Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Reed, Hearing on Challenges in the Department of Energy's Atomic Energy Defense Programs

Hearing

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And welcome, Mr. Secretary. The last Secretary of Energy to testify before the committee was Secretary Chu in 2010. The Augustine-Mies Commission which evaluated the effectiveness of the NNSA recommended in 2015 that the Secretary of Energy appear before the Senate

Armed Services Committee on an annual basis. and becomes a recurring part of the committee's posture hearings given that the atomic energy defense funding in the Department of Energy totals approximately $19 billion, which is more than two-thirds of the Energy Department's fiscal year 2019 budget.

This appearance I hope fulfills that recommendation Secretary Perry, there are a number of issues I am
hoping you will address today. First and foremost is the ability of the Department and the NNSA to build 80 pits a year by 2030, as mandated by the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. was ratified by the Department of Defense based on a series of modules to be built at Los Alamos after spending about $600 million to design a prior building there, whose costs became out of control and was canceled.
approach was also approved by the DOD and the NNSA and was This requirement The modular authorized in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act.

I understand that you may again be reconsidering or considering a large building design rather than the modules. Since a single building approach failed in 2013, I am interested in your thinking on this issue.

Second, the Department is modernizing six weapon systems, and while at the same time is modernizing an 8 infrastructure that in some cases dates back to the Manhattan Project, which includes the NNSA uranium and the plutonium infrastructures. billion, or about 20 percent of NNSA's overall budget, is dedicated to this effort.
modernization will be a daunting challenge, and I am interested in your views on sustaining this effort.

For fiscal year 2019, $3 Maintaining momentum on Third, I would like to know about the Department's plan to clean up the Hanford nuclear site. In 2014, after spending close to $8.3 billion at the Hanford site to treat approximately 55 million gallons of radioactive waste in 177 underground tanks, the Department paused its efforts to treat and turn into glass the waste in those tanks. addition, the Department now only intends to turn the low- activity waste into glass while leaving the high-level waste treatment, which is about 10 percent of the site, to a later date. waste effort, when will you return to treating the high- In I would like to know the status of the low-activity level waste, and what is the estimated total cost.

Finally, I would like to know how the Department is addressing the flow of loose nuclear material particularly from Russia. reported on four thwarted attempts in Moldova to stop the sale of nuclear material on the black market. cases, the sale is linked to Russia and buyers were linked to extremists in the Levant region. nuclear materials is one of the greatest threats facing our In just one example, a British newspaper has
In some Proliferation of nation and I hope is the top focus of the Department of Energy.

Again, I look forward to your testimony today and hope this becomes an annual event for this committee.
Mr. Secretary. Thank you,

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