Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation (2020 Presidential transition)

Book 3 - Organization Overview
Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020

Among the three Mission Priorities identified in the NNSA Strategic Vision, the Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation (CTCP/ NA-80) contributes directly to Mission Priority #2: Reduce global nuclear security threats and strengthen the nuclear enterprise.

CTCP is responsible for executing the Department’s Primary Mission Essential Function (PMEF) #2, Respond to Nuclear Incidents, as well as Mission Essential Function (MEF) #1, Nuclear Incident Response; MEF #6, Nuclear Counterterrorism; and MEF #11, Nuclear Forensics (shared with the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation [DNN]).

Mission Statement

CTCP is responsible for countering nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation and responding to nuclear incidents and accidents domestically and internationally. CTCP missions include both national security and public health and safety disciplines. Specific CTCP mission pillars include providing scientific understanding of nuclear threat devices and potential terrorist and proliferate state nuclear capabilities; informing U.S. policies, regulations, and interagency and international partners on terrorist and proliferate state nuclear threats; sustaining Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) readiness to respond to nuclear and radiological incidents and accidents at home and overseas; and providing targeted training to domestic and international partners to improve capabilities to respond effectively to nuclear and radiological events and threats.

Budget

Fiscal Year	Budget
FY 2019 enacted	$283,611,000
FY 2020 enacted	$336,550,000
FY 2021 requested	$341,513,000

Human Resources

FY 2020 authorized full-time equivalents (FTEs): 58

History

The Office of the Deputy Under Secretary for Counterterrorism was established in 2003 to coordinate counterterrorism activities within NNSA and to be the Department’s principal point of contact with other U.S. Government agencies and foreign governments on counterterrorism matters. Through two reorganizations since then, the CTCP mission has expanded to include the Department’s nuclear incident response capabilities, broader international engagements, and technical advisors to the U.S. interagency, including Department of Defense (DoD) combatant commands. CTCP was solely responsible for nuclear forensics and counterproliferation until these portfolios were realigned to DNN in FY 2021.

NNSA’s core expertise in nuclear science is central to the national effort to deter, detect, defeat, and attribute a terrorist nuclear or radiological attack. NNSA’s counterterrorism programs play a crucial role in homeland security. DOE and other agencies rely on the national laboratories’ knowledge of nuclear weapon design to identify novel and unconventional nuclear threats; support the design and testing of radiation detection systems; field capabilities to characterize and defeat terrorist nuclear devices; and evaluate the safeguards and security of nuclear facilities globally. NEST teams provide the nation’s last line of defense to locate, identify, and defeat a nuclear device, as well as provide consequence management support in the event of a radiological release.

NNSA works with foreign governments to develop emergency management programs and infrastructure to reduce the risk of radiological and nuclear threats and to mitigate the consequences of a nuclear accident or incident. In collaboration with other agencies, NNSA is expanding the overseas capacity to detect and interdict nuclear materials in transit. CTCP makes diverse contributions to U.S. and global nuclear security, including:

Protecting access to nuclear weapons expertise and design information
Ensuring U.S. interagency awareness of the technical aspects of the improvised nuclear device (IND) threat.
Building an integrated radiation detection and interdiction capability with law enforcement partners.
Maintaining counter-weapons of mass destruction (C-WMD), radiological/nuclear consequence management, and operational nuclear forensics capabilities.
Supporting nuclear incident response capacity- building with state, local, and international partners.
Supporting a nuclear security enterprise that provides unparalleled scientific expertise across the homeland and national security spectrum.

Functions

The following CTCP responsibilities derive from a body of legal statutes, presidential policies, and international agreements.
Nuclear Incident Policy and Cooperation Assist international and domestic partners through training, exercises, and workshops to develop robust emergency preparedness and response capacity to respond to nuclear and radiological incidents.
Advance USG nuclear-related strategic objectives for nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness and response.

Nuclear Threat Science

Protect sensitive nuclear weapon design information from unauthorized disclosure and discovery by adversaries.
Provide NNSA’s specialized technical knowledge concerning nuclear threat devices and proliferate state capabilities to interagency partners and members of the National Security Council (NSC) staff to inform U.S. nuclear counterterrorism priorities, requirements, and activities.
Conduct nuclear threat reduction activities with key international allies, including classified technical and policy exchanges.

Nuclear Incident Response

Ensure NEST readiness to respond to nuclear and radiological incidents and accidents domestically and internationally by fulfilling all personnel, equipment, and training requirements.
Maintain NEST capabilities to respond to accidents involving U.S. nuclear weapons and to incidents involving a lost or stolen U.S. nuclear weapon.
Deliver timely, technically sound decision support to incident management partners across the continuum of nuclear and radiological incident response.
Harness existing technologies, develop new capabilities, and prepare for future innovations to continuously improve NEST response operations and expand applicability of NEST expertise to all C-WMD, nuclear weapon accident response, and public health and safety missions.
Sustain specialized capabilities, which are strategically prepositioned throughout the United States, to rapidly search for, characterize, and defeat WMD devices.
Protect major public events (e.g., Presidential Inauguration, Super Bowl, etc.) and support C-WMD activities
Supplement NNSA’s capacity to characterize the radiation environment following a nuclear incident by working with federal, state, and local partners.

Recent Organization Accomplishments

Despite constraints imposed by COVID-19, CTCP accomplished the following over the preceding several years:

Three new Aerial Measuring System (AMS) fixed-wing aircraft were integrated into NEST operations and training in December 2019. Additionally, COVID-related event cancellations allowed the recapitalization of an additional $1.7M worth of NEST equipment.
NEST supported real-world deployment requirements while continuing to hone operational readiness through participation in exercises and joint drills, as well as execution of numerous small-footprint and virtual training venues. CTCP supported 25 scheduled operations, 18 unscheduled responses, and 23 drills and exercises. Operational highlights include NEST support to the Republican National Convention and NEST’s Accident Response Group’s (ARG) support of DoD and the NNSA Office of Stockpile Management.
In July 2020, NEST provided support to NASA for the launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover to ensure the protection of public health and safety in the event of a launch anomaly. NEST supported NASA with 25 personnel at the Radiological Controls Center and with field monitoring teams to rapidly respond in case of a launch area accident. Finally, NEST provided additional remote technical support from the national laboratories.
NEST continued to test and field new tools for Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regional teams as part of the NNSA-FBI “Capability Forward” initiative.
Since 2016, CTCP has conducted 122 WMD- related trainings and tabletop exercises on emergency preparedness and response to radiological and nuclear emergencies worldwide. These trainings were attended by 6,072 participants, including both domestic and international partners.
Since the inception of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Standards Committee in September 2015, CTCP has served as the chair, guiding policy, standards, and developments in emergency preparedness and response for implementation by Member States worldwide.
In 2020 CTCP continued work on a Joint Urban Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) Experiment in partnership with Israel, Canada, and the United Kingdom. These tests will establish the baseline data needed to define the design parameters for the tests at Israel’s urban setting facility.
Disposition and Forensic Evidence Analysis Team (DFEAT) and DOE Forensics Operations (DFO) procedures and capabilities originally designed to characterize interdicted nuclear devices and debris were rapidly modified to support a wide range of contingency planning efforts for an NSC- led denuclearization initiative.
In cooperation with the United Kingdom and France, CTCP supported the execution of an operational nuclear counterterrorism exercise hosted in France in September 2019, and hosted a trilateral exchange with senior leaders in the United States in December 2018, improving each government’s understanding of information security policies and process improvements.
Completed three technical assessments for the NSC’s Integrated Nuclear Security Strategy to inform USG engagements with foreign partners on nuclear security.
In support of the C-WMD mission, CTCP increased confidence and accuracy in predictive modeling capabilities through completion of experimental validation campaigns and ongoing characterization of new energetic disablement tools.

Leadership Challenges

CTCP faces the following high-level challenges:

Secure Office Space and Classified Communications

CTCP activities are hampered by the insufficiency of both secure office space and secure mobile communications capabilities.

Current Part-Time/Volunteer Staffing Model

The limited availability of technical experts for training, drills, exercises, and operational response is straining the current part-time/volunteer staffing model used throughout the nuclear security enterprise to sustain deployable NEST teams and Home Teams.

Critical Events and Action Items

Critical events or actions that will take place within the first 3 months of the next Presidential term:

Nuclear Weapon Accident/Incident Exercise (NUWAIX)-21 Senior Leader Seminar—February 17, 2021

In partnership with the IAEA, conduct training for Member States on nuclear safety for major public events and on medical response to nuclear emergencies^[1]

Organizational chart

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Internal

External

References

↑ DOE. (2021). Transitions 2020: Organization Overviews. US Department of Energy.

[1] DOE. (2021). Transitions 2020: Organization Overviews. US Department of Energy.

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