Nuclear nonproliferationProposed 2015 budget cuts funding for nuclear nonproliferation programs

The Obama administration 2015 budget proposal shows that the administration will spend less on nuclear nonproliferation initiatives in 2015 than it would in 2014. The budget of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the agency responsible for various nuclear weapons and nuclear nonproliferation programs, will be cut by 20 percent, from the $1.9 billon Congress approved for fiscal 2014 — which in turn was a $289 million cut from fiscal 2013 levels — to $1.6 billion in 2015.

The cuts will be achieved by reducing the funds for specific programs:

• The budget proposal calls for a 24 percent cut in the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which aims to secure vulnerable nuclear materials around the world. “The reduction in FY 2015 funding reflects the expected completion of a major milestone in early FY 2015 of the development of a new domestic, non-[highly enriched uranium]-based supply of the critical medical isotope molybdenum-99 … which is being executed under multiyear contracts funded in previous fiscal years,” according to the budget summary.
• The administration proposes a 24 percent reduction in the International Material Protection and Cooperation program, which helps secure and eliminate vulnerable nuclear weapons and materials. The budget proposal attributes the reduction in part to the expiration of the longstanding Cooperative Threat Reduction umbrella agreement with Russia last year.

The budget proposal shows that the administration wants to increase the NNSA budget for nuclear weapons programs, relative to what Congress approved for fiscal 2014, by 6.9 percent, or $533 million – to $8.3 billion. .The addition funds will be used, among other things, for refurbishing the B-61 gravity bomb, according to the summary.