10 U.S.C. § 6131 (ARMED FORCES)
§ 6131. Stockpile responsiveness program
(a) Statement of Policy.—
It is the policy of the United States to identify, sustain, enhance, integrate, and continually exercise all capabilities required to conceptualize, study, design, develop, engineer, certify, produce, and deploy nuclear weapons to ensure the nuclear deterrent of the United States remains safe, secure, reliable, credible, and responsive.
(b) Program Required.—
The Secretary of Energy, acting through the Administrator and in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall carry out a stockpile responsiveness program, along with the stockpile stewardship program under section 6111 and the stockpile management program under section 6116, to identify, sustain, enhance, integrate, and continually exercise all capabilities required to conceptualize, study, design, develop, engineer, certify, produce, and deploy nuclear weapons.
(c) Objectives.—
The program under subsection (b) shall have the following objectives:
(1) Identify, sustain, enhance, integrate, and continually exercise all of the capabilities, infrastructure, tools, and technologies across the science, engineering, design, certification, and manufacturing cycle required to carry out all phases of the joint nuclear weapons life cycle process, with respect to both the nuclear security enterprise and relevant elements of the Department of Defense.
(2) Identify, enhance, and transfer knowledge, skills, and direct experience with respect to all phases of the joint nuclear weapons life cycle process from one generation of nuclear weapon designers and engineers to the following generation.
(3) Continually demonstrate stockpile responsiveness throughout the range of capabilities as required, such as through the use of prototypes, flight testing, integrated system demonstrations, and development of plans for certification without the need for nuclear explosive testing.
(4) Develop technologies for transition to a nuclear stockpile life extension program or new nuclear weapon program project that have the potential to reduce design, certification, and manufacturing cycles cost and schedule.
(5) Continually exercise processes for the integration and coordination of all relevant elements and processes of the Administration and the Department of Defense required to ensure stockpile responsiveness.
(6) The retention of the ability, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, to assess and develop prototype nuclear weapons of foreign countries if needed to meet intelligence requirements and, if necessary, to conduct no-yield testing of those prototypes.
(d) Joint Nuclear Weapons Life Cycle Process Defined.—
In this section, the term “joint nuclear weapons life cycle process” means the process developed and maintained by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy for the development, production, maintenance, and retirement of nuclear weapons.
(Added and amended Pub. L. 119–60, div. C, title XXXI, §§ 3111(a), (d)(1)(C), 3113(a), Dec. 18, 2025, 139 Stat. 1366, 1461, 1463.)
heading: Editorial Notes
heading: Codification
text: Amendment by section 3113 of Pub. L. 119–60 directed to section 4220(c) of Pub. L. 107–314 executed to this section pursuant to section 3111(d)(1)(C) of Pub. L. 119–60. See Further Technical Amendments note set out under section 6114 of this title.
heading: Prior Provisions
text: Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in section 2538b of Title 50, War and National Defense, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 119–60, § 3111(b)(1).
heading: Amendments
text: 2025—Subsec. (c)(3). Pub. L. 119–60, §§ 3111(d)(1)(C), 3113(a)(1)(A), substituted “Continually” for “Periodically” and inserted “integrated system demonstrations,” after “flight testing,”. See Codification note above.
Subsec. (c)(4). Pub. L. 119–60, §§ 3111(d)(1)(C), 3113(a)(1)(B), substituted “Develop technologies for transition to a nuclear stockpile life extension program or new nuclear weapon program project that have the potential to reduce” for “Shorten” and “cost and schedule” for “and timelines to minimize the amount of time and costs leading to an engineering prototype and production”. See Codification note above.