Nuclear Nonproliferation should be the single most important issue being addressed by Washington. Currently the Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign is urging people to contact their Senators to ensure several provisions from Curt Weldon are included in the Defense Authorization Bill
Among the key Weldon provisions included in the defense bill are two that address what a recent Harvard study, commissioned by the Nuclear Threat Initiative headed by Ted Turner and former Senator Sam Nunn, called the "first and most urgent priority" in the battle to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists: protecting "nuclear material at the most vulnerable sites around the world." The first such measure calls for acceleration of a U.S. Department of Energy program to help install basic security measures at all Russian nuclear materials storage facilities. The urgency here is evidenced in the admission in the department’s own FY 2004 budget documents that by October 2004 there will still be enough nuclear material to build 16,000 atomic bombs in Russian facilities lacking the most basic security protection, such as fences, strengthened doors and locks, and bricked up or barred windows.
The second of those provisions authorizes a new initiative to conduct a worldwide cleanout of bomb-grade plutonium and uranium from poorly guarded civilian facilities, such as research reactors, outside the former Soviet Union (FSU). There are hundreds of these very vulnerable facilities in scores of countries, and they are tempting targets for groups like al Qaeda. The bill makes $78 million available for "disarmament and nonproliferation" programs outside the FSU, which should make it possible for this effort to move forward quickly.
Among the other major provisions derived from H.R. 1719 that were included in the defense bill are those that would:
***Require the formulation of a comprehensive plan for U.S. programs to assist the states of the FSU in securing and disposing of their huge stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and direct the President to appoint a senior official to coordinate those programs and give that official sufficient staff and other resources to do an effective job of coordination.
***Encourage a U.S.-Russian collaborative upgrading of Russia’s dangerously faulty and inadequate missile early warning systems, which a RAND study released May 21 concluded have "deteriorated significantly" and pose "extremely troubling" risks of a Russian launch of a nuclear attack on the U.S. through accident or miscalculation.***Mandate efforts to work with Russia to develop comprehensive inventories of the two countries’ nuclear weapons and materials and exchange the data in the inventories, with special emphasis on developing detailed information on the smaller, tactical warheads that are especially susceptible to being stolen and smuggled into the U.S. by terrorists.
***Establish a Congress-Russian Duma working group devoted to "reducing nuclear weapons dangers," including ways to fight the acquisition of nuclear weapons by terrorists.
***Establish exchanges between U.S. and Russian nuclear scientists to promote scientific answers to helping safeguard nuclear material.
Make It So!