Biden nuclear nominee would continue Trump-era plutonium pit production plans

WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee nuclear warhead development, Jill Hruby , said Thursday the U.S. should continue plans to ramp up production of plutonium cores , a key component in nuclear weapons, by using two sites.

Federal officials, under President Donald Trump, set a deadline of 2030 for increased production of the plutonium cores or pits, with work split between Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina ― which is 25 percent into a refit.

At stake are jobs and billions of federal dollars to upgrade buildings or construct new factories, and it’s been an open question whether Biden would review those plans.

Hruby, who would lead the National Nuclear Security Administration, said at her Senate confirmation hearing that expanding pit production is the “biggest issue” facing the agency. While Los Alamos is on track to produce 30 pits per year by 2026, plans to produce 50 pits per year at Savannah River have slipped, pushing the 80-pit target to “somewhere between 2030 and 2035,” she said.

As Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., described it, nuclear modernization efforts ― which include five warhead programs and facility recapitalizations ― are fueling NNSA’s highest workload since the 1980s. The organization is a semiautonomous agency of the Energy Department.

Senate Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Angus King, I-Maine, prompted Hruby to affirm that the 80-pit goal is part of nuclear maintenance and modernization vital for deterrence and peace.

“The number of pits that are projected to be needed are a minimum of 80 pits per year. That’s a significant capability at Los Alamos. If we were to do it all there, it would require much more infrastructure investment,” Hruby said, adding that the expansion at Savannah River “allows us to have a cost-effective program, use the talents across the NNSA complex.”

The panel’s top Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe, whose support for an NNSA budget increase in 2019 fueled one of several clashes with then-Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, recounted Thursday that he’d personally intervened with then-President Trump. In a sign Hruby’s nomination is in good shape, Inhofe said he agrees with her priorities around weapons programs, infrastructure and the workforce ― and he elicited her agreement to keep him informed of her progress.

However, one lawmaker was critical of the rising costs of nuclear weapons. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren pointed to a “staggering” 29 percent increase in NNSA’s newly projected costs for sustaining and modernizing warheads over the next 25 years to $505 billion. Calling this “out of control,” Warren worried that overruns would crowd out the Energy Department’s important nonproliferation budget.

“I think we need to get better at cost estimation and schedule estimation within the department,” Hruby agreed, calling it a “top priority” for her.

But Warren shot back: “You don’t just need to get better. Based on where we are right now, you need to get a lot better.”

King, a former co-chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, also leveled pointed questions over cyber protections for nuclear weapons. After the nominee for NNSA’s deputy administrator, Frank Rose, said in the same hearing that he plans to quickly fill the role of NNSA’s chief information officer, King said he wants to see more: an “all-hands-on deck, urgent pursuit of cyber defense.”

“I’m fine with appointing a new CIO, but I’d like you to stand up a team that aggressively red teams your systems to test them,” King said. “I want people who are paid to hack your system to demonstrate whether or not you are in fact secure. There is no important cyber protection than that of nuclear command and control, and communication.”

When Rose said he would, if confirmed, make the recommendations a priority, King responded: “If you don’t, I’ll come and find you.”

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

华盛顿——美国总统乔·拜登提名的负责核弹头研发的吉尔·赫鲁比周四表示，美国应该继续推进利用两个生产基地提高钚芯（核武器的关键部件）产量的计划。

在唐纳德·特朗普总统的领导下，联邦官员设定了 2030 年为增加钚芯或钚坑产量的最后期限，这项工作将在新墨西哥州的洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室和南卡罗来纳州的萨凡纳河基地之间进行分配——该基地的改造工程已完成 25%。

事关就业和数十亿美元的联邦资金，这些资金将用于升级现有建筑或建造新工厂，而拜登是否会重新审视这些计划一直是一个悬而未决的问题。

拟任国家核安全管理局局长的赫鲁比在参议院确认听证会上表示，扩大核弹芯产量是该机构面临的“最大问题”。她指出，虽然洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室有望在2026年实现年产30个核弹芯的目标，但萨凡纳河国家实验室原计划年产50个核弹芯的目标却有所延误，导致80个核弹芯的年产目标推迟到“2030年至2035年之间”。

正如参议院军事委员会主席杰克·里德博士所描述的那样，核现代化工作——包括五个核弹头项目和设施更新换代——正使美国国家核安全管理局（NNSA）的工作量达到自20世纪80年代以来的最高水平。该机构是能源部下属的一个半自治机构。

参议院战略部队小组委员会主席、缅因州独立参议员安格斯·金敦促赫鲁比确认，80个核反应堆的目标是核维护和现代化的一部分，这对威慑与和平至关重要。

“预计每年至少需要80个核磁共振坑。这对于洛斯阿拉莫斯来说是一项相当大的能力。如果我们全部都在那里进行，就需要更多的基础设施投资，”赫鲁比说，并补充道，萨凡纳河的扩建“使我们能够制定一个经济高效的计划，并利用整个国家核安全管理局（NNSA）的人才。”

该委员会的首席共和党成员、参议员吉姆·英霍夫（Jim Inhofe）周四回忆说，他曾亲自向时任总统特朗普施压，要求增加国家核安全管理局（NNSA）的预算。英霍夫在2019年曾支持增加NNSA的预算，这引发了他与时任能源部长丹·布鲁耶特（Dan Brouillette）之间的多次冲突。英霍夫表示，他赞同赫鲁比（Hruby）在武器项目、基础设施和劳动力方面的优先事项，并且他已获得赫鲁比的同意，会随时向他汇报工作进展。这表明赫鲁比的提名进展顺利。

然而，一位议员对核武器成本的不断上涨提出了批评。马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦指出，美国国家核安全管理局（NNSA）最新预测，未来25年维持和升级核弹头的成本将“惊人地”增长29%，达到5050亿美元。沃伦称这一数字“失控”，并担心超支会挤占能源部重要的防扩散预算。

“我认为我们需要在部门内部提高成本估算和进度估算能力，”赫鲁比表示赞同，并称这是她的“首要任务”。

但沃伦反驳道：“你们需要的不仅仅是进步。就我们目前的状况来看，你们需要进步很多。”

金曾任网络空间日光浴委员会联合主席，他也对核武器的网络保护提出了尖锐的问题。在同一场听证会上，国家核安全管理局副局长提名人弗兰克·罗斯表示，他计划尽快填补国家核安全管理局首席信息官的职位空缺。对此，金表示，他希望看到更多举措：“各方齐心协力，紧急推进网络防御”。

“我同意任命一位新的首席信息官，但我希望你们组建一个团队，积极主动地对你们的系统进行红队测试，”金说道。“我希望那些受雇于人去入侵你们的系统，以此来证明你们的系统是否真的安全。没有什么网络安全防护比核指挥控制和通信系统更重要的了。”

当罗斯表示如果获得确认，他会优先考虑这些建议时，金回应道：“如果你不这样做，我会来找你。”

乔·古尔德是《防务新闻》的资深五角大楼记者，负责报道国家安全政策、政治和国防工业的交汇点。他此前曾担任国会记者。