The Bush administration has recklessly proposed developing a new hydrogen
bomb. This new generation of nuclear weapons has been given the innocuous
sounding name of the “Reliable Replacement Warhead” (RRW). The U.S. cannot
design and produce new nuclear weapons and simultaneously insist that other
countries forgo nuclear capabilities.
Please write and ask your representatives and senators to oppose
this plan.
We have provided a sample below to get you started, but please take a moment
to put one or two sentences in your own words. Hearing individual concerns from
constituents matters significantly to members of Congress.
Here are some additional points you could include:
- A panel of eminent scientists
recently found that the plutonium in our current nuclear stockpile, in which the oldest weqapons are 60 years old, will
last at least 100 years, if not longer. There is no "reliability
crisis".
- In January of 2007, former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Defense Secretary William
Perry, former Senator Sam Nunn and others wrote an op-ed in the Wall
Street Journal calling for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons as
key to U.S.
security. The RRW, a new nuke, would take us away from that goal.
- The Reliable Replacement
Warhead and Complex 2030 (the factory where the bomb would be built) are
estimated to cost over $150 billion. This is a ridiculous amount of money
to spend on a program that's not needed. We should spend that money on
dismantling our current stockpile instead.
- Though Congress has tried to
ensure that the development of the RRW won't lead to a resumption of
nuclear testing, the administration has refused to rule out that
possibility. Also, many experts believe the military would not allow a new
weapon into the U.S.
arsenal if it hadn’t been tested.
- Some supporters of the RRW
claim it is the path to a smaller nuclear arsenal. They argue that once
the U.S.
builds this weapon, it can get rid of a large portion of the current
stockpile. This argument is a red herring. There's no reason the U.S. can't
reduce the current stockpile without building the RRW. Studies have shown
our current weapons are perfectly reliable and in fact are certified as such every year to the President.
The international community follows the United States'
lead on nuclear weapons issues. If we build new weapons, there is little incentive for
other countries to give up or abandon their nuclear programs.
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