If you’re in California’s Bay Area, be sure to come out for an interesting discussion with Tad Daley on how to eliminate nuclear weapons on Wednesday, May 26th.

Tad Daley, J.D., Ph.D., is the author of the new book Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World. He is the Writing Fellow with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the 1985 Nobel Peace Laureate organization. He has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to members of Congress and has written for major newspapers nationwide. Come here him talk about his new book and what can be done to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons.

When: May 26 from 7-9 PM

Will the Senate stand in the way of a safer world, or will it support a new nuclear weapons treaty to reduce the huge US and Russian nuclear weapons arsenals?

Last week, President Obama formally submitted the New START treaty to cut nuclear weapons to the US Senate. Key Senate committees will be holding hearings beginning tomorrow and Republican senators are weighing whether or not to support the treaty.

With more than 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, we have 23,000 chances for an accidental nuclear launch or for a weapon to fall into the wrong hands with devastating consequences. The US and Russia have 95 percent of the world’s stockpiles. The New START treaty can make us all that much safer by reducing both countries’ arsenals and paving the way for future progress to reduce the nuclear threat. [1]

Today, President Obama officially submitted the New START treaty to reduce US and Russian nuclear weapons arsenals to the US Senate. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will begin hearings on the treaty next week. Sen. Kerry issued this press release today in response:

Ratifying New START is an essential step toward making America safer.

This treaty will maintain our flexibility to protect our national security interests and restore hard-won visibility into the strategic nuclear forces of Russia’s still formidable arsenal. It will also strengthen the global coalition against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and thereby reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism.

The New START Treaty is the latest in a line of strategic arms reduction accords, often negotiated by Republican presidents, and supported overwhelmingly by Republican and Democratic senators alike.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference began with big news: the US publicly released the numbers of active nuclear weapons in its stockpile. The Obama administration made this major symbolic move to show its commitment to transparency and prove the US has been moving to reduce its nuclear stockpile.

According to a released fact sheet, the US had 5,113 active nuclear warheads as of September 2009. However, that still doesn’t represent the whole stockpile. Analysts believe an additional 4,500 nuclear warheads are currently retired or waiting to be dismantled. So while progress has been made since the 1960s, much more needs to be done. Watch the video (above) featuring Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione, who makes the case for why we must seize this historic moment and work toward a nuclear weapons free world to ensure our own security.

(Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

After a year of negotiations, the President Obama and Russian President Medvedev signed a new treaty today to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles in both countries and make the world that much safer.

But will the Senate do the right thing and ratify the treaty, or will they hold it hostage to partisan politics?

 Please click here to ask your senators to support ratifying the New START agreement to reduce our nuclear arsenal.

At the signing ceremony today in Prague, President Obama spoke about how the treaty opens the door to further actions to reduce the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Here’s an excerpt: