The President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: We strongly urge you to make every effort to ensure that threat reduction and nonproliferation programs are funded at the Senate Appropriations Committee-approved level in the Fiscal Year 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. Based on […]
Fact Sheet: Budget Cuts Hurt Nuclear Security Efforts
The Threat According to the International Panel on Fissile Materials, the global stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in 2010 was roughly 1,475 tons, or enough to make more than 60,000 nuclear weapons. Likewise, the panel estimates the global stockpile of separated plutonium to be about 485 tons. The quality of security over these materials […]
Review of the Senate Appropriations Committee Version of the FY 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill
by Kingston Reif Summary: Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and the rest of the members of the subcommittee deserve great credit for prioritizing essential nuclear and radiological material security and nonproliferation programs. While the House cut the budget for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), the key program in the […]
Quote of the Day: By "Bizarre" You Mean "Insane" Edition
Such calculations may seem bizarre, but our best protection against a nuclear war is to convince potential aggressors that no matter what they throw at us in a surprise attack, we can respond by causing unacceptable damage in their country. Loren Thomp…
Quote of the Day: Republicans Concerned about Nuclear/Radiological Terrorism Edition
But the nuclear menace we face is broader than simply that of traditional nuclear weapons. The crisis in Japan is a dramatic demonstration of the real-world threat resulting from nuclear material over which we have lost control. A radiological bomb tha…
