Mixed Messages: U.S. Lowers Its Own Nuclear Standard
Sep 16, 2003
News from the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation For Immediate Release - September 16, 2003 Contact: Molly Pickett 202-546-0795 ext. 119
The Senate today voted 53 to 41 to retain funding for research on new types of nuclear weapons and speed up the nation’s ability to conduct a nuclear test. An amendment to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2004, offered by Senators Feinstein and Kennedy, would have stripped funding for research on low-yield nuclear weapons and a robust nuclear earth penetrator and delayed test readiness and pit facility development. By tabling the amendment, Senators failed to prevent the Bush Administration from ramping up the U.S. nuclear weapons program and sending a mixed message to nations around the world.
“It is hypocritical that, within days of pressuring the international community to help curb nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, the U.S. government is continuing to push forward with new elements of its own program,” said Molly Pickett, director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington. “This policy is not reflective of a country committed to preventing reliance on nuclear weapons.”
Arguing that the new funds allow only for research and do not fund any kind of development of new nuclear weapons, supporters have set the United States on a path unprecedented since World War II. Proponents also claim the funding reflects the current international security environment, which requires an unconventional deterrent against new threats. They add that research on new weapons is vital to keeping U.S. scientists at the forefront of technology and aware of the capabilities that may be developed by hostile states and terrorist groups.
However, in order for a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent, the weapons would eventually have to be developed. It is also the new international security environment, in which terrorist groups and hostile regimes pose tremendous threats, that makes a move like this so dangerous. Rogue states such as North Korea have become so wary of the Bush Administration’s nuclear posture that development of nuclear programs, for the sake of security, has become their foremost priority.
“Foes of the United States will not look at this vote and see funding for new nuclear weapons and accelerated test readiness as a research exercise,” Pickett said. “They will see it as an aggressive move by an already dominant military power to return to an age of nuclear advancement. The effects on world-wide nonproliferation efforts could be disastrous.”
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