REPORT SAYS NEW PROGRAM COULD LEAD TO NEW NUCLEAR
WEAPONS

By Jeff Shuttleworth

January 24, 2006

LIVERMORE (BCN) - A Livermore-based watchdog group alleged today that the U.S. is embarking on a major program that could launch the nation down a "slippery slope" to developing new nuclear weapons and starting a new arms race.

Leaders of Tri-Valley CAREs said a new study released today, "The Reliable Replacement Warhead Program: A Slippery Slope to New Nuclear Weapons," provides the first comprehensive review of an emerging Department of Energy (DOE) initiative.

The report, written by Robert Civiak, a physicist who served for more than a decade in the White House Office of Management and Budget as program examiner for DOE national security programs, says the initiative could "significantly harm our national security, disrupt international cooperation in non-proliferation and diminish pressure on North Korea and Iran to forego their nuclear programs."

Civiak, who also served as a visiting scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said the program may ultimately lead to a resumption of full-scale nuclear weapons testing.

He said Congress initiated the RRW program in fiscal year 2005 with $9 million and gave direction in the form of a single sentence stating the lawmakers' intent to limit the program to "improving the reliability, longevity, and certifiability of existing weapons and their components."

For fiscal year 2006, Congress appropriated $25 million for the RRW program, he said.

Tri-Valley CAREs executive director Marylia Kelley said the study is "extremely timely" because she believes President Bush will highlight non-proliferation challenges such as Iran in his upcoming State of the Union address before sending his own nuclear weapons budget to Congress in early February.

Civiak said his study finds that there is no need for any replacement program.

"The existing stockpile is extremely safe," Civiak said. "New warheads resulting from the RRW program might well wind up being less safe and reliable than existing warheads."

He said adding more plutonium to the "pit" can degrade a nuclear weapon's safety and increase the chance that some of the material could explode or spread in an accident. Changes in a nuclear weapon's core may alter characteristics that were fully tested before each design was certified to be safe and reliable, according to Civiak.

He said that's why he believes the Department of Defense would likely demand that any new replacement warhead undergo full nuclear explosive tests before the agency would accept it into the stockpile.

Civiak said, "If the U.S. were to conduct even a single full-scale nuclear weapons test, other nations would surely follow suit, which could lead to a new arms race. The danger this would impart to the international non-proliferation regime would far exceed any conceivable advantage the U.S. would gain from new nuclear weapons."

Civiak alleged that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are the biggest supporters of the new program.

Lawrence Livermore officials declined to comment on the report, stating that officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration would be the best people to respond.

A spokesman for that agency wasn't immediately available for comment.

Kelley said Tri-Valley CAREs will send a copy of the report to
every member of Congress and to relevant committee staff.

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