National Nuclear Security Administration - Profiles

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is responsible for the management and security of U.S. nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation, and naval reactor programs.  It also responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies both in the U.S. and abroad.  Additionally, NNSA federal agents provide safe and secure transportation of nuclear weapons and components and special nuclear materials along with other missions supporting the national security.

NNSA’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) works to identify, secure, remove or facilitate the disposition of high risk vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials around the world that pose a threat to the U.S. and the international community.

GTRI achieves its mission via three initiatives which provide a comprehensive approach to preventing terrorists’ access to nuclear and radiological materials:

• Convert: Convert research reactors and isotope production facilities from the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) or verify their shutdown
• Remove: Remove or confirm the disposition of excess nuclear and radiological materials
• Protect: Protect high priority nuclear and radiological materials from theft

GTRI and its predecessor programs have converted or verified the shutdown of 88 HEU research reactors and isotope production facilities; removed or confirmed the disposition of more than 5,140 kilograms of HEU and plutonium – more than enough material for more than 205 nuclear bombs; secured more than 775 bombs worth of HEU and plutonium associated with the BN-350 reactor in Kazakhstan; secured more than 1,700 radiological sites around the world containing millions of curies – enough for tens of thousands of large dirty bombs; recovered more than 36,000 orphan and disused radiological sources in the United States; and recovered 810 radioisotope thermoelectric generators from Russia containing millions of curies of activity.

The NNSA was established by Congress in 2000 as a separately organized agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. NNSA’s annual budget for FY2015 is $11.7 billion.

Contract and project management oversight responsibility for NNSA’s labs, plants and special facilities was given to the site offices:

• Kansas City Plant
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Nevada National Security Site
• Pantex Plant
• Sandia National Laboratories
• Savannah River Site
• Y-12 National Security Complex
• Albuquerque Complex