§6131 Stockpile Responsiveness Program

Summary

The Secretary of Energy must run a stockpile responsiveness program, working through the Administrator and consulting the Secretary of Defense, together with the stockpile stewardship program (section 6111) and the stockpile management program (section 6116). The goal is to keep the nation’s ability to design, test, certify, produce, and field nuclear weapons ready so the U.S. nuclear deterrent stays safe, secure, reliable, credible, and responsive. The program must maintain and exercise the science, engineering, design, certification, and manufacturing abilities needed across the whole weapons life cycle; pass knowledge and hands-on experience to the next generation of designers and engineers; demonstrate responsiveness using prototypes, flight tests, integrated demos, and plans to certify without nuclear explosive testing; create technologies that can cut time and cost for life‑extension or new weapon projects; practice coordinating all needed elements between the Administration and the Department of Defense; and, with the Director of National Intelligence, keep the ability to assess and build foreign prototype nuclear weapons and to do no-yield testing of them if required. The “joint nuclear weapons life cycle process” means the combined development, production, maintenance, and retirement process run by the Secretaries of Defense and Energy.