Report Accuses Bush Administration of Wasting Billions on Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Research and Production
Despite the end of the Cold War, the Bush administration is spending 12 times more on nuclear weapons research and production than on nonproliferation efforts to retrieve, secure and dispose of nuclear weapons materials worldwide, according to an analysis of Department of Energy programs released last week by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Much of the spending on weapons research and production, which amounted to $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2004, is funding costly projects that are “irrelevant to the defense and security challenges” that confront the nation, the report found.
The report, “Weaponeers of Waste,” focuses on a half-dozen DOE nuclear weapons projects at the nation’s nuclear weapons laboratories, revealing they are billions of dollars over budget and years behind in meeting their goals.
The projects are part of the “stockpile stewardship” program, whose purpose was to guarantee a safe and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile in absence of full-scale underground testing.