12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Major · Needs Congress

Fund new nuclear warheads and plutonium pit production

Done

Printed page 372 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions

“Fund the design, development, and deployment of new nuclear warheads, including the production of plutonium pits in quantity.”

What has happened

Jan 23, 2026 Done
The ask is to fund this work, and it is funded: the FY2026 Energy and Water act appropriated $20.378 billion for Weapons Activities (from $19.293 billion in FY2025), covering warhead development and the two-site pit plan, and the FY2027 request seeks $27.44 billion (+35%) for a capability of 80 pits a year. The pits themselves are not yet made in quantity — NNSA still describes stockpile-grade capability as not established, with 30 pits a year at Los Alamos targeted for 2026 and Savannah River in the mid-2030s — but the ask names the funding, not the output.
- P.L. 119-74 — FY2026 Energy and Water Development appropriations (Weapons Activities, $20,378,000,000)
  Primary Congress Jan 23, 2026
- DOE FY 2027 Budget in Brief — Weapons Activities $27,441,159 thousand (+35%); capability to produce 80 pits per year
  Primary Executive branch Apr 3, 2026
Dec 18, 2025 Partially done
The FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 119-60) authorized NNSA's FY2026 programs, set plutonium pit production capacity requirements (§3112) and moved the SLCM-N deadlines forward (limited deployment by 2032-09-30, initial operational capability by 2034-09-30, §1633).
- P.L. 119-60 — National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (§1633 nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile; §3112 plutonium pit production capacity)
  Primary Congress Dec 18, 2025
May 9, 2025 Attempted
NNSA published a notice of intent to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement for plutonium pit production at Los Alamos and Savannah River (the two-site, 80-pits-per-year plan); the FY2026 request that followed (2025-06-17) asked $24.86 billion for Weapons Activities (+28.8%), including $807 million for the W93, $649 million for the W87-1 and $272 million for the SLCM-N warhead.
- NNSA notice: Notice of Intent To Prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production
  Primary Executive branch May 9, 2025
- DOE FY 2026 Congressional Justification, Volume 1 — Weapons Activities ($24,856,400 thousand requested; W93, W87-1, SLCM-N warhead lines; 80 pits per year)
  Primary Executive branch Jun 17, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

The first war-reserve W87-1 pit was diamond-stamped 2024-10-01 (energy.gov/nnsa), before the tracking window. No allowlisted 2025-26 release reports a production count; the NNSA pit-production page (https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/plutonium-pit-production) says capability “is limited to research and development pits” pending the LANL and SRS projects, so pits are not yet made “in quantity”. Moved from partial to done on review: the Quote asks Congress and the Department to fund design, development, deployment and pit production, and that funding is enacted and continuing. If the appropriation were withdrawn this becomes reversed.
The Federal Register notice of availability of a pit-production EIS appeared 2026-04-17 (2026-07533, EPA weekly EIS list); not read.
Overlaps #1012 (develop new warheads) — same statutes and budget documents.

Action: create
Object: new nuclear warheads and plutonium pits
ID: 940