DOE's Strategic Plan

The Energy Department this week released a draft copy of its 2014-2018 strategic plan.

Part of the draft document pledges that the department will work on nuclear nonproliferation issues:

We also will advance the President's vision for reducing the levels of nuclear weapons in the world, strengthen nonproliferation efforts, and prevent nuclear terrorism. DOE must maintain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile in the absence of underground testing and manage the infrastructure for the research, development, and production activities needed to meet national security requirements. We will carry out our responsibilities in accordance with the Administration’s June 2013 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan that lays out a comprehensive modernization plan to ensure that our nuclear arsenal remains an effective deterrent.

We will strengthen efforts to reduce the nuclear terrorism threat through measures to identify, control and eliminate nuclear explosive materials worldwide. We also will provide support for the Administration’s efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

We will address the legal and moral imperative of cleaning up legacy Cold War nuclear waste to protect human health and the environment. Great progress has been made but significant technical challenges remain, and we will implement an integrated, systematic, and comprehensive process to address these issues.