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What's Up with RRW
From
our Peace Blog
The U.S. and Russia spent decades and billions
of dollars building arsenals and fighting proxy wars to become THE
hegemonic power of the world during the “Cold War”.
Finding Russia’s old, and in many cases missing, nuclear material
is a top priority for our Representatives but it seems some in the
Senate are still unsure what to do with our nuclear weapons.
In his article in the Baltimore Sun, Bennett Ramberg
deconstructs Bush’s argument while outlining the hazardous
consequences of this program. Here’s a sampling.
* Myth: stockpiles from
the Cold War are aging and hazardous.
o Both are true, nuclear weapons are hazardous and these particular
weapons are aged but still deadly. In 1993 the Clinton administration
put forth the stockpile stewardship program to “ensure the
preservation of the core intellectual competencies of the U.S. in
nuclear weapons, including weapons design, system integration, manufacturing,
security, use, control, reliability, assessment and certification.”
Part of this program includes a lab that virtually replicates tests
on the current stockpile and suggests fixes in the event problems
emerge.
* Myth: These weapons are ‘unreliable’
o “In 2006, government scientists concluded that the stockpile’s
plutonium cores will last at least 100 years.” Those found
to be deteriorating were identified and replaced.
* Myth: These RRW is based on weapons from the 1980’s so will
not need to be tested. The U.S. will remain in compliance with the
Test Ban Treaty.
o The RRW is not an exact replica of this older weapon therefore
it WILL need to be tested somewhere. We discovered back in the 1950’s
how hazardous nuclear testing is to our planet. Ask anyone from
the Marshall Islands how they feel about nuclear testing and you’ll
get a full idea of the human cost.
Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA)
and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) have introduced S.1914, a bill
which stops funding the RRW until a new nuclear policy and posture
review are completed.
This is the more sensible
way to proceed than RRW. Tell your Senator TODAY!
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