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Saturday, March 27, 2010
Nuclear Arms Deal Reached
By John Fleck
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
A reduction in U.S. nuclear weapons must be accompanied by an increase in spending to maintain those that remain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in announcing terms of a major arms reduction deal with Russia.
President Barack Obama's administration's push for the Russian arms deal is accompanied by a request for a major funding increase for nuclear weapons research, development and manufacturing, including Sandia and Los Alamos labs in New Mexico.
Both New Mexico labs are in line for significant increases in nuclear weapons funding.
Overall, the budget request for next year calls for a 26 percent increase in nuclear weapons spending at Los Alamos, to $1.6 billion. The request for Sandia's nuclear weapons work is $1.1 billion, 20 percent over this year's spending.
Gates reiterated the importance of spending more on the country's nuclear weapons complex Friday during a White House press room briefing.
"As the number of weapons declines, we will have to invest more heavily in our nuclear infrastructure in order to keep our weapons safe, secure and effective," Gates said. "I look forward to working with the Congress to make sure the Departments of Defense and Energy have the funding necessary to properly accomplish this mission."
The agreement, negotiated over the past year with final details worked out Friday by Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, sets a limit of 1,550 warheads for each nation's arsenal, down 30 percent from currently permitted levels.
The two nations have scheduled an April 8 signing ceremony in Prague, the city where Obama a year ago announced his ambitious plan to work toward "a world without nuclear weapons."
That long-term goal has been accompanied by a willingness to spend more in the near term on nuclear weapons, which administration officials say is needed to maintain the reliability of the remaining arsenal.
In addition, Senate Republicans have demanded robust funding for the remaining weapons as a condition for support of the treaty's ratification.
The administration's fiscal year 2011 budget request calls for $11.2 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a 13.4 percent increase over this year's spending. Included is $225 million for work on a new plutonium laboratory complex at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The arms control community generally hailed the agreement, but one group hesitated to endorse the accompanying spending increase at the labs and nuclear weapons plants.
The increase could "potentially be seen as contrary to U.S. commitments to irreversible reductions," said Nickolas Roth of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a coalition of activist groups at nuclear sites around the United States.
In Friday morning's White House briefing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to put a deadline on Senate ratification of the treaty but said she was confident of its passage.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., issued a statement saying "the time has come for us to renew and expand our agreement with Russia."
"In the coming months, Congress will be taking a close look at the treaty, and I look forward to taking part in that important debate," said Bingaman, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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