Mike Rounds Asks Expert About Nation’s Nuclear Stockpile Amid Growing Chinese, Russian Arsenals

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At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) questioned James J. McConnell, Acting Principal Deputy Administrator, about the United States’ nuclear stockpile.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, gentlemen, thank you for your service to our country.

00:05Mr. McConnell, China and Russia are significantly expanding their nuclear arsenals.

00:11How is the NNSA adjusting its stockpile stewardship and modernization priorities

00:16to maintain a credible deterrence against both near-peer competitors simultaneously?

00:22How does the growing parity between Chinese and U.S. nuclear arsenals

00:27impact the ability of the U.S. to maintain that nuclear deterrence?

00:33And just as a, to throw in just a third one here, just for the heck of it,

00:37as the combined nuclear arsenals of Russia and China begin to eclipse that of the U.S.

00:42in terms of numbers of warheads, will that increase the likelihood

00:45or decrease the interest of our partners or unaligned nations seeking their own nuclear deterrence?

00:51So basically, how are we stacking up against our adversaries?

00:55What are we doing to stay ahead?

00:57What, and what's that going to do to them, the stability in the rest of the world?

01:02Thank you, Senator.

01:03As I indicated earlier, we are, we are currently engaged in seven weapon modernization programs

01:11at the same time.

01:12This is the most active and the most, the highest number of weapon systems we've been producing

01:20or working on developing at one time since the height of the Cold War.

01:26That is reflective of, of the requirements that we get from the, the president, the strategic command

01:34and the Nuclear Weapons Council.

01:36We are very successful up to this point in delivering.

01:40We have delivered the B-61-12, the B-61-13.

01:45We're on track with the W-88, which is, which is to achieve first production unit relatively soon.

01:51We're, we're continuing with the other weapon systems, W-87, Slick Command, W-80-4.

01:58All of those programs represent our increased focus on the ability to ensure that the president

02:06and the war fighters have the options they need to respond to the geopolitical realities we're in.

02:13That is not to say that we are at, or trying to get to parity, certainly not parity with the combined capabilities

02:24of, of the Chinese and the Russians, that we can deter and provide the deterrence with a flexible, effective,

02:31efficient, and reliable suite of options in, in our deterrence, which is, which is what we're working on.

02:38And that, combined with this, with our dedicated efforts to improve the physical condition of the nuclear security enterprise,

02:46both its production capabilities and its science capabilities that are essential to be able to design,

02:53certify, and assess the stockpile, gives us and continues to give us the, the edge and the confidence

02:59that we need to provide deterrence, both for ourselves and in, somewhat into, uh, your last point

03:06is also the extended deterrent that we provide to our allies and, and our, um, you know, other friendly nations.

03:16And so it, it, we are rising to the, to the challenge, but the challenge keeps rising also.

03:23And so we will continue on that path.

03:25Let me just, uh, out of curiosity, because it, we're talking about lots of demand for it,

03:30and along with, uh, fuel for our, uh, carriers and our submarines, um, where are we getting our uranium?

03:42Can we talk about that in this open setting?

03:46Uh, yes, to a certain extent.

03:49Um, so we, we, we, we, we, we need uranium for many different uses.

03:57Uh, we need, uh, unencumbered uranium in order to run reactors to produce tritium.

04:04We need highly enriched uranium to fuel the Admiral's, um, reactors for, for our nuclear fleet of submarines.

04:12Well, no, no question about the need.

04:14My, I guess my question is, in, in this open setting, and I'm not sure if we can do it or not,

04:17but where are we getting it from?

04:18So we have enough material on hand for the near term, for both, um, unencumbered fuel for production uses and for, for the Navy.

04:30But we are going to need, eventually, to create a domestic enrichment capability,

04:37and that the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration are currently on a two-prong effort to do that.

04:43We have an activity going on with BWXT to produce the Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment.

04:54DEUCE, it's much easier as an acronym.

04:56And then we have the AC-100 also.

04:58I didn't do a very good job of asking it, maybe.

05:01Where are we getting our uranium from?

05:05Can we talk about that in here?

05:08Perhaps.

05:08Admiral Houston?

05:09Admiral Houston.

05:10Phone to friend.

05:11Yes, Senator.

05:12We're getting it from existing stockpiles.

05:14We haven't produced highly enriched uranium since 1992.

05:18And for my program, which is the primary user, because I actually expend that highly enriched uranium,

05:24because I'm using it in my reactors, we are good into the 2050s for that.

05:29But we are watching, we will need an enrichment capability, just like the weapons complex will need an enrichment capability.

05:36Okay.

05:36And that's part of the enterprise blueprint that's outlined by NNSA to develop that enrichment capability.

05:44So the enrichment capabilities that we will need, we know it, we've got until 2050, but between now and then, we should be talking about it.

05:53Absolutely, Senator.

05:54And that's going to be due to the difficulty in standing up that capability.

05:59That's not a five-year plan either, is it?

06:00It is not.

06:02It is a long-term plan across there, and it's laid out in the NNSA blueprint, sir.

06:07Excellent.

06:08Thank you, Madam Chair.

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