The FY 2008 National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) budget requests $9.4 billion, 39 percent of the Department's budget, to promote national security through a combination that includes maintaining our nuclear weapons stockpile, advancing science, and promoting nuclear nonproliferation and threat reduction. The NNSA budget requests $6.5 billion for weapons activities to keep the nuclear weapons stockpile safe, secure and reliable through continued surveillance, assessment, and life extension programs. This includes the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program as a long-term strategy to maintain a safe, secure and credible nuclear deterrent.

The FY 2008 budget request maintains current commitments to the nuclear deterrence policies of the Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review through NNSA’s “Complex 2030”, the long-term strategy for effective transformation and modernization of the Cold War era weapons complex into one that is more efficient, smaller, and secure. To further nuclear nonproliferation activities, the FY 2008 request of $1.7 billion supports the international nuclear materials protection and cooperation programs that are denying terrorists the nuclear materials, technology and expertise needed to develop or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons. The budget includes a request of $334 million for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Plant project at DOE’s Savannah River Site that will dispose of 34 metric tons of U.S. surplus plutonium and facilitate complex-wide consolidation of nuclear material. The FY 2008 budget request also includes $162 million for NNSA to maintain its robust nuclear and radiation emergency response teams and capabilities.