Big doings next week (week of May 4) on the nuclear weapons beat, with our first look at the Obama administration's detailed budget proposals, and the release of a long-awaited report from the Perry Commission, chartered by Congress to look at the future of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

The budget rollout should provide the detailed answers to questions about where the Obama administration intends to head with the nuclear weapons budget. It's a question of particular interest here in New Mexico, home to two nuclear weapons labs and some $2.6 billion in annual nuclear weapon spending.

What we know thus far as the Obama 2010 budget is really just a very cursory summary, released in February, includes but a single paragraph on the weapons program (pdf, see the bottom of the second page):

The Budget supports increased efforts to secure and dispose of nuclear material and invests in innovative science and technology to detect and deter nuclear smuggling and the development of weapons of mass destruction programs. Development work on the reliable replacement Warhead will cease, while continued work to improve the nuclear stockpile's safety, security, and reliability is enhanced with more expansive life extension programs. 

The details are in budget briefing books that are typically hundreds of pages long, and we should get our first look at them next week. Among the key questions we'll be looking at are the future of the CMR replacement (plutonium lab at Los Alamos), UPF (uranium complex at Oak Ridge) and PDCF (facility at Savannah River to deal with plutonium from retired warheads). They're all expensive, in the $2 billion-plus range, and, as retired NNSA honcho Ev Beckner said in a March hearing, "The budget cannot swallow those three projects as presently aligned."

Meanwhile, former Defense Secretary William Perry will release the report of a comission he chaired that has been looking at the future of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. This is one of two major reviews underway that will guide decisions about the size and composition of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

I've a story scheduled for Monday's newspaper that looks in more detail at the budget issues, and Journal D.C. correspondent Mike Coleman and I will have much more as the week goes on.

(Image: B61 nuclear bomb, courtesy NNSA)