FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 12, 2006

CONTACTS:    
Rebecca Griffin                            Reva Patwardhan
office: 510-849-2272, Ext. 122        office: 510-849-2272. Ext. 112
cell: 510-219-6450                       cell: 510-681-7075

PEACE EDUCATION FUND SAYS “BOMBPLEX” WILL START A NEW ARMS RACE

Livermore, CA – Rebecca Griffin of Peace Education Fund spoke today to express opposition to the Bush administration’s proposed changes to America’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Today the administration, through the Department of Energy, is holding hearings to assess public reaction to ‘Complex 2030,’ their proposal to spend what would be at least $150 billion to revamp the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

“This proposal would give our nation’s most expensive and dangerous Cold War relic a shot in the arm, enabling the U.S. to churn out 125 new nuclear warheads per year, potentially jump-starting a new nuclear arms race.

“This fact is at the core of what makes the ‘Bombplex’ such a dangerous mistake.

“For six years, the Bush administration has worked to build a new generation of nuclear weapons, using a string of varied and questionable rationalizations. And for six years, Congress has smartly refused their funding requests. Now, Complex 2030 is essentially another attempt to build a new arsenal, this time because the administration says we need to replace the aging warheads in our current arsenal.

“But we now know this to be untrue, thanks to research conducted by Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Labs, which showed that the plutonium pits which form the center of nuclear warheads have a lifetime of at least 85-100 years.

“So what we are left with now is a very expensive proposal that solves problems we don’t really have while making the very real problems we do have much worse. For instance, what will this do to negotiations aimed at dissuading Iran from pursuing their own nuclear weapons? Iran won't listen to ‘do as we say, not as we do.’

“The bottom line on evaluating any new U.S. nuclear strategy should be, ‘Does it make us safer?’ For Complex 2030, the realities of national security in the post-9/11 world mean that the answer is no. Our greatest security threats are no longer the competing nuclear behemoths of the Cold War. Building up our offensive nuclear capabilities makes no sense when the greatest threat the U.S. faces is from non-state terrorist groups and the proliferation of weapons to other states. The new Complex 2030 does nothing to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, and will only encourage the spread of nuclear weapons to nations who don’t already have them.

“When the U.S. signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, it agreed to negotiate in good faith to get rid of nuclear weapons. Complex 2030 diverts attention from the need to begin planning further nuclear reductions and the eventual elimination of our nuclear stockpile. Our representatives and senators must stand up in opposition to this dangerous and ill-conceived proposal. Bipartisan leadership in the House and the Senate has three times stopped new nuclear weapons in their tracks. Concerned voters must continue to pressure our elected officials to step up in 2007 to defeat this plan.” 

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The Peace Education Fund promotes a foreign policy rooted in support for human rights and democracy. We work to eliminate the threat posed by nuclear weapons, control the spread of lethal conventional weapons to countries that violate human rights standards, and promote international cooperation to solve conflicts between nations. The organization has offices in Los Angeles, Berkeley and Santa Barbara. More information on the organization is available at www.peaceeducationfund.org.