During President Obama's major nuclear weapons speech this past Sunday he pledged, “To achieve a global ban on nuclear testing, my Administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. After more than five decades of talks, it is time for the testing of nuclear weapons to finally be banned.” Now it looks like he is backing up that statement with action. Administration officials have said they expect President Obama to appoint Vice President Joe Biden to spearhead ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Nuclear testing fuels the arms race and undermines the non-proliferation regime by allowing nations to develop deadlier weapons and enabling new nuclear weapons states to emerge. Additionally, nuclear testing poses serious threats to the environment and our health. US ratification of the CTBT would help strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and enhance global security.

President Obama could choose any number of officials to lead CTBT ratification, so Biden's anticipated appointment would send a firm message about his commitment to eliminating the nuclear threat. Placing the vice-president at the crux of CTBT ratification not only demonstrates it is a top priority for the administration, it also indicates the Obama administration is willing to invest its strongest resources to combat the obstacles lying on the road ahead. Biden, a minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the CTBT failed ratification in 1999, is well-versed in how the Senate works and how to address anticipated challenges to win the 67 Senate votes needed for ratification. According to the Washington Post,

“A senior Obama administration official said yesterday that the “first order of business” will be a comprehensive review of all the issues. These will include the two elements that helped defeat the treaty last time: the ability to verify that no underground nuclear tests are taking place and that the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons will remain reliable without further testing.

“A lot of these issues have more clear answers than they had in 1999,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the matter. He could not speculate on timing, noting that among the reasons the pact lost last time was that the vote was rushed by the Republican leadership before public support could be developed.”

A July 2002 National Academy of Science report affirms that testing is not necessary for maintaining existing nuclear arms and lays to rest concerns about verifying that countries are not cheating and conducting nuclear tests. The US has observed a nuclear testing moratorium since 1992 while successfully maintaining a reliable nuclear stockpile.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Blog, CTBT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.