Nuclear security agency prioritized in Obama plan

President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget blueprint calls for an increase in funding of more than 13 percent for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a greater percentage increase than for any other government agency.

The request could help reduce opposition to a new strategic arms control treaty with Russia. Republicans have argued that the Obama administration will jeopardize national security if it agrees to cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal without modernizing the country's remaining weapons.

The $11.2 billion request for the National Nuclear Security Administration seeks funding for the agency to reach full production of the refurbished Navy W-76 Trident submarine warhead, to refurbish the B-61 bomb, and to study options for maintaining the W-78, the warhead in the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.

In addition, the budget request provides for a 10.4 percent increase, to $1.6 billion, for additional work in science and technology to enhance confidence in the annual certification of the nuclear stockpile.

An additional $2 billion would go to the long-term program to upgrade weapons-complex facilities, including a new plutonium facility for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a uranium manufacturing plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn.