A Congressional Research Service report says the Energy Department‘s fiscal 2017 budget request includes $12.9 billion to fund operations of DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Steven Aftergood writes in a blog article published Monday the CRS report obtained by FAS shows that approximately $9.2 billion of the proposed NNSA budget for 2017 would go to the agency’s weapons activities account, a nearly 4.4 increase from the amount allocated in the current fiscal year.
According to CRS, NNSA uses its weapons activities account to manage and sustain U.S. nuclear missile warheads, gravity bombs and related infrastructure.
The account is also meant to help the agency conduct research, development, test and evaluation work on the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile as well as build or modernize agency-run facilities, the report noted.