Don't Increase U.S. Nuclear Weapons Capacity: Letter to President Obama

Feb 9, 2010

February 9, 2010


The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20500

Re: Nuclear Posture Review

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for your leadership in halting the development of new nuclear weapons such as the Reliable Replacement Warhead. As you assess the best way to maintain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear stockpile while still emphasizing the importance of nonproliferation, we ask that your Nuclear Posture Review oppose creating a nuclear weapons infrastructure that would unnecessarily increase U.S. nuclear weapons production capability.

We are particularly concerned about the implications and the purpose of two facilities, the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. These proposed facilities would expand U.S. production capacity in order to produce 50 to 80 new nuclear "pits," or cores, per year, with the potential of producing up to 125 new warheads per year.¹ Currently without a new facility, Los Alamos produces fewer than 10 new nuclear cores per year. Plutonium pit production restarted in 2007 after almost a 20-year period of no production. The resumption of new pit production stemmed from the Bush Administration's plan to design and produce new nuclear warheads prior to the findings that existing nuclear components will remain viable for decades to come. The Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge is currently producing all secondaries for the existing stockpile through the Life Extension Program, the process by which the U.S. maintains and refurbishes nuclear warheads.²

An important nonproliferation and disarmament commitment is to make nuclear arms reductions irreversible. Non-nuclear weapon states perceive that as crucial to the U.S. disarmament promise. The United States made that commitment in the 2000 review of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and re-affirmed it during your administration as a co-sponsor of a 2009 U.N. General Assembly resolution.³ In the current context, new warhead production facilities run the risk of being perceived as contrary to pursuing irreversible reductions. These proposals risk complicating efforts to garner support from non-nuclear weapon states for important nonproliferation measures.

Increasing U.S. warhead production capacity absent a clear technical need undermines U.S. international nonproliferation efforts and diverts resources and focus from programs that address more urgent nuclear threats. Instead, we urge you to increase funding for programs that accelerate the dismantlement of nuclear weapons, strengthen verification capabilities, and bolster nonproliferation activities including improving safeguards and detection technology.

Decisions made in the Nuclear Posture Review will send an important signal to the rest of the world about achievable near-term steps toward your ultimate vision of a world free of nuclear weapons while protecting the security of the United States and its allies.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Susan Gordon
Director
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

Leonor Tomero
Director of Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

David Culp
Legislative Representative
Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers)

Howard W. Hallman, Chair
Methodists United for Peace with Justice

James E. Winkler, General Secretary
General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Church

David Krieger
President
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Kevin M. Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund

Peter Wilk
Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility

Danielle Brian,
Executive Director
Project on Government Oversight

Marie Rietmann
Public Policy Director
Women's Action for New Directions

Local Organizations

Ralph Hutchison, Coordinator
Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance
Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Ann Suellentrop M.S.R.N.
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Kansas City, Missouri

Glenn Carroll
Coordinator
Nuclear Watch South
Atlanta, Georgia

Andrea Shipley
Executive Director
Snake River Alliance
Idaho

Rev. Paul Alexander, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice
Professor, Theology & Ethics
Azusa Pacific University

Mary Davis
Director EcoPerspectives
a project of Earth Island Institute

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1. NNSA Y-12 Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement Summary, S.1.4.4, p. S14

2. NNSA Y-12 Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement Summary, S.1, p. S1

3. U.N. General Assembly Resolution 64/53, operative paragraph 4.