New Effort to Build New Nukes
Mar 5, 2007
Dear Friend,
Last week, the Department of Energy announced that it has selected a design for developing the nation’s first new nuclear bomb in two decades.
It is both hypocritical and counter-productive for the United States to build new nuclear weapons at the same time that it is trying to convince countries such as Iran and North Korea not to develop their own nuclear weapons.
The rationale for building this new bomb, officially called the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), is to maintain long-term confidence in the reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Multiple independent studies have shown, however, that the nuclear weapons stockpile will remain “safe and reliable” for at least another 50 years.
This new nuclear bomb is part of a larger Bush Administration plan to rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, which the Department of Energy (DOE) estimates will exceed $150 billion by 2030. But the Government Accountability Office believes this estimate is too low and has advised Congress to require that the DOE produce an accurate accounting of the costs.
Moreover, the United States still has nearly 6,000 operational nuclear weapons, far beyond any rational need.
Opponents of new nuclear weapons won a major victory in recent years when we stopped the “nuclear bunker buster” bomb. We can’t afford to lose ground now by moving ahead with the Reliable Replacement Warhead. The United States should be showing leadership by dismantling its nuclear weapons, not attempting to build new ones.
The victory against the “nuclear bunker buster” proved that these battles can be won, but we need your help.
Sincerely,
John Isaacs & Guy Stevens
P.S. We need all the help we can get to stop President Bush from building new nukes! Please forward this e-mail to five of your friends.
