Senate.

“What I take away from this budget is that there was a lack of leadership in trying to maintain the prioritization of the funding of this issue,” said Kenneth Luongo, president of the Partnership for Global Security and a former Energy Department official who worked on nonproliferation issues during the Clinton administration. “The signal … is we are in retreat on this issue, and I think that is a huge mistake.”

White House officials reject the notion that the proposed budget reflects Obama’s lack of commitment to global nuclear security. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz noted that the budget reduction for nuclear nonproliferation is mainly due to the decision to halt the South Carolina Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MOX), which would convert weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel, because the project proved to be too costly (see “Energy Department suspends work on controversial plutonium reprocessing project,” HSNW, 5 March 2014). Halting the project accounts for 54 percent of the reduction in the administration’s nonproliferation budget request.

The MOX project was to play an important role in the U.S. nuclear agreement with Russia, which called on each country to commit to dispose of thirty-four metric tons of plutonium. Moniz said the administration is exploring methods to revive the MOX project with substantial cost reductions. The decision to halt the MOX project will require the White House to reengage with Russia at a time when tensions between the two countries are rising as a result of Russia’s military’s action in Crimea.

“At the right time, we will have to reengage in those discussions,” Moniz said. “Now may not be the right time.”

The administration has made progress on nuclear issues, including the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New STARTS) which commits the United States and Russia further to reduce their nuclear arsenals. The administration cooperated with the world’s other leading power s to bring Iran to the table and sign a 6-month agreement which, at least temporarily, moved Iran back from the nuclear weapon threshold while negotiations on a comprehensive, permanent agreement are on going.

USA Todaynotes that since launching the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington D.C. in 2010, twelve countries have disposed of their highly enriched uranium stockpiles, many countries are adopting international requirements and standards for nuclear security, and nineteen countries have launched counter-nuclear smuggling initiatives.

Leaders from fifty-three countries are expected to participate in the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit which, for the first time, will include a tabletop exercise focused on preventing nuclear and radiological terrorism.

Page Stoutland, vice president of nuclear materials security at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, says that on the list of challenges yet to be met by the Nuclear Security Summit is the agreement on global standards for storing nuclear materials. At the March 2012 nuclear summit in Seoul, more than fifty countries pledged to have plans for dealing with nuclear materials storage in time for the upcoming March 2014 summit at The Hague, but the U.S. Senate has failed to reach a consensus on a proposed plan.

As security experts continue to question whether the Obama administration is doing enough to prevent nuclear terrorism, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Obama’s principal adviser on countering WMD, insists that the Obama administration and the international community continue to rise up to the challenges of nuclear security. “I don’t think there is a problem with complacency,” Sherwood-Randall said. “We are seized with this challenge — with preventing sensitive materials from falling into the hands of terrorists or others who could use it to do us harm.”