Obama budget to seek $7 billion for nuclear stockpile

The Obama administration's fiscal 2011 budget request to Congress Monday will include $7 billion to maintain the nation's nuclear weapons complex, and for related purposes, Vice President Biden revealed Friday in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

The request marks a $600 million increase over fiscal 2010 funding. Over the next five years, Biden wrote, the Obama administration intends to boost funding in this area by more than $5 billion. "Even in a time of tough budget decisions, these are investments we must make for our security," he wrote.

The added funding will help strengthen the United States' ability to recruit, train and retain skilled people, support the work of nuclear labs, and clean up and close down facilities that are no longer needed, the column said. The request comes as the Pentagon is completing its Nuclear Posture Review, which will be released March 1.

Meanwhile, the United States and Russia are weeks away from concluding a nuclear arms reduction deal to succeed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a 1991 pact that expired Dec. 5.