DeGette and Colleagues Looking Deeper into Nuclear Smuggling Threat

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), together with other top congressional leaders on energy security matters, has asked the U.S. Energy Department for specifics about our country’s efforts to stop the illegal transfer of nuclear materials overseas. Such materials could be used to harm Americans here at home or in U.S. facilities around the world.

DeGette is the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. She and her colleagues have been reviewing this matter for months, focusing especially on recent information about foreign ports and border crossings. In a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, they sought further details of programs run by the National Nuclear Security Administration to detect and deter smuggling.

“We write today because recent international developments – particularly the rise of well-funded terror groups and the curtailment of U.S.-Russian cooperation on nuclear material security – have underscored the importance of NNSA’s Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence programs,” the letter said. “These developments have prompted us to take a closer look at the status of these programs.”

The NSDD has spent approximately one billion dollars over the past five years working with 59 partner countries.

“The Committee seeks to increase its understanding of expenditures, technological development, and the progress of international cooperation with the program,” DeGette and her colleagues wrote. “Having full information about these matters is necessary to ensure any decisions concerning the course of this program do not inadvertently undermine its important security mission. Given the current threat environment, now is not the time to weaken our detection and interdiction programs overseas.”