Energy Department official tours nuclear-arms stockpile site

Deputy Energy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall traveled to Amarillo, Texas, this week to visit the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Pantex Plant, which maintains the nation's nuclear arms stockpile.

A vital component of President Obama’s security strategy, Pantex plays an important role in maintaining the safety and security of the nation’s inactive nuclear weapons stockpile.

“The National Nuclear Security Administration is critical to our national security and stockpile stewardship,” Sherwood-Randall said. “President Obama’s budget request supports our continued commitment to maintaining a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent, reducing global stocks of weapons-usable nuclear materials and strengthening our efforts to prevent WMD proliferation.”

Pantex is home to some of the industry’s most highly valued and trusted maintenance and support teams. On-site employees oversee much of the nuclear weapons' life-extension programs, dismantle nuclear weapons, development and test the fabrication of high-explosives components, and maintain the interim storage and surveillance of plutonium pits.

The 2016 fiscal-year budget proposes $12.6 billion for NNSA to help advance the president’s strategy of maintaining a safe and secure nuclear weapons stockpile, while also moving forward with furthering research and development activities necessary for the modernization of infrastructure needed to meet national nuclear security requirements.