WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) released its portion of the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Budget Request today.

The President’s $16.5 billion FY 2020 Budget Request is an increase of $1.3 billion – or 8.3 percent – above the FY 2019-enacted level and will fund NNSA’s mission pillars: maintaining the safety, security, reliability, and effectiveness of the nuclear weapons stockpile; reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism around the world; and providing nuclear propulsion to the U.S. Navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers and submarines.

“The President’s budget request reflects the Trump Administration’s strong commitment to ensuring that U.S. nuclear capabilities are second to none,” said Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator. “This vital funding will enable us to continue modernization of the Nuclear Security Enterprise to face 21st century threats.”  

Budget Highlights:

The FY 2020 Budget Request for Weapons Activities ($12.4 billion) is 11.8 percent above the FY 2019-enacted level to meet the Administration’s goals to modernize the Nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and infrastructure.  The budget request will enable NNSA to:

• Support initiatives resulting from the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), including work within the Nuclear Weapons Council to define military requirements
• Sustain and modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile with five programs currently underway (W76-2 Modification Program, B61-12 Life Extension Program, W80-4 Life Extension Program, W88 Alteration 370, and W87-1 Modification Program)
• Execute weapon-specific assessment, maintenance, and surveillance for the nation’s nuclear stockpile to ensure that all weapons remain operational
• Continue safe and secure dismantlement of nuclear weapons and the utilization and disposition of components
• Recapitalize NNSA’s aging infrastructure, including the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex, and the production capabilities and capacity required for stockpile activities
• Invest in Exascale computing and experimental capabilities to support weapons design, science-based stockpile stewardship, and stockpile certification
• Mature next-generation component technologies to address issues, emerging threats, and technological surprise
• Sustain strategic material processing capabilities and expand efforts to meet future plutonium pit requirements at two NNSA sites, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site  

The Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation budget ($1.99 billion) is 3.3 percent above the FY 2019-enacted level.  The budget request will enable NNSA to:

• Pursue additional opportunities to minimize and, where possible, eliminate weapons-usable nuclear material around the world
• Build domestic and international capacity to secure nuclear and radioactive material and prevent nuclear smuggling
• Advance capabilities for detecting foreign nuclear material and weapons production activities, material security, and nuclear explosion monitoring, with an emphasis on testbed development
• Provide analytical and technical support to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to further U.S. nonproliferation and threat reduction goals through the IAEA’s nuclear security and safeguards mission
• Provide enhanced diagnostic, technical, and assessment operations in support of the FBI’s growing regional capability to respond to nuclear and radiological threat devices
• Continue Aerial Measuring System equipment recapitalization to replace the aging fleet
• Administer emergency management programs across DOE, including the Department’s 24/7 emergency operations center and the planning and execution of national-level, interagency, and site-level exercises

For Naval Reactors, the FY 2020 Budget Request ($1.6 billion) is 7.8 percent below the FY 2019-enacted level consistent with planned project funding profiles and inclusive of the return of $141 million enacted above the FY 2018 Request.  The budget request will enable NNSA to:

• Provide core support for the safe and reliable operation of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear fleet – 68 submarines; 11 aircraft carriers; and 4 research, development, and training platforms – that account for about 45 percent of the Navy’s major vessels
• Continue long-lead procurement for the Columbia-class submarine reactor components to support a planned lead-ship construction start in FY 2021
• Continue progress on the S8G prototype refueling overhaul to provide an additional 20 years of prototype operations and research and development
• Continue permanent construction on the Naval Spent Fuel Handling Facility in Idaho that will facilitate long term, reliable processing and packaging of spent nuclear fuel from aircraft carriers and submarines

For Federal Salaries and Expenses, the FY 2020 Budget Request ($434.7 million) is 6.0 percent above the FY 2019-enacted level and supports recruiting, training, and retaining the highly skilled federal workforce essential to achieving success in technically complex 21st century national security missions.  The request supports 1,753 federal civilian employees and 15 employees in foreign countries funded through the Department’s Working Capital Fund overseas presence business line.

Click here for a fact sheet about the Department's FY 2020 budget request.