The Complex Update

On Tuesday NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino testified before the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on Tuesday.  The transcript can be found on Atomic City Underground here.  The overriding theme was the need for the Nuclear Complex to become "smaller, safer, more secure and less expensive." While "smaller" may trigger some debate , "safer" and "more secure" are obviously laudable goals that no one would argue against.  One aspect of the safety and security debate, however, may be losing some steam.  According to GSN, a number of key senators wrote OMB to scrap their review of moving the complex from DoE to DoD.  The letter admitted the NNSA-DoE relationship "is in many ways dysfunctional" but nonetheless feel the effort should be abandoned. The dysfunctional relationship should serve as justification for the study to proceed so as to thoroughly analyze the NNSA and reform options both within the NNSA and moving the Complex elsewhere, such as the autonomous agency supported for by the new Stimson report (blog post here).