U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues

 "Even though the United States plans to reduce the number of warheads deployed on its long-range missiles and bombers, consistent with the terms of the New START Treaty, it also plans todevelop new delivery systems for deployment over the next 20-30 years. The 113th Congress will continue to review these programs during the annual authorization and appropriations process.."
 Strategic Nuclear Forces

State Nuclear Profiles: 2010

 A report on nuclear power generation by individual states.

U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces:Background, Development and Issues.

"During discussions about the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, Congress reviewed and discussed the plans for maintaining and modernizing U.S. strategic nuclear forces. Although the United States plans to reduce the number of warheads deployed on its long-range missiles and bombers, consistent with the terms of the New START Treaty, it also plans to develop new delivery systems for deployment over the next 20-30 years. As a result, the 112th Congress will continue to review these programs during the annual authorization and appropriations process..."

The CostEffectiveness of Nuclear Power for Navy Surface Ships
"In recent years, the Congress has shown interest in powering some of the Navy’s future
destroyers and amphibious warfare ships with nuclear rather than conventional (petroleumbased) fuel. At the request of the former Chairman of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces of the House Committee on Armed Services, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the difference in life-cycle costs (the total costs incurred for a ship, from acquisition through operations to disposal) between powering those new surface ships with nuclear reactors and equipping them with conventional engines..."

State Nuclear Profiles, 2010 Edition
"Capacity and generation of electricity from nuclear sources in the United States:

There are 104 nuclear reactors operating at 65 plants around the nation.
Nuclear capacity (100 GW) is 10 percent of the total U.S. generating capacity.
In comparison, nuclear generation (806 TWh) is almost 20 percent of the total U.S. generation.
The reason: nuclear units operate more often and at higher levels than plants using other energy sources.
The capacity factor for nuclear--over 91 percent--is the highest of any energy source. The energy source with the second highest capacity factor is coal which is 74 percent.
Nuclear capacity tends to increase slightly each year, about 0.2% to 0.4%, despite the fact that no new units have been commissioned in over a decade. These increases are due to uprates of the existing plants..."

Securing Nuclear Materials: The 2010 Summit and Issues for Congress
"In an April 2009 speech in Prague, President Obama pledged that his Administration would
launch “a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world
within four years.” To motivate world leaders to achieve this goal, the President hosted a
Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, on April 12-13, 2010. Leaders of 47 countries
attended the summit, including many heads of state. Attendees represent a wide geographic
range of states and nuclear capabilities, and include China, India, Israel, and Pakistan.
The summit resulted in a joint statement saying that international cooperative action is
necessary to prevent an act of nuclear terrorism. Summit attendees also pledged to improve
nuclear security standards, bring international agreements into force, and share best
practices.

Nuclear security measures refer to a wide range of actions to prevent theft or diversion of nuclear material or sabotage at an installation or in transit. They could include physical protection measures, material control and accounting, personnel reliability screening, and training. A broader understanding of nuclear security also includes measures to prevent and
detect illicit trafficking cargo inspections, border security, and interdiction measures.

The U.S. government has worked for more than a decade both domestically and in partnership
with other countries to address this problem through multiple programs at the Departments of
Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and State. The International Atomic Energy Agency has
also played a lead role in these efforts, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Managing the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Policy Implications of Expanding Global Access to Nuclear Power
"After several decades of widespread stagnation, nuclear power is attracting renewed interest. New
license applications for 30 reactors have been announced in the United States, and another 150
are planned or proposed globally, with about a dozen more currently under construction. In the
United States, interest appears driven, in part, by tax credits, loan guarantees, and other incentives in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, as well as by potential greenhouse gas controls that may increase the cost of fossil fuels. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Energy is spending several hundred million dollars per year to develop the next generation of nuclear power technology.

Expanding global access to nuclear power, nevertheless, has the potential to lead to the spread of
nuclear technology that could be used for nuclear weapons. Despite 30 years of effort to limit
access to uranium enrichment, several undeterred states pursued clandestine nuclear programs;
the A.Q. Khan black market network’s sales to Iran and North Korea representing the most
egregious examples. Concern over the spread of enrichment and reprocessing technologies,
combined with a growing consensus that the world must seek alternatives to dwindling and
polluting fossil fuels, may be giving way to optimism that advanced nuclear technologies may
offer proliferation resistance..."

Nuclear Power’s Role in Generating Electricity
"At the request of the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assessed the competitiveness of nuclear power when compared with other sources of new capacity to generate electricity, focusing on the possible effects of constraints on carbon dioxide emissions and the impact of EPAct incentives. In accordance with CBO’s mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, this study makes no recommendations."

Nuclear Power 2010
"New baseload nuclear generating capacity is required to enhance U.S. energy supply diversity and energy security, a key National Energy Policy (NEP) objective. The Nuclear Power 2010 program, unveiled by the Secretary on February 14, 2002, is a joint government/industry cost-shared effort to identify sites for new nuclear power plants, develop and bring to market advanced nuclear plant technologies, evaluate the business case for building new nuclear power plants, and demonstrate untested regulatory processes. Accomplishing these program objectives paves the way for an industry decision to build new advanced light water reactor nuclear plants in the United States that would begin operation early in the next decade. The Department is actively engaged with the industry to address the issues affecting future expansion of nuclear generation."

U.S. Nuclear Electricity Generation at Record Level in 2007
"The U.S. nuclear industry supplied a record 806.5 billion kilowatthours of electricity in 2007. The largest increase came in Tennessee, with 4 billion kilowatthours more nuclear-provided electricity in 2007 than in 2006, an increase of 16 percent, according to preliminary Energy Information Administration (EIA) data released today. National total nuclear generation was 2.4 percent higher than in 2006, and 2.3 percent higher than in the previous record year, 2004. The capacity factor (the amount of power actually generated compared with the maximum amount that could be generated) for 2007 was 91.8 percent, exceeding the previous record capacity factor of 90.3 percent in 2002."