NUCLEAR WEAPONS: DOE Needs to Improve Oversight of the $5 Billion Strategic Computing Initiative

Historically, the United States detonated nuclear weapons as the primary method of validating designs and certifying the weapons as safe and reliable. Since September 1992, there has been a moratorium on testing. To ensure the continued safety and reliability of nuclear weapons, the Department of Energy DOE, which is responsible for designing and building nuclear weapons, developed the 15-year Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program in 1995 as a substitute for actual testing. The stockpile stewardship program employs a variety of means to ensure weapon safety and reliability, including examining weapons, conducting laboratory experiments and tests, and conducting computer modeling and simulation. The computer modeling and simulation part of the program is known as the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative. The strategic computing initiative aims to develop advanced computer models that will simulate nuclear explosions in three dimensions with higher resolution than previous models and with a more complete treatment of the underlying basic physics. The initiative is also developing the worlds largest and fastest computers, which may ultimately be able to calculate more than 100-trillion mathematical operations per second. The initiative is expected to cost about 5.2 billion for fiscal years 1996 through 2004. Concerned about the status of the strategic computing initiative, the Chairman, Subcommittee on Military Procurement, House Committee on Armed Services, requested that GAO review the management of the strategic computing initiative, including 1 whether the program is meeting its key milestones and whether its hardware and software developments are adequate to date 2 whether the program is within its projected budget and 3 what key technical risks the program faces.