Gaffney To Congress: Stop Unilateral, Structural Disarmament; Rebuild Doe Weapons Complex

(Washington, D.C.): The industrial infrastructure that supports the U.S. nuclear deterrent has reached the point where it is "at best, in a state of suspended animation," according to testimony provided to the House Armed Services Committee yesterday by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the director of the Center for Security Policy.

Gaffney charged that this deplorable condition is the result of decades of "low budgetary priority, maintenance deferred, investment foregone and obsolescing designs" in the nuclear weapons complex run by the Department of Energy. The predictable consequence of such a state of affairs will be "unilateral, structural denuclearization."

In his testimony, excerpts of which are attached, Gaffney warns that the national security will suffer serious harm if the following conditions are permitted to persist:

• the complete cessation of production of special nuclear materials;

 

• the grievous underfunding of nuclear weapons-related research and development which will require, among other things, the elimination of nearly one-fifth of skilled personnel associated with the national laboratories and wholly inadequate levels of nuclear testing — the lowest since 1961;

 

• the subordination of all national security requirements levied on the complex to attainment of standards of virtually perfect safety that are, as a practical matter, unachievable;

 

• the exposure of government employees to prosecution as individuals for environmental wrongs performed in the conduct of their official duties;

 

• the diversion of funds from present, vital defense-related DoE programs to meet the seemingly boundless requirements for cleaning up wastes associated with past nuclear weapons production;

 

• a breakdown in the collaborative process whereby the Departments of Energy and Defense are supposed jointly to develop plans for programs and spending on nuclear weaponry.

The Center for Security Policy urges the Bush Administration and the Congress to pursue swift corrective action in these areas so as to ensure that the infrastructure essential to the future viability and credibility of the U.S. nuclear deterrent is returned to working order as soon as possible and in such a way as to ensure its reliable availability for the long-haul.