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§6116 Stockpile Management Program

Title 10 › Subtitle A — General Military Law › PART VI — ELEMENTS OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND OTHER MATTERS › Subpart B — Atomic Energy Defense › CHAPTER 602 — NUCLEAR WEAPONS STOCKPILE MATTERS › SUBCHAPTER I — STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP AND WEAPONS PRODUCTION › § 6116

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Energy must run a program, through the Department’s Administrator and after talking with the Secretary of Defense, to manage, modernize, and replace weapons in the U.S. nuclear stockpile when needed. The program must improve weapon performance and reliability, make it less likely the U.S. will return to underground nuclear testing, keep the stockpile safe and secure, pick the right future size for the stockpile, lower the chance of accidental explosions, and stop hostile people or groups from using or stealing parts of the stockpile. Any changes to weapons must follow those goals, be cost-effective, and be well understood and certifiable without restarting underground testing. Changes must use the current design, certification, and production skills in the nuclear security enterprise and must help train and develop the next generation of those skills. Each time the President sends a budget to Congress, the money requested for this program must be clearly listed in the budget papers.

Title 10, §6116

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Program Required.—

The Secretary of Energy, acting through the Administrator and in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall carry out a program, in support of the stockpile stewardship program, to provide for the effective management, modernization, and replacement, as required, of the weapons in the nuclear weapons stockpile. The program shall have the following objectives:

(1)To enhance the performance and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile of the United States.

(2)To further reduce the likelihood of the resumption of underground nuclear weapons testing.

(3)To maintain the safety and security of the nuclear weapons stockpile.

(4)To optimize the future size of the nuclear weapons stockpile.

(5)To reduce the risk of an accidental detonation of an element of the stockpile.

(6)To reduce the risk of an element of the stockpile being used by a person or entity hostile to the United States, its vital interests, or its allies.

(b)Program Limitations.—

In carrying out the stockpile management program under subsection (a), the Secretary of Energy shall ensure that—

(1)any changes made to the stockpile shall be consistent with the objectives identified in subsection (a);

(2)any changes made to the stockpile consistent with the objectives identified in subsection (a) are carried out in a cost effective manner; and

(3)any such changes made to the stockpile shall—

(A)be well understood and certifiable without the need to resume underground nuclear weapons testing;

(B)use the design, certification, and production expertise resident in the nuclear security enterprise to fulfill current mission requirements of the existing stockpile; and

(C)develop future generations of design, certification, and production expertise in the nuclear security enterprise to support the fulfillment of mission requirements of the future stockpile.

(c)Program Budget.—

In accordance with the requirements under section 6120, for each budget submitted by the President to Congress under section 1105 of title 31, the amounts requested for the program under this section shall be clearly identified in the budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support of that budget.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 6116, act Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 382, provided that in computing length of service, no officer of the Navy or Marine Corps could be credited with service as a midshipman at the Naval Academy or as a cadet at the Military Academy, if he was appointed as a midshipman or cadet after Mar. 4, 1913. See section 971 of this title, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 90–235, § 6(a)(2), Jan. 2, 1968, 81 Stat. 761. Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in section 2524 of Title 50, War and National Defense, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 119–60, § 3111(b)(1).