Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Obama and Russian President Medvedev signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) on April 8 to reduce both countries’ large nuclear arsenals. New START also provides for verification measures such as on-site inspections and data exchanges. The treaty includes the following reductions:

* 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads
* 800 total deployed and non-deployed missiles and bombers
* 700 deployed missiles and bombers

Now the treaty needs the support of 67 senators in order to be ratified and enter into force. To hit that threshold, at least 8 Republican senators will need to support New START.

The Nuclear Security Summit gathered 47 world leaders in DC to commit to achieving the goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear material, such as plutonium or highly enriched uranium, and securing loose nuclear weapons within four years. President Obama linked the summit to the vision of achieving a nuclear weapons free world, which he outlined in his speech from Prague last year. With world leaders gathered, the summit was also an opportunity to raise the profile of nuclear disarmament.

The first ever Nuclear Security Summit to address preventing nuclear terrorism wrapped up today. Initiated by President Obama, the summit gathered 47 world leaders in DC to commit to achieving the goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear material, such as plutonium or highly enriched uranium, and securing loose nuclear weapons within four years. With the Cold War over, nuclear terrorism has emerged as a grave threat to US and global security. This Washington Post article has good coverage of the summit and illustrates why it is so important:

“Nuclear materials that could be sold or stolen and fashioned into a nuclear weapon exist in dozens of nations,” Obama said Tuesday morning. “Just the smallest amount of plutonium — about the size of an apple — could kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent people.”

(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:

The Obama administration’s long-delayed Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) was released today and, as expected, it’s a mixed bag. Outlining US nuclear weapons policy for the next 5-10 years, the NPR does reject some of the bad policies put forward by the Bush administration and helps to reduce the role nuclear weapons play in US security strategy.

On the other hand, the NPR definitely falls short of being a transformational document. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Obama’s speech from Prague, in which he stated “clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” The NPR does not realign US nuclear weapons policy enough to achieve the ambitious agenda Obama laid out in that speech.