Recent Report Recommends New Nuclear Weapons
The Stockpile Stewardship Program was established after the cessation of nuclear testing in 1992 as a way to maintain the United States nuclear stockpile without testing. Along with the Life Extension Program, it monitors and maintains the nuclear stockpile, replacing the aging components of nuclear warheads. The authors advocate a change in the current treatment of nuclear weapons. The report states, "this vision of sustainable warheads with a sustainable enterprise can best be achieved by shifting from a program of warhead refurbishment to one of warhead replacement." Rather than maintaining and preserving the current stockpile, the authors advocate building new weapons from new designs.
The change from refurbishment to replacement, which the authors recommend, is not necessitated by a failure of the current program. The report states that "through stockpile stewardship and through the life extension program, [DOE] successfully continues to maintain confidence in the safety, security, and reliability of existing weapons without requiring a resumption of testing." However, the authors claim that new weapon designs will be more cost effective to build and sustain and would better address the defense needs of the United States.
The possibility of developing new nuclear weapons, such as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator and mini-nukes, has been the topic of recent debate. The authors assert that nuclear weapons will continue to play an essential role in the United States security policy until at least 2040. However, in 1970 the United States committed itself to the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Activists are concerned about the role of nuclear weapons advocated by the report. Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, said, "The report utterly fails to acknowledge the U.S. obligation under international law, as enshrined in Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to in good faith end the nuclear arms race at an early date, and negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons."
The House Appropriations Committee on Energy and Water Development rejected DOE's budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2005 for a new weapons program named the Advanced Concepts Initiative. The Initiative was a proposed program intended to design and build new nuclear weapons, much like the policy advocated by the authors. The Committee expressed its concern by stating that "the Committee's priorities are maintaining our Nation's nuclear deterrent in a safe and secure condition and maintaining our Nation's integrity in the international effort to halt the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The [DOE's] obsession with launching a new round of nuclear weapons development runs counter to those priorities."
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