October 8, 2021

Nick Prospero
Acting Director, Office of Classification
US Department of Energy
(via email)

Dear Mr. Prospero:

This is a further proposal for declassification pursuant to 10 C.F.R. 1045.20
regarding information that is classified under the Atomic Energy Act.

On September 30, 2021, we requested that the Department of Energy and the
Department of Defense declassify the number of warheads in the U.S. nuclear
stockpile and the number of weapons that have been dismantled as of the end of
Fiscal Year 2021.

We would now like to supplement that proposal by requesting declassification of
the total number of warheads awaiting dismantlement at the end of FY 2021.

Declassification of this number -- the dismantlement queue -- would increase the
utility of the other stockpile information that has been (or may yet be)
declassified. It would provide an indication of the warhead dismantlement task
that remains to be accomplished, with all of its budgetary, environmental, and
other implications. And it would provide context for better understanding the
progress that has already been made.

I am not sure whether this request should be handled as an amendment to our
pending request of September 30 or -- since it requests an additional category
of information -- as a new, separate request. Either course of action would be
acceptable to us.

Thank you again for your consideration.

Steven Aftergood

_____________________

Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
1112  16th  Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC  20036

email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202)454-4691