Archive for the ‘new nuclear weapons’ Category

Nuclear Pork Action Alert: 10 Percent Increase for Nuclear Weapons

February 9th, 2010 by Cara Bautista from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons

Below is an alert we sent to some of our supporters on the nuclear pork in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Click on the following committee links to check if your representative is a member of a key committee that decides how much funding nuclear weapons will actually get. If your representative is on either the House Armed Services Committee or the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, please take action and email your representative.

Next year’s budget has just been released and while it has a spending freeze for most domestic programs, there’s plenty of nuclear weapons pork. The nukes budget comes in at roughly $7 billion, getting a ten percent increase.

It’s outrageous, unnecessary, and expensive.


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Nuclear Weapons Budget in 2011

February 5th, 2010 by cbautista

The Fiscal Year 2011 budget has a 10% increase for nuclear weapons programs, bringing total funding to about $7 billion. I wanted to share with you a roundup of some excellent analysis of the budget by groups in the disarmament community, as well as two announcements about activities around the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference and the Kansas City Plant.

Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

“Proposed DoE funding also includes large increases for a facility that will expand plutonium production in Los Alamos, New Mexico and for a new highly enriched uranium production facility near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, each estimated to cost about $3 billion. The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR) plutonium facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory increased from $97 million in FY 2010 to $225 million in FY 2011. Y-12’s Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) also increased to $115 million from $94 million in FY 2010.”

The Biggest Year for Nuclear Disarmament

January 14th, 2010 by Cara Bautista from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons

Titan II nuclear missile in its Cold War silo.

This year is one of the biggest opportunities we’ve had since the end of the Cold War to make significant progress toward a nuclear weapons free world. Maintaining the status quo of more than 23,000 nuclear weapons worldwide is just too dangerous; so many weapons around the world increase the risk of an accidental launch with deadly consequences for hundreds of thousands of people. A quick look at the calendar confirms that 2010 will be a pivotal year:

  • New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) announced and Senate debate over US ratification (January estimate)
  • Fiscal Year 2011 Budget released (February)
  • Nuclear Posture Review released (March 1 estimate)

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Expert scientists undermine rationale for new nuclear weapons

November 19th, 2009 by Cara Bautista from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons

The findings in a new report out today by the JASONs, a group of independent, expert scientists, call into question the need for new nuclear weapons. Tasked by the former chair and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee to study the Life Extension Programs (LEPs), a program to extend the lifetime of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, the unclassified version of the report (JSR-09-334E) stated:

JASON finds no evidence that accumulation of changes incurred from aging and LEPs have increased risk to certification of today’s deployed nuclear warheads….

Lifetimes of today’s nuclear warheads could be extended for decades, with no anticipated loss in confidence, by using approaches similar to those employed in LEPs to date.


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New Nukes or Not?

September 18th, 2009 by Cara Bautista from Groundswell Blog, from Peace Action West » Nuclear Weapons

Secretary of Defense Gates is still pushing for new nuclear weapons. At an Air Force Association conference this Wednesday, Gates:

previewed findings of the ongoing Nuclear Posture Review by endorsing the need to sustain and modernize the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, including a new warhead design.

That appears to mean support for the reliable replacement warhead program proposed by former President George W. Bush but strongly opposed by arms control advocates and congressional Democrats.

The article continues with more from Gates:

Responding to a question from the audience, Gates said the preliminary nuclear review results showed the need for “large investments” in modernizing nuclear weapons production facilities and retaining weapons development expertise and, “in one or two cases, probably new designs that would be safer and more reliable.”


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