The report, summary, and map are all embargoed until after their public release on Wednesday, April 8, at 11 AM EST.

Washington, DC – - The Nuclear Weapons Complex Consolidation Policy Network, a collaboration of six national and regional groups, today released a major study advocating a total stockpile of 500 nuclear warheads and a weapons complex downsized from eight sites to three. The network consists of the national organizations the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Project On Government Oversight (POGO); Nuclear Watch New Mexico, near the Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs; Tri-Valley CAREs, near the Lawrence Livermore National Lab; the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, near the Kansas City Plant (KCP); and JustPeace of Texas, near the Pantex Plant.

An excerpt from President Obama's speech on April 5, 2009

Yesterday in Prague, President Barack Obama made a groundbreaking speech in which he pledged “to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” His significant call for the elimination of nuclear weapons re-orients US nuclear policy, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive arms control agreements and of international cooperation.

President Obama's agenda comes at a time when the nuclear threat is growing, rather than decreasing. His call for a nuclear weapon's free world has the bipartisan support of a wide swath of political heavy-weights, including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry, and former Senators Sam Nunn and Chuck Hagel. According to polling, people around the globe also support achieving a nuclear weapons free world.

The Nuclear Weapons Complex Consolidation Policy Network will release “Transforming the U.S. Strategic Posture and Weapons Complex for Transition to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World,” Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 9:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M. EST. Location: Root Room of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Teleconference dial-in Number: (641) 715-3635, Access Code: 539953#

Contributors to the report include Tri-Valley CAREs, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Greater Kansas City Chapter, Just Peace, and the Project on Government Oversight. The report is the result of a collaborative project supported by the Connect U.S. Fund.

 Lead report author Dr. Robert Civiak, a physicist and former White House OMB budget examiner, will summarize major recommendations and findings.

Yesterday, President Obama and Russian President Medvedev met for the first time and made important commitments to work together on nuclear weapons issues. Significantly, they pledged their countries to “achieving a nuclear free world” and committed to negotiating a replacement agreement for the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) to ensure verifiable reductions to both countries' nuclear stockpiles.

Their agreement comes while the clock ticks down to the expiration of START in December of this year, creating an urgent need for a follow-on agreement to START. The historic 1991 START agreement allowed both Russian and the US to reduce their stockpiles and contained provisions that allowed for inspections and verification efforts.