of a new Acorn gas transfer system. The Block 1 refurbishment will also add a new arming firing and fusing (AF&F) system. The FPU of Block 1 will be available by the end of FY 2007, and Block 1 production is planned for completion in FY 2012. During the Block 1 production, a decision will be made to either continue Block 1 retrofits on the entire W76 stockpile, change to a Block 2 retrofit that could include other options, or stop the retrofit altogether. The Block 2 effort, if approved by the NWC, would continue from FY 2012 to FY 2002 to refurbish the remaining W76 warheads.

W80

The NWC approved the refurbishment of the W80 in the beginning of FY 2001. The Block 1 refurbishment of the warhead (about one third of the warheads in the stockpile) will focus on replacing the current gas transfer system with an Acorn design, new neutron generators, redesign of the warhead electrical system, addition of improved surety features and replacement of other associated components. The need to perform refurbishment work is driven by several factors including: age related effects that must be addressed to ensure the continued performance of the warhead, minimizing weapon movements between DoD and DOE, and infrastructure and capacities issues within the weapons complex. The FPU of the Block 1 design will be available in the second quarter of FY 2006, and Block 1 production is scheduled for completion in FY 2010. During the Block 1 production, a decision will be made to either continue Block 1 retrofits on the entire W80 stockpile, change to a Block 2 retrofit that could include enhanced surety options, or stop the retrofit altogether. The Block 2 effort, if approved by the NWC, would continue from FY 2011 to FY 2017 to refurbish the remaining W80 warheads.

B61-7/11

NNSA and DoD are working to identify refurbishment options for the aging B617/11 Canned Subassembly (CSA) and associated cables, collectors, some limited life components, and foam components. The study effort is expected to be completed in late FY 2002. Development Engineering will begin following Nuclear Weapons Council approval in late FY 2002. This program will use systems engineering approaches, and the planned FPU of the refurbished B61-7/11 will be in the third quarter of FY 2006. Production of these refurbished CSAS is scheduled to continue to the end of FY 2008. The plan also calls for some selective non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and screening of CSAS as a risk mitigation effort for other warheads during FY 2003 and FY 2004.

Pit Manufacturing and Certification Campaign

The reestablishment of a plutonium pit manufacturing capability, a capability that the United States has not had since the cessation of manufacturing at the Rocky Flats Plant in 1989, is a key national security challenge that the NNSA must meet. The W88 pit is a primary focus of NNSA's pit campaign because an insufficient number of W88 pits were produced to support pit surveillance activities prior to the closure of Rocky Flats.

The Pit Manufacturing and Certification Campaign is focused in the near-term on development of the manufacturing processes at Los Alamos and a certification methodology applicable to the W88 pit, with a long range goal of reestablishing the capability to manufacture all pit types within the stockpile. The program remains on track to deliver a certifiable W88 pit in FY 2003. Over the last year Headquarters and Los Alamos staffs have worked aggressively and have been able to accelerate the date for a certified pit to FY 2007.

Program Accomplishments in FY 2001/2002 include:

• Accelerated the certification date for a manufactured W88 war reserve pit from FY 2009 to FY 2007.

• Manufactured 3 development and 6 standard W88 pits in FY 2001; to qualify processes to be used for a certifiable pit.

• Projectized W88 activities are on-track, with all major milestones for FY 2001 accomplished.

• Reorganized W88 Pit Manufacturing and Certification Activity at Los Alamos to increase management attention and resources on the project.

• Obtained Secretarial approval in Spring of 2002 on Mission Need for a Modern Pit Facility (MPF).

The FY 2003 budget will allow the W88 project to:

• Manufacture additional development and standard pits and as a precursor to the first certifiable pit in FY 2003.

• Conduct two integrated physics tests and pit engineering tests in FY 2003.

• Establish and implement a peer process that includes at least one technical data exchange between Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in FY 2003.

While the Los Alamos facility (TA-55) for making W88 pits is adequate for the task at hand, it lacks the capacity and flexibility to manufacture pits in sufficient quantity to support the NPR requirements. Therefore, the NNSA is working on a longer term solution for a Modern Pit Facility (MPF). A project team is in place and has undertaken the required preconceptual planning work. During this phase we will carefully examine a number of issues, including technology development to ensure that the facility will meet both current and future requirements. Last month the Secretary of Energy approved Critical Decision 0 for the MPF. With this decision in hand, NNSA can start the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and conceptual design of an MPF. The NEPA process will support a record of decision on the construction, location and capacity of an MPF, as well as the steps to be taken to mitigate environmental impact. A siting decision will be made after compilation of programmatic NEPA actions for the MPF.

The baseline MPF development schedule is as follows:

• NNSA to start conceptual design and begin the NEPA process June 2002.

• Issue Notice of Intent (NOI) in the fall of 2002 that lists sites under consideration.

• Issue programmatic Record of Decision (ROD) in the spring of 2004 following completion of supplementation environmental impact statement process. The ROD will include a decision on host site selection.

Subcritical Experiments

The subcritical experiments conducted at the Nevada Test Site in U1A continue to provide our scientists and engineers vital data on the performance characteristics of plutonium. Our most recent experiment, code named Vito, was successfully carried out on February 14th. Vito was the first of three subcritical experiments in FY 2002 in support of pit certification. Our next subcritical experiment, code named Oboe 9, will be conducted this month. To date, 16 subcritical experiments have been conducted at the Nevada Test Site.

Tritium Campaign

The NNSA is also proceeding with plans for producing new tritium to support the stockpile. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen which decays at a rate of about 5 percent per year. All weapons in the stockpile must have tritium to function as designed. The United States has not manufactured new tritium since 1988 and has been relying on recycled tritium from retired weapons to meet stockpile requirements. To manufacture new tritium, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will be irradiating tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARS) in the Watts Bar and Sequoyah 2 reactors. Irradiation of the TPBARS remains on schedule for the fall of 2003. The rods will remain in the reactors throughout the plants' normal 18month operating cycles.

In order to irradiate tritium-producing rods, the TVA reactors must have approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The TVA submitted formal requests in August-September 2001 asking that the reactors' operating licenses be amended to permit tritium production. In December 2001 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission published a Federal Register notice proposing to issue a “no significant hazards consideration determination", which means that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can issue the license amendments without first holding hearings. We expect that the Commission will issue the license amendments by this fall.

While the recent Nuclear Posture Review reduces the number of active, deployed nuclear weapons, it also requires that NNSA support a responsive reserve of warheads. This support would include maintenance of tritium inventories for the reserve. When all these factors are considered, the impact is small on the date when new tritium will be needed.

While the civil/structural portion of the Tritium Extraction Facility is well along, it is several months behind schedule. In addition, the bids on the Rest-of-Plant (installation of all the equipment) contract came in well above the baseline estimate. As a result of these and other factors, NNSA is currently reviewing and revising the cost and schedule baselines for the facility. We expect to be coming to the Congress with a reprogramming letter following the completion of these cost and sched

ule reviews. We have asked the Department's Inspector General to review this program and ensure that we have taken all the necessary corrective actions to get this program back on track. We are still aiming for its completion in FY 2006.

Advanced Simulation and Computing Campaign

The Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) campaign is developing the simulation capabilities, based on advanced weapon codes and high-performance computing, that incorporate high-fidelity scientific models validated against experimental results, past tests, and theory. The long term ASCI objective is to provide the validated three-dimensional, high-fidelity physics, full system simulation codes required for engineering, safety, and performance analysis of the stockpile and to develop the computing resources with sufficient power (speed, memory and storage capacity) to support stockpile analyses.

The schedule for developing three-dimensional weapons simulation capabilities is tightly integrated with the certification of the refurbished W87, W76, W80, and B61 warheads. Requirements for predictive weapons simulations determine the acquisition strategy for increased computing capability and capacity. Program Accomplishments in FY 2001/2002 include:

• Three dimensional simulations of key mechanical responses of a re-entry vehicle system to normal flight environments, and of the performance of a full weapons system. Being able to simulate a complete weapon system allows laboratory researchers to examine key physics issues through a combination of simulation, precision experiments, and analysis of data from past nuclear tests. These codes are playing a major role in the plans for the remanufacture of the W76 AF&F. • Dedication of the Strategic Computing Complex at Los Alamos National Laboratory in May 2001. This new facility, deliver 3 months ahead of schedule and $13M below budget provides new office space for some 300 scientists and engineers and the facilities to accommodate the 30-teraOPS Q supercomputer. The Q machine is now being delivered to Los Alamos. We expect to have the first portion of the machine running by this month with the full system operational by the end of the 2002.

• A comprehensive external review of all five Alliance Level 1 Centers was completed in October 2001. Accomplishments include the development of scalable, multi-physics codes, successful advanced degree programs and graduates, as well as world-class science measured through peer-reviewed publications. The FY 2003 budget will allow the program to:

• Release enhanced ASCI 2-D primary design capability,

• Demonstrate three-dimensional safety simulation of a complex, abnormal explosive-initiation scenario,

• Demonstrate three-dimensional coupled electrical response of a weapon system in hostile (nuclear) environments.

High-Energy-Density Physics

The High Energy Density Physics Campaign advances U.S. capabilities to achieve high-energy-density physics (HEDP) conditions, including inertial confinement fusion ignition and thermonuclear burn in a laboratory setting, to support Stockpile Stewardship Program science and engineering requirements. The capability to achieve physical conditions nearing those produced during nuclear weapons detonations, including extremely high temperatures and pressures, is critical for conducting experiments to verify physics theory underlying nuclear weapons design code predictions, to validate advanced computer models being developed for stockpile stewardship, and to more accurately characterize the performance of materials exposed to a nuclear environment.

The program is carried out at the three weapons laboratories as well as the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester, and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Existing major facilities for conducting HEDP research are the OMEGA laser at LLE, and the Z pulsed-power facility at SNL, the Trident at LANL, and the Nike laser at NRL.

The most important new facility for the HEDP is the National Ignition Facility (NIF), under construction at LLNL. NIF will provide the capability for weapons scientists to undertake experiments to address high-energy and fusion aspects that are important to the primaries and secondaries of nuclear weapons. Several important milestones for the NIF program were met on, or ahead of, schedule, including completion of conventional construction and positioning and seismic tie down of the target chamber. The program remains on track to begin Stewardship experiments in 2004 with 8 beams, and by the time all 192 lasers beams are brought up in 2008,

some 1,500 stewardship experiments will have been performed on this important, one-of-a-kind tool.

The FY 2003 budget will allow the program to:

• Operate the NIF Optics Assembly Building,

• Demonstrate multiframe backlighting capability on Z,

• Install the NIF target positioner in support of first light to the target chamber center and start of stewardship experiments in FY 2004,

• Utilize radiation transport experiments on Z and OMEGA for validation of specific aspects of Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) radiation transport and hydrodynamics modeling,

• Demonstrate filling of prototype NIF indirect-drive ignition capsules and quantify key characteristics.

NNSA Organization Standup

NNSA's organizational objectives are to improve effectiveness and efficiency. We approached the NNSA organization standup by implementing a two-phase plan. The first phase, essentially complete, focused on creating an integrated Headquarters organization, and defining the structural relationship between the Federal elements at Headquarters and the Field locations. The second phase, now underway focuses on realigning our field structure and improving efficiencies by elimination overlaps in responsibilities within the Federal structure and reducing unnecessary administrative burdens placed on those performing the mission.

The recently released report summarizes our first-ever NNSA Strategic Plan, provides a detailed plan for assigning roles and responsibilities between Headquarters and field elements, and discusses our objectives for FY 2002 and beyond. We will eliminate a layer of management and oversight over the nuclear weapons complex by removing the Operations Offices from the NNSA chain of command and converting these offices to service centers that provide support services such as, procurement and human resources. Each of the eight NNŜA M&O contractors will report to its respective site offices which will, in turn, report to the Administrator. This locates NNSA formal contract direction closer to the contractor, consolidates service functions, and allows staff reductions downstream.

The new conceptual model for the NNSA complex can be described in general terms as follows. The Headquarters organization will establish policy and develop program requirements. The Site Offices will ensure that these program requirements get directly transmitted to the contractor through the existing contracts. Site Offices will also have expanded programmatic roles and as well as direct contractual authority over the contractors that execute the NNSA programs. The Service Centers will support both Headquarters and Site Offices to ensure that the mission programs are successful; they will no longer have program responsibilities.

NNSA will launch a systematic re-engineering effort to reduce the number of separate offices and layers of Federal management, reduce the overall number of Federal employees, and identify and correct skills mismatches. Federal staff not performing core functions will be redeployed and retrained as necessary. We intend to use incentives to encourage higher-than-average attrition, career development, and retention of highly skilled employees to right size and reinvigorate our staff.

NNSA has instituted an Administrative Workload Reduction Initiative using comprehensive input from the laboratories and plants, with task forces identifying specific improvements and reducing administrative burdens. As a result, NÑSA contractors will be given clearer and more consistent responsibilities and authorities. They will also continue to comply with all environment, safety, and health, and security policies.

When these changes are fully implemented, we will realize the goals set by Congress in establishing the NNSA. By clearly defining roles and responsibilities, we will increase accountability and reduce duplication. By reducing administrative burdens on the NNSA contractors, we will operate more effectively and efficiently.

Conclusion

This concludes my written testimony on the policy framework and issues that shaped the formulation of the unified NNSA budget request for FY 2003. When the Stewardship program began almost a decade ago, there were many skeptics, including some inside the program that thought stockpile certification without underground nuclear testing was simply impossible. We have proved our skeptics wrong. The advances and numerous accomplishments of the Stewardship program, some of which I have detailed in my testimony are due to the hard work, ingenuity and creativity of the thousands of men and women across the country working in the weap

ons complex. Without them we could not have certified the stockpile as safe, secure and reliable to the President for 6 years. The laboratories are wrapping up the 7th certification cycle. Looking to the future, the flexibility to sustain our nuclear weapons stockpile, to adapt current weapons to new missions, or to field new weapons, if required, depends on a healthy program for stockpile stewardship and peer-review-based certification as well as a robust infrastructure for nuclear weapons production. As numbers of nuclear forces are reduced, it becomes even more important to maintain high confidence in the safety and reliability of remaining forces. Achieving these goals will require a strong commitment to the recapilization of the nuclear weapons infrastructure—one that is sufficiently modern and capable to fully support our nation's defense strategy.

Finally, the NPR calls for a stable, adequately funded Future-Years Nuclear Security Program (FYNSP). The NNSA's costs will not be reduced in the immediate future as a result of NPR, since near-term costs are driven by restoring production capabilities and revitalizing the infrastructure, not by the number of warheads in the stockpile or even the number to be refurbished. However, we do expect that cost savings from refurbishment of a smaller number of weapons will be realized beginning about FY 2010. Also, workload analysis shows that the NNSA enterprise's capacity will be stretched, approaching maximum capacity while our systems are on the process line for refurbishment, thereby limiting our ability to dismantle significant numbers of weapons over the next ten years.

A less obvious, but significant result of the NPR is the improved cooperation and coordination between the NNSA and DoD. The Nuclear Weapons Council is working, policy levels between the agencies are effective, and the DoD has offered support for needed programs in NNSA.

I would now like to turn to several specific programs that make up the Stockpile Stewardship Program. The continuing success of these programs will be central to our ability to continue to support and certify the stockpile in the years to come.

Stockpile Life Extension Program (LEP)

Our most important responsibility is to deliver on our commitments to our customer, the Department of Defense. The NNSA has a validated requirement from the Nuclear Weapons Council (NWC) to extend the service life of the W87, W76, W80, and B61. This requirement was revalidated by the Nuclear Posture Review. The life extension work will involve the entire weapons complex. The Kansas City Plant will manufacture the nonnuclear components; Y-12 National Security Complex will refurbish the secondaries; Savannah River Tritium Facility will supply the gas transfer systems; Sandia National Laboratory will produce the neutron generators and certify all non nuclear components. Pantex Plant will serve as the central point for all assembly and disassembly operations in support of the refurbishment work. Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore will continue to certify the nuclear package.

W87

The life extension program on the W87 warhead was authorized by the NWC in FY 1994. The program achieved First Production Unit (FPU) in the second quarter of FY 1999. The ongoing work at Pantex enhances the structural rigidity of the warhead and is increasing the service life by 30 years. The warhead will be mated to the Minuteman III missile following deactivation of the Peacekeeper missile. The NWC accepted the refurbished W87 as a standard stockpile item in the first quarter of FY 2002. NNSA has completed work on over half of the W87 inventory and the remaining W87 stockpile will be refurbished by the first quarter of FY 2004.