DOE’s Unilateral Disarmament

In the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan promised that, if elected, he would abolish needless government agencies. High on his list was the Department of Energy (DOE). Once elected, however, he found that even in the short time of its existence DOE had, like most executive agencies, developed its own congressional constituency, which made eliminating it easier said than done.

Ironically, the President’s failure to eliminate DOE has had an adverse impact on U.S. national security, as manifested in the recently revealed problems with the aging nuclear-weapons-production complex, especially the reactors at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina [see also “On the Right,” p. 63], These reactors produce special nuclear material (SNM), primarily tritium and plutonium, for nuclear warheads. The problems at these sites have their genesis in the organization and bureaucratic priorities of DOE.

About the Author

Mackubin Thomas Owens

Mackubin Thomas Owens is a senior national security fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute , editing its journal Orbis from 2008 to 2020. A Marine Corps infantry veteran of the Vietnam War, he was a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College from 1987 to 2015. He is the author of US Civil–Military Relations after 9/11: Renegotiating the Civil-Military Bargain.

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In the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan promised that, if elected, he would abolish needless government agencies. High on his list was the Department of Energy (DOE). Once elected, however, he found that even in the short time of its existence DOE had, like most executive agencies, developed its own congressional constituency, which made eliminating it easier said than done.

Ironically, the President’s failure to eliminate DOE has had an adverse impact on U.S. national security, as manifested in the recently revealed problems with the aging nuclear-weapons-production complex, especially the reactors at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina [see also “On the Right,” p. 63], These reactors produce special nuclear material (SNM), primarily tritium and plutonium, for nuclear warheads. The problems at these sites have their genesis in the organization and bureaucratic priorities of DOE.

About the Author

Mackubin Thomas Owens

Mackubin Thomas Owens is a senior national security fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute , editing its journal Orbis from 2008 to 2020. A Marine Corps infantry veteran of the Vietnam War, he was a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College from 1987 to 2015. He is the author of US Civil–Military Relations after 9/11: Renegotiating the Civil-Military Bargain.