In their 2007 and 2008 Wall Street Journal OpEds, former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn call for concrete steps to be taken to achieve the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. They cite the danger of nuclear weapons proliferation to new nations and nuclear weapons acquisition by terrorist groups as grave threats facing the world today. They recommend taking several steps towards nuclear disarmament, including reducing nuclear weapons stockpiles, beginning a bipartisan process in the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and securing nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons material worldwide to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
Public support for a new nuclear weapons policy is high. The Department of Energy received more than 100,000 comments from the public regarding Complex Transformation, the Bush administration’s plan to modernize the nuclear complex nationwide and allow for the production of new warheads such as the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). A November 2007 WorldPublicOpinion.org poll found that 73% of the American public favors all countries agreeing to eliminate nuclear weapons, and 79% would like to see their government do more to achieve this objective. A majority of Americans favor deep cuts to the US nuclear arsenal.
The presidential elections offer an opportunity to make progress. Both Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain agree that the US should reduce its nuclear stockpile. Leading by example, the US can reaffirm its commitment to nuclear weapons elimination and strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We can regain our standing in the international community by playing a leading role in working towards the global elimination of nuclear weapons.
Our current nuclear weapons policy does not adequately address acquisition of nuclear weapons by terrorist groups, a real security threat to the nation. Traditional Cold War conceptions of deterrence are based on a large nuclear weapons stockpile, which is unlikely to actually deter terrorist groups from a nuclear attack. The threat of a nuclear response against non-state actors, who present no obvious target, is not credible. The US can make the world safer by reducing its own nuclear weapons stockpile and working with other nations to reduce their arsenals, too.
Programs exist to help clean up loose nuclear weapons in former Soviet Union states. Funding efforts to clean up loose nuclear weapons, such as the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, is a smart investment in our security.
Since coming in to power, the Bush administration has attempted to take US nuclear weapons policy in an aggressive direction, requesting funding for new nuclear weapons such as the nuclear bunker-buster and RRW, and raising the possibility of first nuclear strikes against non-nuclear countries. Congress has consistently repudiated Bush’s nuclear policy. First, they eliminated the nuclear bunker-buster. Now, for the second year in a row, key committees in Congress have eliminated funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead. Congress recognizes the importance of reexamining our nuclear weapons policy before moving ahead with plans to build unnecessary, new nuclear warheads. We can push Congress to support a nuclear policy in line with the goal of global nuclear disarmament.
Fallout from above ground tests in Nevada in the 1950's has been associated with increased cancer rates in populations downwind of the site as far away as New York. The US has observed a moratorium on testing since 1992 and the next step is for the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Ratification would protect the public's health, help limit the ability of countries to use testing to make advances in building nuclear weapons, and set an international standard that would encourage other countries to sign.
Talking points on Complex Transformation
The Bush Administration and the Department of Energy are talking about Complex Transformation as a way to consolidate and reduce our nuclear arsenal by revamping the nuclear complex and allowing for the production of new warheads, such as the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). Among the various pieces of Complex Transformation is a plan to expand the plutonium pit facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, allowing the capability to increase plutonium pit production, the "triggers" of nuclear warheads, up to 50 - 80 plutonium pits each year. A study by the independent scientific group JASON has determined that the current pits have a lifetime of 85 to 100 years. This finding undermines the Bush administration’s argument that our current warheads may not be reliable and need to be replaced.
