Nuclear Weapons: Annual Assessment of the Safety, Performance, and Reliability of the Nation's Stockpile

Abstract

To satisfy the requirements of section 3141 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003, DOD and DOE have established an annual assessment process that reaches conclusions and makes judgments about the U.S. nuclear stockpile and, in particular, whether it is necessary to conduct an underground nuclear test to resolve any questions about a particular weapon type. The annual assessment process takes about 14 months to complete during which time the nuclear weapons community collaborates on technical issues affecting the safety, reliability, performance, and military effectiveness of the stockpile and produces seven different types of reports. The annual assessment process culminates in the Report on Stockpile Assessments prepared by the NWC, which includes an executive summary, a joint letter signed by the Secretaries of Energy and Defense, and unaltered copies of the weapons laboratory director reports and the Commander of USSTRATCOM report.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 02, 2007
Accession Number
ADA472286

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter IED
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Explosives
  • Governments
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Warheads
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Reliability
  • Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • United States Strategic Command
  • Weapons
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design