Nuclear Drawdown
   THE NEW YORK TIMES  Monday, January 14, 2002
 http://www.iht.com/articles/44652.html

The Bush administration has finally come to appreciate the national security dividends paid by a relatively inexpensive set of programs designed to help Russia dismantle its Cold War nuclear weapons and secure its bomb-grade plutonium and uranium from theft or sale to rogue nations or terrorists. With the threat of nuclear terrorism growing and Moscow now proposing to remove thousands more warheads from its nuclear arsenal, these programs - known collectively as Nunn-Lugar, for the men who helped originate them a decade ago, Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar - are more urgently needed than ever. Last year the White House unwisely sought to slash spending for Nunn-Lugar programs. Fortunately, Congress restored all of those cuts and more after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This year's administration requests will be far more generous, incorporating most of the increases added by Congress last fall. Most Nunn-Lugar programs are run by the Department of Energy, with the rest administered by either the Pentagon or the State Department. The amount sought for the Energy Department will be $1.04 billion, 37 percent higher than last year's request. Numbers requested for State and Pentagon programs, too, will be substantially higher.
.
The more enlightened approach reflects the newly cooperative relationship between Washington and Moscow that has developed since the terrorist attacks. Patient persuasion by senators and representatives of both parties also helped. While some individual Nunn-Lugar programs have suffered from poor administration, their overall achievement has been undeniably impressive. For a total of less than $7 billion since 1991, Washington has helped finance not only the deactivation of more than 5,500 nuclear warheads from Russia and other former Soviet republics, but also employment of Russian nuclear scientists who might otherwise have sold their services to Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, as well as some badly needed tightening of security at Russian plutonium and bomb-grade uranium storage facilities. Nunn-Lugar money has also been used to begin dismantling Russia's biological weapons plants. Much more needs to be done, especially in accounting for and protecting plutonium and uranium, which remain vulnerable to diversion or theft. Much of the increased funding the administration plans to request is rightly targeted at addressing this continuing danger.
.
The White House would be wise to apply the spirit of the Nunn-Lugar programs to the thousands of weapons in America's own nuclear arsenal that are no longer needed. Most of these warheads have no foreseeable use, and, given current capacities for computer simulation and physical sampling, there is no pressing reason to resume nuclear test explosions. The safest future for excess Cold War nuclear bombs, both Russian and American, is to dismantle them and render the plutonium and uranium they contain unsuitable for military use. - THE NEW YORK TIMES.

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< < Back to Start of Article The Bush administration has finally come to appreciate the national security dividends paid by a relatively inexpensive set of programs designed to help Russia dismantle its Cold War nuclear weapons and secure its bomb-grade plutonium and uranium from theft or sale to rogue nations or terrorists. With the threat of nuclear terrorism growing and Moscow now proposing to remove thousands more warheads from its nuclear arsenal, these programs - known collectively as Nunn-Lugar, for the men who helped originate them a decade ago, Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar - are more urgently needed than ever. Last year the White House unwisely sought to slash spending for Nunn-Lugar programs. Fortunately, Congress restored all of those cuts and more after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This year's administration requests will be far more generous, incorporating most of the increases added by Congress last fall. Most Nunn-Lugar programs are run by the Department of Energy, with the rest administered by either the Pentagon or the State Department. The amount sought for the Energy Department will be $1.04 billion, 37 percent higher than last year's request. Numbers requested for State and Pentagon programs, too, will be substantially higher.
.
The more enlightened approach reflects the newly cooperative relationship between Washington and Moscow that has developed since the terrorist attacks. Patient persuasion by senators and representatives of both parties also helped. While some individual Nunn-Lugar programs have suffered from poor administration, their overall achievement has been undeniably impressive. For a total of less than $7 billion since 1991, Washington has helped finance not only the deactivation of more than 5,500 nuclear warheads from Russia and other former Soviet republics, but also employment of Russian nuclear scientists who might otherwise have sold their services to Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, as well as some badly needed tightening of security at Russian plutonium and bomb-grade uranium storage facilities. Nunn-Lugar money has also been used to begin dismantling Russia's biological weapons plants. Much more needs to be done, especially in accounting for and protecting plutonium and uranium, which remain vulnerable to diversion or theft. Much of the increased funding the administration plans to request is rightly targeted at addressing this continuing danger.
.
The White House would be wise to apply the spirit of the Nunn-Lugar programs to the thousands of weapons in America's own nuclear arsenal that are no longer needed. Most of these warheads have no foreseeable use, and, given current capacities for computer simulation and physical sampling, there is no pressing reason to resume nuclear test explosions. The safest future for excess Cold War nuclear bombs, both Russian and American, is to dismantle them and render the plutonium and uranium they contain unsuitable for military use. - THE NEW YORK TIMES. The Bush administration has finally come to appreciate the national security dividends paid by a relatively inexpensive set of programs designed to help Russia dismantle its Cold War nuclear weapons and secure its bomb-grade plutonium and uranium from theft or sale to rogue nations or terrorists. With the threat of nuclear terrorism growing and Moscow now proposing to remove thousands more warheads from its nuclear arsenal, these programs - known collectively as Nunn-Lugar, for the men who helped originate them a decade ago, Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar - are more urgently needed than ever. Last year the White House unwisely sought to slash spending for Nunn-Lugar programs. Fortunately, Congress restored all of those cuts and more after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This year's administration requests will be far more generous, incorporating most of the increases added by Congress last fall. Most Nunn-Lugar programs are run by the Department of Energy, with the rest administered by either the Pentagon or the State Department. The amount sought for the Energy Department will be $1.04 billion, 37 percent higher than last year's request. Numbers requested for State and Pentagon programs, too, will be substantially higher.
.
The more enlightened approach reflects the newly cooperative relationship between Washington and Moscow that has developed since the terrorist attacks. Patient persuasion by senators and representatives of both parties also helped. While some individual Nunn-Lugar programs have suffered from poor administration, their overall achievement has been undeniably impressive. For a total of less than $7 billion since 1991, Washington has helped finance not only the deactivation of more than 5,500 nuclear warheads from Russia and other former Soviet republics, but also employment of Russian nuclear scientists who might otherwise have sold their services to Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, as well as some badly needed tightening of security at Russian plutonium and bomb-grade uranium storage facilities. Nunn-Lugar money has also been used to begin dismantling Russia's biological weapons plants. Much more needs to be done, especially in accounting for and protecting plutonium and uranium, which remain vulnerable to diversion or theft. Much of the increased funding the administration plans to request is rightly targeted at addressing this continuing danger.
.
The White House would be wise to apply the spirit of the Nunn-Lugar programs to the thousands of weapons in America's own nuclear arsenal that are no longer needed. Most of these warheads have no foreseeable use, and, given current capacities for computer simulation and physical sampling, there is no pressing reason to resume nuclear test explosions. The safest future for excess Cold War nuclear bombs, both Russian and American, is to dismantle them and render the plutonium and uranium they contain unsuitable for military use. - THE NEW YORK TIMES. The Bush administration has finally come to appreciate the national security dividends paid by a relatively inexpensive set of programs designed to help Russia dismantle its Cold War nuclear weapons and secure its bomb-grade plutonium and uranium from theft or sale to rogue nations or terrorists. With the threat of nuclear terrorism growing and Moscow now proposing to remove thousands more warheads from its nuclear arsenal, these programs - known collectively as Nunn-Lugar, for the men who helped originate them a decade ago, Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar - are more urgently needed than ever. Last year the White House unwisely sought to slash spending for Nunn-Lugar programs. Fortunately, Congress restored all of those cuts and more after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This year's administration requests will be far more generous, incorporating most of the increases added by Congress last fall. Most Nunn-Lugar programs are run by the Department of Energy, with the rest administered by either the Pentagon or the State Department. The amount sought for the Energy Department will be $1.04 billion, 37 percent higher than last year's request. Numbers requested for State and Pentagon programs, too, will be substantially higher.
.
The more enlightened approach reflects the newly cooperative relationship between Washington and Moscow that has developed since the terrorist attacks. Patient persuasion by senators and representatives of both parties also helped. While some individual Nunn-Lugar programs have suffered from poor administration, their overall achievement has been undeniably impressive. For a total of less than $7 billion since 1991, Washington has helped finance not only the deactivation of more than 5,500 nuclear warheads from Russia and other former Soviet republics, but also employment of Russian nuclear scientists who might otherwise have sold their services to Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, as well as some badly needed tightening of security at Russian plutonium and bomb-grade uranium storage facilities. Nunn-Lugar money has also been used to begin dismantling Russia's biological weapons plants. Much more needs to be done, especially in accounting for and protecting plutonium and uranium, which remain vulnerable to diversion or theft. Much of the increased funding the administration plans to request is rightly targeted at addressing this continuing danger.
.
The White House would be wise to apply the spirit of the Nunn-Lugar programs to the thousands of weapons in America's own nuclear arsenal that are no longer needed. Most of these warheads have no foreseeable use, and, given current capacities for computer simulation and physical sampling, there is no pressing reason to resume nuclear test explosions. The safest future for excess Cold War nuclear bombs, both Russian and American, is to dismantle them and render the plutonium and uranium they contain unsuitable for military use. - THE NEW YORK TIMES.