Nuclear warhead overhaul is part of US federal budget proposal for FY 2014

Nature : President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget proposal includes $7.9 billion for the US nuclear weapons program, almost 30% higher than the funding level when he took office in 2008. Much of the increase has been to fund stockpile-stewardship programs such as the National Ignition Facility and the Sequoia supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory . And nonproliferation program spending increased 73% between 2008 and 2012. However, the new budget proposal includes a $537 million program to begin modifying and modernizing the nation’s arsenal of aircraft-deployed B61 thermonuclear bombs . The proposal is being criticized for being more expensive than is needed and for potentially skirting the lines of nonproliferation treaties. The modifications and consolidation of the B61 stockpile would reduce the number of bombs and increase their accuracy and safety; however, the process could be considered the same as developing new warheads. Department of Energy spending on nuclear weapons is currently at nearly the same level as in 1990, when the US had almost 10 times as many weapons.