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#### The Department of Energy

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#### Strategic Plan

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**"Protecting National, Energy, and Economic Security with Advanced
Science and Technology and Ensuring Environmental Cleanup"**

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#### September 30, 2003

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**Editor's Notes:**

This strategic plan covers the Department of Energy including the
National Nuclear Security Administration, the Energy Information
Administration, and the Power Marketing Administrations. As an
independent regulatory agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) prepares separate documents. See their web page at:
http://www.ferc.gov/about/strat-docs.asp.

This document is also available on the Department of Energy's web site:
http://www.energy.gov.

This Strategic Plan was produced by the Office of Program Analysis and
Evaluation in the Office of Management, Budget and Evaluation. The point
of contact for this document is Dr. William G. Kennedy who can be
reached at (202) 586-0423 or by e-mail to Bill.Kennedy@hq.doe.gov.

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I am pleased to present the Department of Energy\'s 2003 Strategic Plan.

The Department of Energy is responsible for meeting the Nation\'s energy
and National security challenges. This Strategic Plan charts the course
for the next 25 years -- focusing our capabilities to meet today's needs
and provide innovative solutions to tomorrow's challenges.

We have updated our mission, established long-term goals, laid out our
strategies to achieve them, and identified key intermediate objectives
along the way. This Plan, therefore, provides the basis for evaluating
our performance which we will be doing regularly.

All of us at the Department are committed to meeting the Department's
overarching mission of ensuring national security.

We welcome your support as we continue to fulfill our responsibility to
the Nation.

Spencer Abraham

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#### Secretaries of Energy James Watkins, James Schlesinger, James Edwards, Spencer Abraham and Hazel O\'Leary at the 25th Anniversary of the U. S. Department of Energy October 8, 2002. 

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#### The Department of Energy Strategic Plan

The Department of Energy contributes to the future of the Nation by
ensuring energy security, maintaining the safety, security and
reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile, cleaning up the
environment from the legacy of the Cold War, and developing innovations
in science and technology. After 25 years in existence, the Department
now operates 24 preeminent research laboratories and facilities and four
power marketing administrations, and manages the environmental cleanup
from 50 years of nuclear defense activities that impacted two million
acres in communities across the country. The Department has an annual
budget of about \$23 billion and employs about 14,500 Federal and
100,000 contractor employees.

The Department of Energy is principally a national security agency and
all of its missions flow from this core mission to support national
security. That is true not just today, but throughout the history of the
agency. The origins of the Department can be traced to the Manhattan
Project and the race to develop the atomic bomb during World War II.
Following the war, Congress engaged in a vigorous and contentious debate
over civilian versus military control of the atom. The Atomic Energy Act
of 1946 settled the debate by creating the Atomic Energy Commission,
which took over the Manhattan Project\'s sprawling scientific and
industrial complex.

The Atomic Energy Commission was specifically established to maintain
civilian government control over the field of atomic research and
development. During the early Cold War Years, the Commission focused on
designing and producing nuclear weapons and developing nuclear reactors
for naval propulsion. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 ended exclusive
Government use of the atom and began the growth of the commercial
nuclear power industry, giving the Atomic Energy Commission authority to
regulate the new industry.

In the 1970s, the Atomic Energy Commission was abolished and the Energy
Reorganization Act of 1974 created two new agencies: the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to regulate the nuclear power industry and the
Energy Research and Development Administration to manage the nuclear
weapon, naval reactor, and energy development programs.

However, the extended energy crisis of the 1970s soon demonstrated the
need for unified energy organization and planning. The Department of
Energy Organization Act brought the Federal Government\'s agencies and
programs into a single agency. Established on October 1, 1977, the
Department of Energy assumed the responsibilities of the Federal Energy
Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration, and
parts and programs from several other agencies.

The Department provided the framework for a comprehensive and balanced
national energy plan by coordinating and administering the energy
functions of the Federal Government. The Department undertook
responsibility for long-term, high-risk research and development of
energy technology, power marketing, energy efficiency, the nuclear
weapons program, energy regulatory programs, and a central energy data
collection and analysis program.

Over its 25-year history, the Department has shifted its emphasis and
focus as the needs of the Nation have changed. During the late 1970s,
the Department emphasized energy development and regulation. In the
1980s, nuclear weapons research, development, and production took a
priority. Since the end of the Cold War, the Department has focused on
environmental cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex, nuclear
nonproliferation and nuclear weapons stewardship, reliable energy
supplies and delivery, energy efficiency and conservation, and
technology transfer.

Science and technology are the Department's principal tools in the
pursuit of its national security mission. The Department has amassed
tremendous scientific and technical capabilities serving America in ways
never anticipated 25 years ago. Those capabilities will be applied to
the overarching mission of ensuring the national security.

The development of this strategic plan was the work of only Federal
employees and was guided by major policy documents and program
evaluations. In May 2001, the Administration issued its National Energy
Policy which had several recommendations for the Department of Energy.
The Administration's Nuclear Posture Review of 2002 revised the Nation's
nuclear weapons policy affecting the Department's nuclear weapons
programs. Focused internally, the Department conducted major
"top-to-bottom" program evaluations of the environmental management and
fossil energy programs and has had the benefit of program evaluations
conducted by the Department's Inspector General and the General
Accounting Office. There are additional discussions of program
evaluations with the resulting goals throughout this document.

This document charts the course for the next 25 years---focusing on the
Department's technical capabilities to meet its needs and provide
innovative solutions for the future.

The Department has four **strategic goals** toward achieving the
mission:

-   **Defense Strategic Goal:** To protect our national security by
    applying advanced science and nuclear technology to the Nation's
    defense.

-   **Energy Strategic Goal:** To protect our national and economic
    security by promoting a diverse supply and delivery of reliable,
    affordable, and environmentally sound energy.

-   **Science Strategic Goal:** To protect our national and economic
    security by providing world-class scientific research capacity and
    advancing scientific knowledge.

-   **Environment Strategic Goal:** To protect the environment by
    providing a responsible resolution to the environmental legacy of
    the Cold War and by providing for the permanent disposal of the
    Nation's high-level radioactive waste.

The Department has adopted seven long-term general goals to implement
these strategic goals.

U.S. Department of Energy Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  **Strategic Goals**               **General Goals**
  --------------------------------- -------------------------------------
  **Defense Strategic Goal:** To    Goal 1. NUCLEAR WEAPONS STEWARDSHIP:
  protect our national security by  Ensure that our nuclear weapons
  applying advanced science and     continue to serve their essential
  nuclear technology to the         deterrence role by maintaining and
  Nation's defense.                 enhancing the safety, security, and
                                    reliability of the U.S. nuclear
                                    weapons stockpile.

                                    Goal 2. NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION:
                                    Provide technical leadership to limit
                                    or prevent the spread of materials,
                                    technology, and expertise relating to
                                    weapons of mass destruction; advance
                                    the technologies to detect the
                                    proliferation of weapons of mass
                                    destruction worldwide; and eliminate
                                    or secure inventories of surplus
                                    materials and infrastructure usable
                                    for nuclear weapons.

                                    Goal 3. NAVAL REACTORS: Provide the
                                    Navy with safe, militarily effective
                                    nuclear propulsion plants and ensure
                                    their continued safe and reliable
                                    operation.

  **Energy Strategic Goal:** To     Goal 4. ENERGY SECURITY: Improve
  protect our national and economic energy security by developing
  security by promoting a diverse   technologies that foster a diverse
  supply and delivery of reliable,  supply of reliable, affordable, and
  affordable, and environmentally   environmentally sound energy by
  sound energy.                     providing for reliable delivery of
                                    energy, guarding against energy
                                    emergencies, exploring advanced
                                    technologies that make a fundamental
                                    improvement in our mix of energy
                                    options, and improving energy
                                    efficiency.

  **Science Strategic Goal:** To    Goal 5. WORLD-CLASS SCIENTIFIC
  protect our national and economic RESEARCH CAPACITY: Provide
  security by providing world-class world-class scientific research
  scientific research capacity and  capacity needed to: ensure the
  advancing scientific knowledge.   success of Department missions in
                                    national and energy security; advance
                                    the frontiers of knowledge in
                                    physical sciences and areas of
                                    biological, medical, environmental,
                                    and computational sciences; or
                                    provide world-class research
                                    facilities for the Nation's science
                                    enterprise.

  **Environment Strategic Goal:**   Goal 6. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT:
  To protect the environment by     Accelerate cleanup of nuclear weapons
  providing a responsible           manufacturing and testing sites,
  resolution to the environmental   completing cleanup of 108
  legacy of the Cold War and by     contaminated sites by 2025.
  providing for the permanent       
  disposal of the Nation's          
  high-level radioactive waste.     

                                    Goal 7. NUCLEAR WASTE: License and
                                    construct a permanent repository for
                                    nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain and
                                    begin acceptance of waste by 2010.
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

**Meeting National Security Challenges**

The Department protects U.S. national security by ensuring the continued
safety, security, and reliability of our Nation's nuclear deterrent,
working to reduce the global danger from the proliferation of nuclear
materials and other weapons of mass destruction, fulfilling the U.S.
Navy's requirements for new nuclear propulsion plants that meet current
and future national defense requirements, and in providing technical
expertise in advancing Homeland Security. Secretary Abraham has made it
clear that all Department missions flow from the core mission to protect
national security.

In 2000, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was
established as a semi-autonomous agency within the Department in
response to a Congressional mandate to reinvigorate the security posture
throughout the nuclear weapons program and to reaffirm the Nation's
commitment to maintaining the nuclear deterrence capabilities of the
United States. NNSA was chartered as a distinct organization within the
Department of Energy to better focus management attention on enhanced
security, proactive management practices, and mission focus within the
Department's defense programs. The Department performs its national
security missions through NNSA.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Department immediately
implemented measures to augment safeguards and security for its most
critical assets to fully protect nuclear weapons, materials, facilities,
classified information, and personnel of the Department of Energy.

Department sites have significantly increased the level of security,
increasing the size of protective forces, enhancing training, upgrading
equipment, limiting access to key areas, and improving cyber security.
The Department also upgraded its emergency response assets, which are
available to be deployed in emergencies around the world. The
Department, and NNSA, will continue to ensure effective performance of
our safeguards and security systems through consistent implementation of
Departmental and other relevant security policies.

Two strategies will be used to accomplish this goal. First, the
Department will ensure that clear roles, responsibilities and
organizational structures are fully implemented in the safeguards and
security program. Second, the Department will collaborate with other
offices and agencies in the development and deployment of technologies
to replace costly and manpower-intensive physical protection strategies.

The evolving global threat scenario could require flexibility in the
identification and implementation of revised protection strategies for
facilities and information. Throughout the planning period, the
Department utilizes both internal and independent reviews and
assessments to validate systems performance, and will pursue technology
alternatives that are cost-effective and responsive to emerging threats.

Recently, Secretary Abraham directed the Department to update the Design
Basis Threat based on the latest intelligence, which provides the basis
for establishing and assessing protective effectiveness at Department
facilities. The new Design Basis Threat, approved in May 2003, is
derived from national intelligence threat information and reflects the
most credible threats to Department assets and operations. It is
effective immediately and will be implemented over the next several
years.

The Department will apply advanced science and nuclear technology to the
Nation's defense and focus resources to achieve the following general
goals:

**Goal 1**. NUCLEAR WEAPONS STEWARDSHIP: Ensure that our nuclear weapons
continue to serve their essential deterrence role by maintaining and
enhancing the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear
weapons stockpile.

**Goal 2**. NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION: Provide technical leadership to
limit or prevent the spread of materials, technology, and expertise
relating to weapons of mass destruction; advance the technologies to
detect the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction worldwide; and
eliminate or secure inventories of surplus materials and infrastructure
usable for nuclear weapons.

**Goal 3**. NAVAL REACTORS: Provide the Navy with safe, militarily
effective nuclear propulsion plants and ensure their continued safe and
reliable operation.

> Secretary Spencer Abraham and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge at
> DOE.

**Goal 1. NUCLEAR WEAPONS STEWARDSHIP: Ensure that our nuclear weapons
continue to serve their essential deterrence role by maintaining and
enhancing the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear
weapons stockpile.**

The most important responsibility of the Secretary of Energy in
cooperation with the Secretary of Defense is certifying to the President
that the Nation's nuclear weapons stockpile is safe, secure, and
reliable, and that there is no requirement to resume underground
testing. Our nuclear deterrent protected the Nation and our allies,
helped win a 50-year Cold War, and continues to be a key strategic
component of our national security posture.

The Administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) revised the Nation's
nuclear weapons policy to reflect the end of the Cold War. The
Department is responding to these changing requirements. The NPR shifted
planning for U.S. strategic forces from the threat-based approach of the
Cold War era to a capabilities-based approach, relying on a
significantly smaller nuclear stockpile to serve as a key deterrent to
threats from nations which might wish to employ weapons of mass
destruction. Key to the capabilities-based approach is to build and
sustain a force structure that is flexible enough to deal with the
highly dynamic strategic environment.

Our challenge today continues to be both technically complex and
compelling: the Department must maintain the safety, security, and
reliability of an aging nuclear weapons stockpile without resorting to
underground testing; continue stockpile surveillance activities;
refurbish and extend the lives of several warhead types; advance the
science and technology base; recruit and train the next generation of
scientists and engineers; reinvigorate the weapons complex
infrastructure; enhance the test readiness posture; revitalize advanced
concepts work and restore lost production capabilities.

To ensure that the existing stockpile continues to meet its military
requirements, the NNSA also has a comprehensive refurbishment program
known as Stockpile Life Extension. This program designs, builds, tests,
and installs new subsystems and components, extending the operational
service life for these warheads for 30 years. The first Life Extension
Program for the W87 ICBM warhead is nearly complete. Life extension work
on the B61, W76 and W80 warheads will begin later this decade.

NNSA is also restoring the full range of manufacturing capabilities
needed to respond to any stockpile contingency. In particular, NNSA is
moving to restore the capability and capacity to manufacture plutonium
pits -- the key component of modern nuclear weapons. This has been a
central challenge for Stockpile Stewardship since the closure of the
Rocky Flats Plant in 1989. NNSA will continue planning for the design
and construction of a modern pit facility to support long-term pit
manufacturing. This fall, NNSA will take the next step in the resumption
of tritium production when several hundred Tritium Producing Burnable
Absorber Rods are inserted into a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
reactor. Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen which decays and must be
replenished and is used in all modern nuclear weapons.

NNSA is also investing in the leading edge scientific and engineering
tools required to support the stockpile now and into the future. Three
areas deserve special mention. First, with the Advanced Simulation
Computing Initiative, NNSA is working with U.S. computer manufacturers
to acquire the world's fastest and most capable computers to address
nuclear weapons performance issues that several years ago were
impossible to solve. Several of these advanced computer systems are
already in place at the National laboratories and are providing powerful
data analysis capabilities for stockpile evaluations. Second, the
Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) Facility is providing
images of weapons implosion processes, which provides essential data to
validate computer codes. Third, later this year, the world's most
energetic laser, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, will begin to carry out experiments in support of
the nuclear weapons stockpile.

***Strategies***

For the next 25 years, the Department will pursue two strategies to
ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons
stockpile. NNSA will:

1.  Continue to work with the Department of Defense to conduct a program
    of warhead evaluation, maintenance, refurbishment, and production.

2.  Develop the science, design, engineering, testing, and manufacturing
    capabilities needed for long-term stewardship of the stockpile
    without underground testing.

***External Factors***

The following external factors could affect our ability to achieve this
goal:

-   **Technology**: Technological development is inherently
    unpredictable. The discovery of an insurmountable scientific or
    engineering obstacle in a crucial stockpile weapon could force the
    resumption of nuclear testing.

-   **Nuclear Posture Review**: Changes in the nuclear threats posed to
    the United States could require changes to our nuclear weapons
    stewardship programs.

-   **Funding**: A significant reduction in funding would adversely
    affect the efforts to revitalize the weapons complex, execute the
    life extension programs, and continue the work of stockpile
    stewardship.

***Key Intermediate Objectives***

-   In Fall 2003, NNSA initiates tritium production in TVA's Watts Bar
    Reactor.

-   By December 2003, the National Ignition Facility will begin
    operations at limited power.

-   By 2005, a 100 Teraflops advanced computational machine will be in
    operation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

-   By 2007, NNSA will deliver the first war reserve pit for the
    stockpile since the closure of Rocky Flats.

-   Throughout the 25-year planning period, the Secretary of Energy,
    jointly with the Secretary of Defense, will annually certify to the
    President whether the stockpile is safe, secure, and reliable and
    whether a resumption of nuclear weapons testing is necessary.

-   Throughout the 25-year planning period, NNSA will develop and
    maintain the facilities and infrastructure necessary to ensure the
    safety, security, and reliability of the stockpile.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.975in" height="0.10416666666666667in"}

> The Atlas Pulsed Power Facility is being reassembled at the Nevada
> Test Site as part of the Stockpile Stewardship Program to validate
> certain hydrodynamic elements of nuclear weapons computer codes.

**Goal 2. NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION: Provide technical leadership to
limit or prevent the spread of materials, technology, and expertise
relating to weapons of mass destruction; advance the technologies to
detect the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction worldwide; and
eliminate or secure inventories of surplus materials and infrastructure
usable for nuclear weapons.**

During the past two and one-half years, the Department has significantly
improved its ability to prevent and reverse the proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction, and to eliminate or secure nuclear weapons,
weapons-usable nuclear material, and the infrastructure that supports
them. The Department has expanded its efforts to prevent the spread of
nuclear weapons and materials, enhanced its ability to detect weapons of
mass destruction and other terrorist threats, expanded its strategies to
eliminate or secure inventories of surplus materials usable for nuclear
weapons, taken steps to protect against new threats from radiological
dispersal devices, and reduced the risk of accidents in nuclear fuel
cycle facilities worldwide.

Nuclear material must be made more physically secure. Border monitoring
and export controls also help to ensure that nuclear materials stay
where they belong. Nuclear materials can be consolidated. By reducing
the number of sites storing this material, vulnerability to threat or
sabotage can be reduced. Nuclear material can be reduced by downblending
highly enriched uranium or burning plutonium as mixed oxide fuel in
nuclear energy plants. The production of excess nuclear material can be
ended.

The Department is addressing the problem at its source---such as
developing and implementing detection technologies for more effective
international border controls, as well as enhanced law enforcement
efforts aimed at thwarting the trafficking in illicit nuclear materials.
It also includes new efforts to strengthen the international framework
to reduce the threat of a radiological attack against the United States
and its interests abroad.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is essential to the
success of Department nonproliferation programs. The Department is
working closely with the IAEA to both ensure IAEA can effectively carry
out its duties and to help all nations understand and deal with
materials challenges. However, nuclear materials security is ultimately
a national responsibility. The responsibility for securing nuclear and
radiological materials rests, in the end, with each individual member of
the international community.

September 11 made these concerns more immediate. After September 11
there could be no doubt that terrorists would use nuclear materials to
harm innocent citizens of the civilized nations of the world---if they
could acquire them. The margin of error is small. There are any number
of states and sub-state actors interested in acquiring nuclear or
radiological materials. The IAEA has reported some 200 attempts at the
illicit smuggling of nuclear materials in the past decade alone. Even a
little success in smuggling or theft can have a great impact. Based on
IAEA calculations, only a relatively small amount of highly-enriched
uranium could be enough for a nuclear explosive device. And if the goal
is to build a radiological dispersal device, or dirty bomb, the amount
can be even less, depending on the material used. The Department needs
to apply the best technologies, the best know-how, experience, and
expertise to this problem. The Department has the scientific and
technical expertise to address this threat.

The threat continues to evolve. The international community has long
been concerned about rogue states seeking to acquire weapons of mass
destruction. Now terrorist networks are seeking such weapons and
materials. Likewise, much more attention is being paid to the risks
associated with the misuse of radiological materials---a possibility
hardly considered before September 11. The problem of undersecured
radiological sources that would be used in a radiological dispersion
attack is an urgent one. Radiological dispersal devices, or dirty bombs,
are much simpler to make and use than nuclear weapons. While dirty bombs
are not comparable to nuclear weapons in destructiveness, they are far
easier to assemble and employ. The materials that might be used in a
dirty bomb exist in many everyday forms, including medical isotopes,
radiography sources, scientific research facilities, and sources that
provide electric power. Such material can be found in virtually every
country. While the physical destruction they would cause is comparable
to conventional explosives, the disruption and panic caused by
widespread contamination is far greater. And it is disruption and panic
that terrorists seek.

Despite the wide use of radioactive sources, only a small portion of
them pose a real threat as potential ingredients in a dirty bomb. The
Department is reviewing what it can do to preclude the sources
presenting the greatest threat from becoming useful to terrorists and is
working closely with the IAEA to put these issues at the top of the
international agenda.

The United States and Russia have taken major steps to secure Russian
surplus materials usable for nuclear weapons. The unprecedented levels
of cooperation between our countries have resulted in great strides in
eliminating and securing inventories of surplus materials usable for
nuclear weapons. The Department is making major progress on work related
to plutonium disposition facilities in the U.S. and Russia which would
eliminate excess weapons plutonium, and accelerate our program for the
elimination of Russian highly enriched uranium.

There are good reasons to focus on Russia. The demise of the Soviet
Union led to the dissolution of an empire having over 40,000 nuclear
weapons and over a thousand metric tons of nuclear materials. At the
same time, Russia lacked the infrastructure to assure that chains of
command remain intact and nuclear weapons and materials remain securely
beyond the reach of terrorists and weapons-proliferating states. Russia
is not the only nation with surplus nuclear materials. The U.S. is
working with other countries to improve nuclear materials security and
working with a number of countries to repatriate and consolidate
weapons-grade fuel in Russia, where it can be eliminated or secured.

***Strategies***

Five strategies will be followed to achieve our nuclear nonproliferation
goal. NNSA will:

1.  Prevent the spread of materials, technology, and expertise relating
    to weapons of mass destruction.

2.  Eliminate or secure inventories of surplus materials usable for
    nuclear weapons and redirect excess foreign weapons expertise to
    civilian enterprises.

3.  Secure nuclear radioactive sources that pose the greatest threat as
    potential ingredients in radiological dispersal services, or dirty
    bombs.

4.  Enhance our ability to detect weapons of mass destruction, including
    nuclear, chemical, and biological systems.

5.  Work to reduce the risk of accidents in nuclear facilities worldwide
    by improving safety regimes in Russia and other countries.

***External Factors***

The following external factors could affect our ability to achieve this
goal:

-   **Close Cooperation with Russia**: Unprecedented levels of
    cooperation between the U.S. and Russia have made it possible to
    make great strides in eliminating and securing inventories of
    surplus materials. A close relationship is necessary for future
    progress.

-   **International Atomic Energy Agency:** The IAEA is essential to the
    success of our efforts to control nuclear proliferation. It is vital
    that the IAEA receive the necessary funding and show the necessary
    leadership to member countries to accomplish its mission.

-   **Technology**: Technological development is uncertain and
    unpredictable. Our efforts to develop detection technology may be
    more or less successful than predicted, which would have a
    corresponding positive or negative impact on our efforts.

***Key Intermediate Objectives***

-   Security upgrades will have started on nearly all of the 600
    estimated metric tons of weapons usable nuclear material in Russia
    by the end of fiscal year 2005.

-   Security upgrades to 39 Russian Navy nuclear warhead sites
    containing hundreds of nuclear warheads are completed by 2006.

-   Upgrades to Russian border security are completed by 2005.

-   Last remaining nuclear reactors in Russia that produce weapons-grade
    plutonium are shut down by 2008 for the two reactors at Seversk and
    2011 for the reactor in Zheleznogorsk.

-   Operation of a mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility that will
    eliminate surplus Russian weapons material commences by 2008.

-   Security upgrades at Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy nuclear
    weapons complex are completed by 2008.

-   Convert approximately 27 metric tons of Russian highly enriched
    uranium to low enriched uranium by 2010.

-   All worldwide fissile nuclear materials are under controls
    acceptable to the U.S. by 2025.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.975in" height="0.10416666666666667in"}

> The Multispectral Thermal Imager satellite is prepared for launch.
> This satellite employs technologies that could be used in future
> systems for detecting and characterizing facilities producing weapons
> of mass destruction.

**Goal 3. NAVAL REACTORS: Provide the Navy with safe, militarily
effective nuclear propulsion plants and ensure their continued safe and
reliable operation.**

The Department, through NNSA and the Naval Reactors Program, is
responsible for providing the U.S. Navy with safe, militarily effective
nuclear propulsion plants, beginning with technical development and
continuing with reactor operation and ultimately reactor plant disposal.
Naval nuclear propulsion plants currently power 40 percent of the
Navy\'s combatants, and the Department will continue to fulfill this
responsibility. The Department is embarking on a long-term effort to
develop and deploy a new reactor core design to meet the demands of
longer and more frequent deployments. The Naval Reactors Program has
developed an envied reputation for process, skills, and technologies.

***Strategies***

Two strategies will be used to accomplish this goal. NNSA will:

1.  Ensure the safety, performance, reliability, and service life of
    operating reactors.

2.  Develop new technologies, methods, and materials to support reactor
    plant design for future generations of reactors for submarines and
    aircraft carriers.

***External Factors***

The Department does not believe there are major external factors with
the potential to affect our ability to achieve this goal.

***Key Intermediate Objectives***

-   Throughout the planning period, NNSA provides nuclear reactors that
    meet the U.S. Navy's operational requirements safely and reliably.

-   Throughout the planning period, NNSA\'s new reactor plant
    technologies, methods, and materials meet performance, schedule, and
    budgetary requirements of new ships.

-   Throughout the planning period, no personnel involved with U.S.
    military reactors exceed Federal limits for radiation exposure, and
    operations have no adverse effect on human health or the quality of
    the environment.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.91875in" height="0.10208333333333333in"}

**Investing In America's Energy Future**

When the Bush Administration took office, our dependence on energy
imports had risen to record levels. Oil imports accounted for 55 percent
of total U.S. consumption, up from 42 percent in 1990. Oil in the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve was being sold---for far less than the
taxpayer paid to buy it in the first place---to raise cash to spend on
other Government programs. Energy demand was projected to rise by about
32 percent by 2020, much faster than the projected increase in domestic
energy production. The shortfall between energy demand and domestic
production was projected to increase nearly 50 percent by 2020. That
projected shortfall can be made up in only three ways: import more
energy, improve energy conservation and efficiency, and increase
domestic supply.

The Administration considered these options in its development of the
National Energy Policy. It concluded that increased dependence on oil
imports from volatile regions of the world would jeopardize our national
and economic security. As imports rise, so does our vulnerability to
price shocks, shortages, and disruptions. For that reason, the
Administration resolved to take steps to improve energy conservation and
efficiency and increase domestic energy production in order to avoid
increased dependence on imports. That was the hallmark of the National
Energy Policy issued in May 2001 and remains the heart of our national
energy policy.

The Department's principal tool in its national energy policy is science
and technology. The Department invests in high-risk, high-value energy
research and development that the private sector alone would not or
could not develop in a market-driven economy. The agency is developing
new technologies for FutureGen, an emissions-free coal power plant of
the future, which would enable us to tap the full potential of the
Nation's plentiful domestic coal supplies. We are developing
technologies to allow renewable energy to play a more important role in
the future of our Nation. The Department is working with the private
sector, academia, and other nations to develop advanced nuclear energy
technologies that will enhance nuclear operations safety, reduce the
threat of proliferation, cost less to build and operate, and minimize
the generation of waste. We are also developing new exploration,
development, and production processes that can keep U.S. oil fields
producing well into the future. Every barrel of oil we produce at home
is one less barrel that we have to import. The Department is investing
in hydrogen technology that has the dramatic potential to free us from
our current dependence on imported oil. The Department develops
technologies to strengthen our energy infrastructure in order to assure
the reliability of energy delivery, such as superconducting materials
for power transmission lines and distributed generation units.

The Department also relies on technology to reduce energy demand through
improvement in energy efficiency and conservation. The Department is
committed to reducing America's dependence on foreign oil and developing
energy efficient technologies for buildings, homes, transportation,
power systems, and industry. Every barrel of oil we conserve has the
added benefit of reduced environmental impact resulting from avoiding
its use. However, no matter how much cleaner and more efficient we make
today's energy sources, the Nation will still need enough energy supply
to meet the demands of a growing economy.

It is the role of the Federal Government to promote competitive energy
markets, not to choose the energy sources for the country, now or in the
future. The Department's aim is to assist the private sector where
appropriate to develop technologies capable of providing a diverse
supply of reliable, affordable energy, and environmentally sound energy,
while protecting the environment. Market forces, influenced by these
Federal investments and other policies such as tax incentives and
environmental regulation, will determine the supply mix that consumers
choose.

The Department's programs extend beyond research and development of
energy technologies. The Department operates: (1) the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve, which provides emergency oil supplies in the event of
a serious supply disruption; (2) the Northeast Heating Oil Reserve,
which helps ensure adequate heating oil supplies in the event of severe
energy disruptions; and (3) four Federal power marketing
administrations, which sell electricity from Federal hydropower dams and
operate large transmission grids.

The long-term solution to our economic and environmental challenge is to
make a fundamental change in our mix of energy options and, therefore,
America's energy future. To aid this transformation, the Department will
develop advanced technologies to reduce the cost and environmental
impacts of nuclear energy; to produce, store, and use hydrogen as a
sustainable and emissions-free energy carrier; and to develop fusion
energy, the process that powers the sun.

Over the next 25 years, the Department will pursue advanced technologies
to achieve the following general goal.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.91875in" height="0.10208333333333333in"}

**Goal 4. ENERGY SECURITY: Improve energy security by developing
technologies that foster a diverse supply of reliable, affordable, and
environmentally sound energy by providing for reliable delivery of
energy, guarding against energy emergencies, exploring advanced
technologies that make a fundamental improvement in our mix of energy
options, and improving energy efficiency.**

When the Bush Administration took office our dependence on energy
imports had reached record levels**.** Our greatest vulnerability was in
the area of petroleum imports, which accounted for 89 percent of total
energy imports in 2000. Upon taking office, President Bush first halted
any sales from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve and then directed that
this invaluable tool for limiting vulnerability be filled to its maximum
capacity of 700 million barrels. Since then, the Department has taken
careful steps to minimize impacts on energy markets, deferring
acceptance of oil for deposit in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during
periods of high prices. The development of new technologies is an
additional way to make up energy shortfalls.

In addressing our vulnerability in the future, Secretary Abraham
recently declared that the Department has "an ambitious, long-term
vision of a zero-emission future, free of reliance on imported energy."
As we look to the carbon-free generation of electricity and hydrogen, it
is clear that we must call upon science, technology and the research
talents in our national laboratories, universities, and industry to help
us improve and move beyond today's energy choices.

The Department of Energy's technologies draw on all our available
resources: oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, hydropower, renewable
energy, and reductions in demand through conservation and energy
efficiency. The Administration believes it is not the role of the
Federal Government to choose the energy sources for the country.
Instead, the role of the Federal Government is to help the private
sector develop technologies capable of providing a diverse supply of
energy, and to allow the market to decide how much of each energy source
is actually used. Diversity of energy sources can help provide stability
and guard against price spikes.

To tackle our immediate need for oil and gas, the Department continues
to develop and promote technologies that can lower the costs of oil and
natural gas exploration and development and maximize the efficiency and
stability of America's oil and gas production and supply.

The Department plans--together with our private sector partners--to
develop coal technologies and processes that will allow us to continue
to take full advantage of this affordable, plentiful, domestic energy
resource, which supplies more than half of our electricity needs today.
This emphasis on developing advanced technologies that will allow coal
to serve as a valuable---and ultimately an emissions-free---contributor
to our energy mix for decades to come. President Bush and Secretary
Abraham have announced the FutureGen program, a cost-shared \$1 billion
international initiative that will design, build, and operate a nearly
emissions-free (including no greenhouse gases), coal-fueled generation
plant that will co-produce hydrogen and electricity. President Bush's
Clear Skies Initiative will reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulfur
oxide, and mercury by an average of 70 percent, while providing
incentives for investment in new, cleaner, coal-based generation
facilities in the decades ahead.

As part of the Administration's climate change initiative, the
Department is focusing its efforts on carbon sequestration---the capture
and permanent storage of carbon dioxide produced from combustion of
fossil fuels. Carbon sequestration potentially offers the world a new
option for managing the risks of climate change---an option that will
enable the United States and other countries with extensive coal
resources to take advantage of their abundant and low-cost energy
resources.

Another clean power technology, nuclear energy, holds great potential to
make even larger contributions to greenhouse gas emissions reduction,
while at the same time contributing to energy supply diversity in the
areas of electricity and hydrogen production. Through the Nuclear Power
2010 and the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems programs, the
Department is easing the path for the construction of future nuclear
plants which will be in operation in the next decade and beyond. These
programs will demonstrate the new siting and licensing regulatory
processes and produce new certified reactor designs that will offer
improvements in economics, safety, waste disposition, and proliferation
resistance.

The Department is also taking steps to reduce our energy consumption and
improve energy efficiency. These energy efficiency programs place a
premium on vehicle technologies, designed to not only improve energy
efficiency improvements to current vehicles but also encourage
development of alternative fuel vehicles. The Department is also
developing technologies to improve the energy efficiency of buildings,
appliances, energy-intense industries and power plants. Departmental
energy efficiency programs also extend beyond technology development.
The Department operates a vital Weatherization Assistance Program, which
delivers cost-effective, energy efficiency improvements in the housing
of low-income families, such as adding insulation to water tanks and
pipes, installing insulation in walls, foundations, and roofs, adding
weather-stripping and caulking around windows and doors to reduce
drafts, and repairing faulty furnaces. According to the National
Research Council's 2001 *Energy Research at DOE, Was It Worth It?,* the
Department's R&D efforts to improve the efficiency of our buildings, our
industrial complex, and our cars and trucks has benefited the Nation by
at least \$30 billion in energy saved, pollution avoided and improved
national security.

The Department will lead a national effort to modernize and expand the
Nation's electricity transmission system to help ensure a more reliable
and robust delivery of electricity and to help guard against energy
emergencies, and ultimately help ensure economic and national security.

The long-term solution to meet our energy supply and environmental
challenges is to transform our energy system to provide clean, reliable,
and diverse energy supplies for a growing U. S. economy. For that
reason, the President has launched two bold programs. The first is our
focus on the limitless potential of hydrogen to power our economy with
virtually no adverse environmental effects. The second is tackling a
major hurdle on the long, tentative path aimed at ultimately releasing
the potential of fusion to produce electricity---and hydrogen---in a
safe, economical, and environmentally benign manner.

As projected by the Energy Information Administration, the consumption
of petroleum products, primarily used in transportation, will remain the
largest share of the consumption of fuels and the leading source of
carbon dioxide emissions. The Department has programs to develop more
energy efficient hybrid and clean diesel vehicles capable of reducing
emissions of air pollutants and the Nation's dependence on foreign oil.
The Administration's FreedomCAR and Hydrogen Fuel Initiative programs
offer the potential to virtually eliminate the use of petroleum for
transportation through development and deployment of a new
hydrogen-based transportation infrastructure over the next several
decades.

> President George W. Bush and Secretary Spencer Abraham receive a
> briefing on fuel cells and alternative-fueled vehicles during a tour
> of exhibits featuring energy-efficient technologies.

Hydrogen holds the promise of an ultra-clean and secure energy option
for America's future. Hydrogen can fuel ultra-clean fuel cell or
internal combustion engines, which would reduce auto emissions to zero
or near-zero. The President's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and FreedomCAR
partnership are focused on development of a hydrogen fuel cell and
hydrogen production and infrastructure technologies for vehicles. Since
most of our imported oil is used for transportation, these programs have
the potential to substantially reduce, if not eliminate, our dependence
on imported oil. Hydrogen can be produced from diverse domestic sources
including coal, nuclear power, and renewable resources, (e.g., wind and
solar).

Fusion, the physical process that powers the sun, is an energy source of
the future that could transform the way we produce electricity. By
reproducing the sun's process for transforming matter into energy, we
can create a new energy source that would produce no air pollutants,
greenhouse gases, or high-level nuclear waste, and would be
extraordinarily safe to operate. Fusion's potential is too great to
ignore, and for that reason the Administration has joined the ITER
international fusion energy research and development project designed to
take a significant step in fusion development. If fusion development is
successful, it could provide the most cost-effective, long-term source
of hydrogen, with almost no environmental impacts.

***Strategies***

The Department will reach this goal through the following 14
strategies**.** The Department will:

1.  Partner with private sector, states and communities, national
    laboratories, colleges and universities, nongovernmental
    organizations, foreign allies, Congress and other Federal agencies
    to develop and bring to market technologies that advance energy
    efficiency.

2.  Follow the directive of President Bush to fill the Strategic
    Petroleum Reserve to its full capacity of 700 million barrels,
    expanding the Reserve by 150 million barrels.

3.  Develop new technologies to increase domestic oil and natural gas
    supplies.

4.  Foster relationships with international suppliers to keep our
    supplies of oil abundant, affordable, and secure.

5.  Make significantly cleaner the power systems fueled by coal and
    pursue carbon sequestration as a way to achieve near-zero greenhouse
    gas emissions.

6.  Lead the international community in pursuit of advanced nuclear
    technology that will benefit the U.S. with enhanced safety, improved
    economics, and reduced production of waste.

7.  Collaborate with the domestic industry to assure the availability of
    nuclear fuel to meet potential supply disruptions.

8.  Research renewable energy technologies -- wind, hydropower, biomass,
    solar and geothermal -- and work with the private sector in
    developing these domestic resources.

9.  Develop technologies to reduce the vulnerability and increase the
    reliability of the electricity supplies, focusing on superconducting
    materials and distributed generation including relatively
    small-scale and modular energy generation devices.

10. Through the Power Marketing Administrations, continue to distribute
    electricity generated primarily by Federal hydropower plants and
    improve the performance of their 33,000 miles of transmission lines
    by removing bottlenecks.

11. Promote the reduction of energy consumption in Federal facilities
    and other end use applications and provide energy efficiency
    assistance to low-income homes through the Weatherization Assistance
    Program.

12. Accelerate the shift toward the hydrogen economy by developing and
    improving technologies to produce hydrogen using renewable energy,
    nuclear energy, and fossil fuels.

13. Collaborate with industry to develop fuel-cell power technologies
    for multiple applications, especially transportation.

14. Advance plasma and fusion science, including burning plasma
    behavior, confinement theory, and experiments supporting the
    long-term commercial application of fusion power.

***External Factors***

The following external factors could affect our ability to achieve this
goal:

-   **Technology**: Technological development is inherently
    unpredictable. Our efforts to develop zero-emission fossil
    generation technology, hydrogen, renewable energy, advanced nuclear
    power and fusion may be more or less successful than predicted, with
    a correspondingly positive or negative impact on our efforts.

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-   **Market Forces**: Whether new technology is deployed depends to a
    large extent on whether that technology is competitive, considering
    relevant policies (e.g., tax incentives for the purchase of
    fuel-cell vehicles).

-   **Consumer Choice**: Improved energy efficiency is largely the
    result of millions of decisions by individual consumers. The
    Department can help develop improved technology, but whether this
    technology is deployed depends on consumer decisions and relevant
    policies that may affect those decisions. In addition, the
    deployment of hydrogen and alternative fueled vehicles depends to a
    large extent on the decisions by individual consumers to purchase
    these vehicles.

-   **Nonproliferation Policy**: Deployment of advanced fuel
    technologies will depend upon policy changes permitting fuel
    reprocessing.

Line Crewman checking equipment near Springfield, Missouri

***Key Intermediate Objectives***

-   Throughout the planning period, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is
    ready to supply oil at a sustained rate of 4.4 million barrels per
    day for 90 days within 15 days notice by the President.

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-   By the end of fiscal year 2005, the Department\'s role in the
    International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is established.

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-   Between 2003 and 2008, the Department weatherizes approximately
    771,000 homes of low-income households.

-   By 2005, the nuclear industry has made a decision to build at least
    one new nuclear power plant in the U.S. (subject to supporting
    legislation currently under discussion).

-   Between 2005 and 2010, the Department develops technologies and
    information management systems to monitor, track, predict, and
    improve transmission and distribution reliability and security and
    market efficiency, providing a 10 percent, or \$20 billion
    cumulative savings.

-   By 2008, the Department develops advanced power systems capable of
    achieving 50 percent thermal efficiency at a capital cost of \$1000
    per kilowatt or less for a coal-based plant.

-   By 2008, the highly efficient production of hydrogen using nuclear
    technology is demonstrated on a pilot scale.

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-   By 2010, the cost of the hydrogen equivalent of a gallon of gas is
    brought down to \$1.50.

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-   By 2010, FreedomCAR technical milestones established with industry
    partners are accomplished.

-   By 2010, production capability of low cost solid-state fuel cells
    for less than \$400 per kilowatt is validated.

-   By 2010, the Department develops four types of high temperature
    superconducting electric power equipment prototypes with half the
    energy losses and half the size of the widely used, comparable
    conventional equipment (i.e., motors, generators, transformers and
    transmission/distribution cables).

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-   By 2012, the Department develops technologies that result in less
    than a 10 percent increase in the cost of new energy services to
    separate, capture, transport and sequester carbon using either
    direct or indirect systems.

-   By 2012, new nuclear power plants are operational and support the
    President's Emission Intensity goal for an 18 percent reduction.

-   By 2015, technologies are developed that allow a decision by
    industry to commercialize fuel-cell vehicles and hydrogen
    infrastructure and also facilitate an evaluation by the Federal
    Government of policy instruments that foster the delivery of
    commercial quantities of hydrogen.

-   By 2015, technologies are developed that expand America's
    economically recoverable oil resource by 3.0 billion barrels and gas
    resource by 100 trillion cubic feet with minimal environmental
    impact.

-   By 2016, a Next Generation Nuclear Plant prototype demonstrates
    efficient electricity and hydrogen production.

-   By 2020, a power plant is on line demonstrating ultra-high
    efficient, pollution-free fossil energy power production.

-   By 2020, technologies are developed to allow an industry decision to
    construct next-generation (Generation IV) nuclear power plants.

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-   By 2020, the Department provides advanced fuel cycle technologies
    ready to be deployed with light water and gas-cooled reactors that
    have the ability to achieve a significant reduction in the amount of
    high-level spent fuel requiring geologic disposal, to significantly
    reduce accumulated plutonium in civilian spent fuel, and to extract
    more useful energy from spent nuclear fuel components.

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-   By 2020, the technical feasibility of containing a burning plasma
    will have been demonstrated, contributing to reaching a "go/no-go"
    decision on proceeding with a demonstration power plant.

-   By 2025, renewable energy sources (excluding hydropower) reach 12.0
    quadrillion Btu (quads), nearly double the energy production in the
    year 2000, of 6.46 quads.

-   By 2025, the Department develops and demonstrates technologies to
    bring systems that generate both heat and power within 90 percent
    efficiency.

-   By 2025, solid-state lighting results in a reduction by one fifth in
    energy demand for lighting compared to those of 2000.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.975in" height="0.10416666666666667in"}

> Operating since 1959, the Priest Rapids Dam is used for power
> production & recreation and is part of the Bonneville Power
> Administration supplying electricity to the Pacific Northwest.

**Advancing Scientific Understanding**

American science leads the world. Innovation, the willingness to take
chances, the free and open exchange of ideas---these are some of the
things that help propel American research. The Department will continue
to serve a leadership role in advancing the Nation's science and
technology

The Department takes its responsibilities toward science and technology
seriously because it takes its responsibility towards national security
seriously. The Department's research activities are closely coordinated
with, and synergistic to, the activities of other federal agencies
including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National
Security Agency (NSA), and National Science Foundation (NSF). The
Department also promotes the transfer of the results of its basic
research to a broad set of technologies such as advanced materials,
national defense, medicine, space science and exploration, and
industrial processes. The Department has taken a deliberate and
integrated approach to its research and development portfolio, using the
strengths of all our programs to address this central mission. Clearly,
environmental security and economic security underpin national security,
and each is sustained by science.

To fulfill all of our responsibilities, we rely on the remarkable
national network of science laboratories and the scientists, engineers,
technicians, and administrators who produce the scientific breakthroughs
and technological advances that propel work and contribute in dozens of
ways to our economic growth and improved standards of living and health.

The common thread woven through all of the Department's activities is
science. The Department's efforts to promote greater scientific
understanding of energy and its related processes have strengthened the
technological foundation underlying our national security, energy, and
environmental clean-up activities. The Department operates a variety of
unique scientific facilities that, together with the National defense
laboratories, provide advanced research and development that is meeting
emergent national requirements.

The Department will continue to aggressively pursue fundamental
understanding of nature. Areas of investigation include the pursuit of
the basic constituents of matter and the forces that control them,
genomic research for energy and environmental applications, and the
study of nanoscale science, scientific investigation of structures at
the molecular level, which promises incredible breakthroughs previously
limited to the realm of science fiction.

Another area of significant importance to the Nation's scientific
strength is advanced computing. Tremendous supercomputing advancements
for national security have provided the hardware capable of working with
massive databases at incredible speeds. Much work remains, however, to
harness dramatically increasing computing capabilities to solve complex
scientific questions and stay competitive internationally in this arena.
A clear trend is the increasing dependency on scientific simulation as a
powerful tool for scientific discovery. Enabled by ever-faster computers
and complex codes and algorithms, simulation will prove even more
valuable in the future as mankind presses the limits of power,
efficiency, and scale for earth-based experimental instruments.

Over the next 25 years, the Department will build upon its scientific
and technological strengths to achieve the following general goal.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.91875in" height="0.10208333333333333in"}

> Night, in the form of a crescent moon, overtakes the fading light of
> day beyond Wilson Hall at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

**Goal 5. WORLD-CLASS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CAPACITY: Provide world-class
scientific research capacity needed to: ensure the success of Department
missions in national and energy security; advance the frontiers of
knowledge in physical sciences and areas of biological, medical,
environmental, and computational sciences; or provide world-class
research facilities for the Nation's science enterprise.**

The Department is the primary Federal agency conducting basic research
in the physical sciences. The Department operates the large national
laboratories to drive the dramatic advances in energy-related sciences:
high energy physics, nuclear science, plasma science, material and
chemical sciences, and biological and environmental sciences. It also
brings together the scientists, engineers, and technicians from a range
of energy-related sciences that have unique capabilities to advance
biological research supporting medical applications. For the public
good, the Department also invests in large scientific facilities needed
to support this basic research and the needs of the general science
community.

***Strategies***

Over the next 20-25 years, the Department will implement the following
eight strategies.

1.  Advance the fields of high-energy and nuclear physics, including the
    understanding of dark energy and dark matter, the lack of symmetry
    in the universe, the basic constituents of matter, the structure of
    nuclear matter in its most extreme conditions, and the possible
    existence of other dimensions, collectively revealing key secrets of
    the universe.

2.  Advance the theoretical and experimental understanding of plasma and
    fusion science, including a close collaboration with international
    partners in identifying and exploring plasma and fusion physics
    issues through specialized facilities.

3.  Advance energy-related biological and environmental research built
    upon foundations in genomic science, climate modeling, contamination
    and transport modeling, and related interdisciplinary sciences.

4.  Develop new diagnostic and therapeutic tools and technology for
    disease diagnosis and treatment, non-invasive medical imaging, and
    biomedical engineering.

5.  Advance nanoscale science built around foundations in materials,
    chemistry, engineering, geoscience, and energy biosciences, leading
    to improved energy technologies and systems.

6.  Significantly advance scientific simulation and computation,
    applying new approaches, algorithms, and software and hardware
    combinations to address the critical science challenges of the
    future.

7.  Provide the Nation's science community access to world-class
    research facilities, including reactor and accelerator-based neutron
    sources, light sources, particle accelerators, plasma and fusion
    laboratories, and micro-characterization centers, that advance the
    physical sciences and enable the study of complex, interdisciplinary
    science questions.

8.  Provide or support the Nation's science community access to
    world-class, scientific computation and networking facilities that
    support advancements in practically every field of science.

> ![](media/image4.png){width="4.975in" height="0.10416666666666667in"}
>
> Built two kilometers under solid rock, the Sudbury Neutrino
> Observatory allows scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National
> Laboratory as well as from Canada and Great Britain to study the
> world's most elusive particle, the neutrino.

***External Factors***

The following external factors could affect our ability to achieve this
goal:

-   **Scientific and Technical Talent**: The prospect of insufficient
    scientific and technical talent, now and in the foreseeable future,
    threatens our ability to maintain world-class scientific capacity.

-   **National Support for Science**: Eroding national support for
    investments in the physical sciences that provide the critical
    foundations to virtually all other fields of science, and the
    rapidly growing dependency between the biological and physical
    sciences.

***Key Intermediate Objectives***

-   By the end of 2006, the Department develops a suite of specialized
    software tools for our scientific simulations to take much better
    advantage of terascale computers (computers capable of making ten to
    hundreds of trillions of operations per second or \"teraflops\"),
    while handling trillions of bytes of data or \"terabytes,\" and
    high-speed networks.

-   By the end of fiscal year 2006, construction of the Department\'s
    Spallation Neutron Source is completed.

-   Through 2007, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the ATLAS and CMS
    detectors, all international projects that include the Department,
    are kept on schedule, within budget, and become operational.

-   By the end of 2008, the Department's five Nanoscience Research
    Centers are operational.

-   By the end of 2008, experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion
    Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory will have
    established the basis characteristics of a fundamental new form of
    nuclear matter that exists at extremely high temperatures and
    densities.

-   By the end of 2009, the Department completes studies on several next
    generation computer architectures that could be developed into high
    end supercomputers with 1,000 times the performance available in
    2003.

-   By 2010, experiments will begin to make it possible to determine
    which of the many proposed unified theories of the fundamental
    forces could actually describe nature at the smallest scale.

-   By 2013, Department-sponsored research into viewing the makeup of
    genes in living cells, tissues, and organisms is used by clinicians
    as a new, sensitive tool for diagnosing disease and for monitoring
    the efficacy of disease therapies that target the products of
    specific genes.

-   By 2015, the Department's understanding of nanoscale assemblies of
    materials (1,000 times smaller than a human hair) results in the
    capability to create materials, atom by atom, having predictable
    properties.

-   By 2020, the Department will advance plasma science and computer
    modeling to obtain a comprehensive, and fully validated, plasma
    configuration simulation capability.

# Resolving the Environmental Legacy

The Department has had environmental missions since its establishment in
1977. This mission expanded since the end of the Cold War, when the
agency began to clean up sites contaminated by a half century of nuclear
defense work. The Strategic Plan reflects a restructured environmental
cleanup program developed from an intensive "Top-to-Bottom Review" that
emphasized the need to reduce risk rather than manage it. Our aggressive
new cleanup strategy emphasizes doing more real work, greater
accountability, increased competition, innovative cleanup methods, and
the use of performance-based incentives. This strategy will accelerate
completion of the cleanup programs by 35 years, to 2035 rather than
2070, reduce risk to the public and the environment, and save taxpayers
\$50 billion in program costs. By the end of 2025, the Department will
have cleaned up 108 of its 114 contaminated sites.

The Department is also developing a geologic repository to safely
dispose of high-level radioactive waste and spend nuclear fuel at the
Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. The repository is needed to support the
environmental cleanup of the Cold War legacy as well as to enhance
energy security by maintaining a viable nuclear option. Consolidation of
nuclear waste from the many locations scattered across the country will
promote our homeland security objectives.

![](media/image4.png){width="5.045833333333333in"
height="0.10138888888888889in"}

> Secretary of Energy Spenser Abraham visits Hanford Tank Farm and
> receives a briefing from J. Betts, Bechtel National's Deputy Project
> Manager.

**Goal 6. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT:**

> **Accelerate cleanup of nuclear weapons manufacturing and testing
> sites, completing cleanup of 108 contaminated sites by 2025.**

The Environmental Management program was created in 1989 to safely
manage the cleanup of the environmental legacy from 50 years of nuclear
weapons production and nuclear energy research at 114 sites around the
country. The scope of the program includes stabilization and disposition
of some of the most hazardous materials known. The cleanup program
resulting from over five decades of nuclear weapons production and
energy research is the largest active cleanup program in the world,
encompassing over 2 million acres at 114 sites in 31 states. As of
September 2003, the cleanup of 77 sites has been completed. An
additional 31 sites will be remediated by 2025 leaving six sites to be
addressed after 2025.

In August 2001, the Secretary of Energy directed a "Top-to-Bottom
Review" of the environmental cleanup program, which was completed in
February 2002. The Review concluded that significant change was required
in how the Department attacked risk reduction and cleanup. Two years
ago, as costs continued to increase, the Department estimated that it
could take over \$300 billion and nearly 70 more years to complete the
cleanup. The environmental cleanup program stood as one of the largest
liabilities of the Federal Government.

The Top-to-Bottom Review concluded that the cleanup program was not
focused on achieving the greatest reduction in risk to human health and
the environment. Resources were diverted to lower risk activities, and
process, not risk reduction, had become the driving force. Fundamental
change was required in how the Department approached, managed, and
performed the entire cleanup program. Last year the Department started
to reform this massive program. The top priority for the program has
been to reform and refocus the nuclear weapons cleanup program to
deliver risk reduction safer and faster and to clean up more efficiently
and cost effectively. The Department, working collaboratively with the
regulator and stakeholder community, is developing strategies to focus
cleanup activities on accelerated risk reduction and site closure.

The Department has defined risk reduction cleanup strategies on a
site-by-site basis. The Department, in collaboration with its regulators
and stakeholder communities, has developed plans which lay out the
current site conditions, desired end state, strategic initiatives to get
from the current state to the end state, and management processes to
support the new approach for 18 of the most significant sites remaining
to be addressed. The plans provide the site-specific strategies for the
significant acceleration of risk reduction and cleanup completion
including three of the Department's largest sites (the Hanford Site in
Washington, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Savannah River Site
in South Carolina) as much as 35 years earlier than originally planned.

To reduce landlord costs, it is in the public interest for the
Department to consolidate its facilities and reduce the size of its real
estate holdings. Following completion of accelerated cleanup activities,
the Department will close and transfer ownership of some sites to other
entities. The Department will continue to maintain and control real
estate at some sites following cleanup to continue mission related
activities. Where required, long-term surveillance and maintenance
activities will be conducted to assure that cleanup activities remain
protective of human health and the environment.

***Strategies***

The Department will implement eight strategies to achieve this goal.
These strategies will result in significant cost savings and a
significant reduction in the time needed to complete cleanup---putting
the taxpayers' dollars to more productive use. The Department will:

1.  Eliminate significant environmental, health and safety risks as soon
    as possible.

2.  Review the remaining risks in concert with regulators and
    stakeholders to determine the most appropriate remediation schedules
    and approaches.

3.  Develop management systems that will force the establishment of
    clearly defined and demanding performance goals.

4.  Improve its acquisition approach by clearly identifying the work to
    be done and the Department's expectations, establishing proper
    incentives for its contracts, and adequately rewarding performance.

5.  Hold its cleanup contractors to high safety standards; yet empower
    them to pursue the most direct path to success.

6.  Streamline surveillance and maintenance costs to further accelerate
    cleanup.

7.  Ensure safe and secure management of nuclear materials and wastes.

8.  Refocus the cleanup science and technology program to directly
    address the specific, applied technology needs for cleanup and
    closure for the next five to ten years.

> Argonne National Laboratory's ongoing environmental cleanup program
> ensures the maintenance of a clean, healthy environment at DOE sites.

***External Factors***

The following external factors could affect our ability to achieve this
goal:

-   **Regulatory Requirements**: Compliance with environmental laws and
    regulations and agreements with States drive the Department's
    cleanup decisions. The laws and regulations are subject to change,
    and agreements with States may be renegotiated.

-   **Cleanup Standards**: The end state for cleanup at many sites is
    not fully determined. The extent of cleanup greatly affects cost,
    schedule and scope of work.

-   **Technology**: Technological development is inherently
    unpredictable. Suitable cleanup technologies do not always currently
    exist, and the development and deployment of innovative technologies
    could help reduce risk, lower cost, and accelerate cleanup.

-   **Uncertain Work Scope**: Uncertainties are inherent in the
    environmental cleanup program due to the complexity and nature of
    the work. There are uncertainties in our knowledge of the types of
    contaminants, their extent, and concentrations.

***Key Intermediate Objectives***

-   By the end of fiscal year 2005, the Department completes cleanup and
    transfers approximately half of the Hanford site to the U.S. Fish
    and Wildlife Service.

-   By the end of fiscal year 2006, the Department completes cleanup of
    Fernald (Ohio) and Mound sites (Ohio) and transfers the Mound site
    to the Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corporation.

-   By the end of fiscal year 2006, the Department completes the cleanup
    of Rocky Flats (Colorado) and transfers the Rocky Flats Wildlife
    Refuge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

-   By 2008, the Department completes cleanup of the East Tennessee
    Technology Park.

-   By 2012, the Department completes cleanup of the Hanford River
    Corridor project.

-   By 2013, the Department completes disposal of all legacy stored
    transuranic waste into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

-   By 2020, the Department completes cleanup and closure of the
    high-level waste tanks at the Savannah River Site.

-   By 2025, the Department completes cleanup 108 of 114 sites, leaving
    six: Hanford, Idaho National Laboratory, the Nevada Test Site,
    Tonapah Test Range area, the Paducah site, and the Waste Isolation
    Pilot Plant.

-   Throughout the planning period, the Department maintains long-term
    stewardship at the sites containing residual radioactive or
    hazardous material after cleanup has been completed until they are
    transferred.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.91875in" height="0.10208333333333333in"}

**Goal 7. NUCLEAR WASTE: License and construct a permanent repository
for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain and begin acceptance of waste by
2010.**

Associated with the Nation\'s energy supply is the Federal
responsibility for the ultimate disposal of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste. This responsibility includes licensing,
building, and operating a deep geologic repository at Yucca Mountain,
Nevada, for the disposal of commercial and the Department's spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. In 2002, the President
and Congress designated the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, site as suitable for
development as a permanent repository for high-level waste and spent
nuclear fuel.

The President's budget for the Department's repository program supports
the completion of work needed for the submission of a license
application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2004 and the
development of a repository and associated transportation capabilities
needed to initiate repository operations by 2010.

***Strategies***

The Department will pursue two strategies to accomplish this goal. The
Department will:

1.  Take the necessary steps to establish a permanent geologic
    repository for high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel at the Yucca
    Mountain, Nevada, site.

2.  Lead an international long-term research program on advanced
    technology options to promote future waste-management alternatives,
    which could significantly reduce the amount of future spent nuclear
    fuel requiring disposal.

***External Factors***

The following external factors could affect our ability to achieve this
goal:

-   **Regulatory Requirements:** The NRC is responsible for approving a
    Department license application for Yucca Mountain. Any delay in
    issuing a license could delay the commencement of repository
    operations.

-   **Litigation:** It is likely that any NRC decision to issue a
    license to construct and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain will
    be challenged in the courts.

-   **Stakeholder Interface:** Successful coordination and collaboration
    with external stakeholder groups (state, local government, industry,
    and the public) is vital to successfully develop the Yucca Mountain
    repository and transportation infrastructure.

***Key Intermediate Objectives***

-   By December 2004, the Department submits a license application to
    the NRC for a repository construction authorization, which would be
    issued by the NRC early in 2008.

-   Between 2007 and 2010, the Secretary reports to the President and to
    Congress on the need for a second repository.

-   In fiscal year 2008, the Department begins construction of the Yucca
    Mountain Repository.

-   By 2010, the Department develops the National and Nevada
    transportation infrastructure to support the anticipated shipment of
    materials to Yucca Mountain.

-   In 2010, the Department begins receiving spent nuclear fuel and
    high-level waste for disposal at the Yucca Mountain repository.

-   By 2014, the Yucca Mountain repository reaches the maximum annual
    acceptance rate of 3,000 metric tons per year.

![](media/image4.png){width="5.05625in" height="9.652777777777778e-2in"}

> Yucca Mountain, on the southwest boundary of the Nevada Test Site,
> being evaluated for suitability as the nation\'s first repository for
> high level nuclear waste. Studies include surface based testing of
> rock, soil samples and water movement, subsurface rock testing at deep
> levels and laboratory analysis of samples

### Achieving These Goals

The Department\'s strategic and general goals will be accomplished not
only through the efforts of the major program offices in the Department
but with additional effort from staff offices that support the programs
in carrying out the mission. The Department's staff offices perform
critical functions necessary for successfully achieving the Department's
goals. These functions include managing information technology, ensuring
sound legal advice and fiscal stewardship, developing and implementing
uniform program policy and procedures, maintaining and supporting the
health and safety of our workforce, safeguarding our work spaces, and
providing Congressional and public liaison.

The Department will only achieve its goals with adequate financial,
human, facility, infrastructure, and technical resources. In developing
this plan, the Department assumed budget appropriations generally
consistent with the Administration's out-year budgets. In the area of
human resources, the Department is implementing the President's
Management Agenda on Human Capital. The Department will ensure that it
has the necessary skills available to carry out its missions and rebuild
a pipeline of skills for the future while recognizing the increasing
retirement rate. The Department has also recently strengthened its
project management efforts. In order to meet the Nation's needs for
cutting-edge science, the Department must periodically replace or make
major upgrades to aging or outdated major experimental facilities. These
requirements will be weighed against the benefits from cost-effective
modifications to existing facilities to ensure that the maximum national
benefits are derived from existing infrastructure. Further advances in
computation and communication will aid the continuing push toward a more
seamless, connected establishment. Opportunities for collaboration,
remote experimentation, and scientific simulation as a substitute for
more costly experimentation, and sharing and access to vast quantities
of data and information will continue to place demands on computation
and communication of the Department's organizations.

The Department is committed to improving its management and is taking
steps, for example, implementing the President's Management Agenda, to
ensure that program management helps achieve program goals.

Although the planning period for these strategic and general goals
stretches to 2025, the discussion of each general goal includes
strategies and key intermediate objectives between now and 2025. These
strategies relate to the Department\'s programs and will be included in
a cascade of documents, shown below, with annual performance targets
included in the justifications for the appropriate budget years.

More specifically, the Department's annual budget justification is based
on projected performance for the requested funding. Beginning with the
budget for fiscal year 2005, the Department will incorporate its annual
performance plan into the budget presentation and justification of its
programs.

The linking of strategic goals, general goals, program goals, key
intermediate objectives, and annual performance goals and targets is
shown in the following example:

The Department reports actual performance against these targets annually
in the Performance and Accountability Report. This report provides the
basis for evaluating the Department's progress toward the strategic
goals. Each year, the Department will adjust the strategies, as
necessary, based on actual performance, the current resources available,
and updated national, energy, and economic outlook. This will ensure
that the Department is continuously fulfilling its mission to protect
national, economic, energy security with advanced science and
technology.

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