This article is part of our President’s FY2024 Budget Request Coverage. Visit our Rolling Analysis Page for more.

The Biden Administration is proposing $23.8 billion for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The request increases current NNSA funding by $1.7 billion, or 7.6 percent. This is a portion, but not all, of the so-called Budget Function 053, “Atomic Energy Defense Activities” which totals $32.8 billion. These two numbers, combined with ambiguity in the original press release from the Office of Management and Budget, made for some uncertainty about how and where all this money is to be spent.

NNSA funds all of the Pentagon’s nuclear weapons-related activities, including weapons design, production, safeguarding the nation’s nuclear stockpile, and DOE’s nuclear non-proliferation programs. The NNSA budget does not fund the aircraft, submarines and missiles that make up the military’s nuclear “triad,” which are funded within the Pentagon’s annual budget.

As in previous years, the lion’s share of Administration’s proposed additional funding comes under the heading of “Weapons Activities,” which itself grows by $1.7 billion, (10 percent) to $18.8 billion. This includes $5.2 billion for “Stockpile Management,” the budget for maintaining the security and operational viability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, an increase of over 5 percent.

Meanwhile, the request for “Product Modernization” is $5.6 billion in FY 2024, an increase of over 8 percent. This program supports funding for nuclear warhead “pit” production. The “pit” is the portion of a nuclear warhead that contains the weapon’s fissile material. The request provides for production of the first War Reserve (WR) pit at Los Alamos National Laboratories in FY 2024 and includes funding to reestablish U.S. capability to produce 80 pits per year. According to the FY 2024 request, funding for “Product Modernization” is projected to increase significantly through FY 2028, growing by 48 percent. Meanwhile, overall NNSA funding will grow by 28 percent over the same period.

Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Programs are another component of the NNSA budget. These programs are intended to promote U.S. security by halting the global spread of nuclear weapons or weapons-related materials, technology and expertise. The Administration’s $2.5 billion request for NNSA non-proliferation programs is $19 million above current levels, an increase of less than 1 percent.

Environmental Management: The Department of Energy is also responsible for clean-up of the government’s nuclear weapons sites. The Biden Administration is requesting $7.5 billion for Environmental Management programs in FY 2024, a decrease of $110 million, or about 1.4 percent. (Note: these are preliminary cleanup numbers based on OMB documents – DOE had not yet released all its FY 2024 supporting documentation at the time of this printing.)