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Topic: Enduring Stockpile

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	The Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program
		For the aging, less-diverse enduring stockpile, new evaluation techniques must be developed to identify and deal with common-mode failures that could negate a significant fraction of the stockpile.
		Indeed, one of the weapon systems slated for the enduring stockpile is currently being retrofitted at Pantex with safety, security, and reliability upgrades, and several other field and Pantex retrofits are planned for the next five years.
		Stockpile management costs include a new tritium production facility and the activities associated with dismantling the nonenduring stockpile, with maintenance and surveillance of the enduring stockpile, and with the implementation of new manufacturing and surveillance technologies to support the enduring stockpile.
	www.fas.org /nuke/guide/usa/doctrine/doe/st01.htm (8880 words)

	NUCLEAR TESTING Summary and Conclusions
		CONCLUSION 6: For the weapon types planned to remain in the enduring stockpile we find that the device problems which occurred in the past, and which either relied on, or required, nuclear yield tests to resolve, were primarily the result of incomplete or inadequate design activities.
		We are persuaded that those problems have been corrected and that the weapon types in the enduring stockpile are safe and reliable in the context of explicit military requirements.
		Recognizing that the challenge of maintaining an effective nuclear stockpile for an indefinite period without benefit of underground tests is an important and also a new one, the U.S. should affirm its readiness to invoke the supreme national interest clause should the need arise as a result of unanticipated technical problems in the enduring stockpile.
	www.fas.org /rlg/jsr-95-320.htm (1287 words)

	Disarmament Documentation: US National Academy of Sciences Report on CTBT, July 31 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Confidence in the safety and reliability of stockpiled nuclear weapons depended far more on activities in the first five [of these] categories...than on nuclear testing even when numbers and kinds of nuclear tests were essentially unconstrained.
		In particular, it would be very unfortunate if confidence in the safety and reliability of the stockpile under a CTBT in the next decade or so were made to appear conditional on the major-tool initiatives having met their specified performance goals.
		Certainly, the aging of the stockpile combined with the lengthening interval since nuclear weapons were last exploded will create a growing challenge, over time, to the mechanisms for maintaining confidence in the stockpile.
	www.acronym.org.uk /textonly/docs/0207/doc05.htm (3021 words)

	EPA: Federal Register: Notice of Pre-Scoping Workshop for the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Programmatic ...
		Stockpile Stewardship includes activities required to maintain a high level of confidence in the safety, reliability, and performance of nuclear weapons in the absence of underground nuclear testing, and to be prepared to resume nuclear testing if so directed by the President.
		Stockpile Stewardship includes activities required to maintain a high level of confidence in the safety, reliability, and performance of nuclear weapons in the absence of underground nuclear testing, and to be prepared to resume testing if so directed by the President.
		While the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile is currently judged to be safe, secure, and reliable, the average age of the stockpile has never significantly exceeded the current age of 12 to 13 years.
	www.epa.gov /fedrgstr/EPA-IMPACT/1995/May/Day-05/pr-843.html (2525 words)

	Enduring Stockpile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The "Enduring Stockpile" is the name of the United States's arsenal of nuclear weapons following the end of the Cold War.
		The production of nuclear weapons ended in 1989, and since then existing weapons have been retired, dismantled, or 'mothballed.' As of 2001 the Enduring Stockpile consisted of about 9,600 weapons of 10 types.
		Weapons in the Enduring Stockpile are categorized by level of readiness.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Enduring_Stockpile (315 words)

	Physics Today December 2000
		Based solely on technical considerations, a better way to monitor the state of the enduring stockpile is through a program that combines basic research to identify how the components of a weapon can age with sophisticated surveillance of the weapons.
		The program has three essential parts: 1) monitoring of the weapons in the enduring stockpile, 2) repair and remanufacture of components to remedy any degradation observed in surveillance, and 3) basic research to identify what happens in the aging process and to ensure that any refurbishments are adequate and appropriate.
		One of the greatest concerns about aging of the stockpile regards the fate of the Pu that is a key component of the primary stage.
	physicstoday.org /pt/vol-53/iss-12/p44.html (3827 words)

	U.S. Nuclear Weapon Enduring Stockpile
		Operationally Deployed: These are active stockpile (fully operational) weapons and mated with delivery systems such that they are ready to be used in combat.
		Active Stockpile: Fully operational weapons, available for immediate use, whether or not they are operationally deployed.
		Active stockpile weapons that are not operationally deployed are either spares for deployed warheads (should a deployed warhead require maintenance, for example) or are part of the responsive force -- an inventory of warheads that are kept in operational condition (tritium reservoirs installed, etc.) to permit immediate deployment.
	nuclearweaponarchive.org /Usa/Weapons/Wpngall.html (980 words)

	Stockpile stewardship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Stockpile stewardship refers to the United States program of reliability testing and maintenance of its nuclear weapons without the use of nuclear testing.
		Most work for stockpile stewardship is undertaken at United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, mostly at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Nevada Test Site, and Department of Energy productions facilities, employing around 27,500 personnel for the work and costing billions of dollars per year.
		The government under President George W. Bush has introduced a new program to expand upon Stockpile Stewardship, called Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW, whose goal it is to enable the development of new weapons without physical testing (computer simulations) within 18 months and construction of the new designs within 4 years.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Stockpile_stewardship (301 words)

	ASC Publications—Program Plan FY96
		The requirement for predictive simulations to assess the safety, reliability, and performance of the stockpile in support of stockpile life extension has led to the requirements to achieve platform performance objectives of 10 trillions of operations per second by the year 2000 and 100 trillions of operations per second by the target date of 2003/04.
		This Stockpile Computing program provides the production simulation capabilities that support the enduring stockpile today and in the future, and it is the foundation for the long-range ASCI effort.
		In many cases, the weapons in the stockpile reached that safe and reliable state only after a period of time (shortly after the introduction of the weapon systems into the stockpile), when problems were identified and fixed.
	www.sandia.gov /NNSA/ASC/pubs/progplanFY96.html (9196 words)

	Myth and Reality (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Numerous studies that had access to classified documents on past nuclear tests and nuclear warhead performance have concluded that nuclear testing is not needed to monitor the current arsenal.
		As for safety, all warheads that are expected to remain in the arsenal beyond 2000--the "enduring" arsenal--meet modern safety standards.
		This is the heart of stockpile maintenance--surveying the arsenal as it ages.
	www.ecoindia.com /myth.htm (1610 words)

	Los Alamos National Labs: Stewardship of the Nuclear Stockpile
		Each type of warhead is designed to meet a variety of military requirements, the constraints of the delivery vehicle, and the conditions the weapons might experience during their entire life in the stockpile.
		We maintain a nuclear stockpile in order to persuade enemies that they would have to pay the ultimate price for attacking us.
		The stockpile, also called the nuclear arsenal, refers to a country's supply of readily available nuclear weapons.
	www.lanl.gov /natlsecurity/nuclear/stockpile (283 words)

	Defense Issues: Volume 11, Number 26-- Assuring Confidence in the U.S. Nuclear Stockpile (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Our stockpile has been reduced in size and diversity of weapon types, and by the end of this fiscal year, the current inventory will become the oldest in U.S. history.
		In the case of warhead fabrication, we must first establish a baseline capacity to replace those warheads routinely consumed by the quality assurance and reliability test program and be capable of expanding this capacity to handle precipitous failures of a type of warhead.
		This enduring responsibility must have the resources necessary to ensure that the stockpile remains safe and reliable, today and in the future.
	www.defenselink.mil /speeches/1996/s19960312-smith.html (1499 words)

	U.S. nuclear stockpile, July 1996 \| thebulletin.org
		Assuming that START I and II will be fully implemented, the operational stockpile in the year 2003 is scheduled to be 5,000 warheads, composed of some 3,500 strategic and 950 non-strategic weapons, plus about 500 spares (see the table at right).
		The requirement for an inactive stockpile stems from a U.S. policy that warheads in the enduring stockpile be maintained with sufficient tritium to achieve their design yield at all times.
		In the 1980s, when the stockpile was larger and there were more types, twice as many warheads on average were disposed of during evaluation.
	www.thebulletin.org /article_nn.php?art_ofn=ja96norris (1781 words)

	NRDC: Explosive Alliances - Chapter 4
		The problem of simulating the aging and enduring [nuclear] stockpile is harder than anything the labs have done.
		Note that while the DOE seeks in the SSMP to maintain its capability to perform "accurate, reliable assessments of the stockpile," confidence is qualified as "subjective." The reliability of the nuclear explosive package of a weapon is not quantified as a probability.
		Changes in the stockpile can be precipitated by new military requirements; unanticipated degradation of warhead components that require testing for evaluation or replacement certification; replacement at rates above current capacity; or nuclear emergencies involving U.S. warheads.
	www.nrdc.org /nuclear/expl/ea4.asp (2736 words)

	NWNM: Alterations, Modifications, Refurbishments, and Possible New Designs
		[3] for each of the existing weapons systems in the “enduring” stockpile are being implemented to preserve the operational life of each weapons system for at least 30 years.
		However, the W-62 is the one weapon system in the enduring stockpile that DOE is apparently not aggressively seeking to extend its life.
		Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative: “The objective of this campaign is to develop the capability to transition from nuclear-test-based methods to simulation-based methods for certifying the safety, performance, and reliability of the nuclear weapons in the enduring stockpile.” [47] In December 1999 the first-ever 3-D computer simulation of an imploding plutonium pit was achieved.
	www.staynehoff.net /w88-follow-on2.htm (2967 words)

	DOE/EIS-0236, Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Stockpile Stewardship and Management () (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Stockpile stewardship comprises the activities associated with research, design, development, and testing of nuclear weapons, and the assesument and certification of their safety and reliability.
		Accordingly, the nuclear weapons stockpile is being significantly reduced, the United States is no longer manufacturing new-design nuclear weapons, and DOE has closed or consolidated some of its former weapons industrial facilities.
		With regard to stockpile management facilities, potential environmental impacts from the base case are analyzed quantitatively in the greatest detail, while impacts from the high and low cases are discussed qualitatively.
	www.eh.doe.gov /nepa/eis/eis0236/sum/sum_sec1.htm (4397 words)

	Arms Control Association: Arms Control Today: Technical Issues Related to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
		Accordingly, the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) includes an Enhanced Surveillance activity that involves increased focus on the nuclear components, an increased number of diagnostic procedures applied to the weapons that are randomly withdrawn from the stockpile, and increased technical depth of the inspections.
		Current estimates, based on projections of the size of the enduring stockpile, indicate that the technical challenges of ongoing repair and remanufacture can be met at existing production-complex sites, provided that their facilities are brought up to and maintained at modern standards of operation.
		The so-called stockpile confidence tests were limited to only one per year and—with two exceptions (involving weapon types retired soon after the tests)—they involved new-production units, so they would better be described as “production verification” tests.
	www.armscontrol.org /act/2002_09/nassept02.asp?print (4785 words)

	United States Committee on Armed Services
		The Y-12 Plant mission is to perform surveillance, assessment, and the remanufacture of all uranium, lithium and secondary components in the nuclear stockpile.
		However, as with every program of the size and complexity of Stockpile Stewardship, it is important to look not just at the present and the near term (the next 2-3 years), but also the long term (3 years and beyond).
		Stockpile Stewardship is working well now in the near term and has the potential to work over the long term.
	www.senate.gov /comm/armed_services/general/statemnt/980319gg.htm (2866 words)

	Stockpile Stewardship
		The stated goal of the Stockpile Stewardship Program is to ensure the "safety and reliability" of the United States nuclear forces through hydrodynamics tests, computer simulations and predictive modeling, and tests on nuclear weapon components.
		There is only one example in the history of the U.S. stockpile in which the production of a nuclear warhead was terminated and then it was subsequently remanufactured.
		Confidence in the efficacy of remanufacture was such that the replicated warheads were certified for stockpile without requiring a nuclear test.
	www.cdi.org /issues/testing/sbss.html (4304 words)

	Statement of Dr (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Almost 50 years of stockpile history have shown that continuous surveillance, repair, and replacement of components and subsystems are commonplace.
		The basic goals of the program are: to predict in advance defects that might develop in the enduring stockpile due to aging or other reasons; develop a means to assess the safety and reliability impacts; and to ensure that problems are corrected before they reduce safety or reliability of the stockpile.
		The mission of the SLEP is to ensure continued high confidence in the performance, safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile while exercising the infrastructure and intellectual capabilities needed to sustain the weapons as a credible deterrent.
	www.house.gov /hasc/testimony/105thcongress/97-4-10Reis.htm (6929 words)

	Disarmament Documentation: US Congressional Testimony, February 2002
		The NPR stated a goal to reduce the operationally-deployed strategic stockpile to 3,800 nuclear warheads by 2007 and 1,700-2,200 nuclear warheads by 2012.
		Remaining warheads not slated for retirement or dismantlement would be retained in the inactive stockpile, available for use in stockpile evaluation support or as one-for-one reliability replacements for warheads in the operationally deployed or responsive forces.
		The plan calls for all eight warhead types in the enduring stockpile to be refurbished over the next 25 years.
	www.acronym.org.uk /docs/0202/doc07.htm (2922 words)

	[No title]
		However, nuclear dangers remain, and the continued maintenance of a safe and reliable U.S. nuclear deterrent is a cornerstone of U.S. national security policy.
		Reducing the Vulnerability of the Smaller Stockpile to Single-Point and Common-Mode Failures
		Budget projection for the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program in budget-year dollars for the fiscal years 1991 through 2000 before reinvention (costs for 2001 and beyond are in constant fiscal year 1996 dollars).
	web.mit.edu /sts/SSBS/doe.html (8840 words)

	MESA Overview
		An integral component of the SSP is the introduction of advanced technologies to the weapons stockpile during refurbishment operations.
		Weapons refurbishment's replace aging, outdated technologies with newly-developed, state-of-the-art components, allowing DOE to continually improve the safety, security and reliability of the Nation's enduring stockpile.
		Sandia's role in maintaining the safety, security, reliability, and operability of the nuclear stockpile demands that the Laboratory create the MESA complex to develop, qualify, and incorporate microsystems into nuclear weapons.
	mesa.sandia.gov /mesa (580 words)

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