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The future of the disarmament agenda is on the line now as New START ratification moves forward in the US Senate.
Nuclear weapons proliferation and nuclear terrorism pose a grave threat to the United States and the world. At the Moscow Summit today Russian President Medvedev and President Barack Obama committed to a follow-on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I (START) to be concluded by December, 2009. This new treaty will reduce U.S and Russian nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles, and will require verification of these reductions.
From the 1,700 strategic warheads on high alert delivery vehicles that each nation has, this treaty will cut approximately 200. While the cut in nuclear warheads is not huge this agreement re-establishes U.S. leadership and engagement on nuclear nonproliferation policy. It also sets the stage for deeper cuts in U.S.- Russian arsenals (totaling 95% of nuclear weapons worldwide) in the coming year. As Secretary of State Clinton told Congress in January, once we agree to a START follow-on treaty, the United States “will seek deep, verifiable reductions in all U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons—whether deployed or nondeployed, strategic or nonstrategic.”
Bi-partisan statesmen, including President Obama, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Arizona Senator John McCain have expressed support for the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. Today’s summit announcement is a step towards realizing that vision.
Last year, six nuclear armed cruise missiles were unintentionally flown across the United States and a U.S nuclear submarine collided with a British nuclear submarine in the Atlantic Ocean. “When it comes to our national security and public health, maintaining huge nuclear arsenals is a liability, not an asset. It is of the utmost urgency that we get to substantially lower numbers of nuclear weapons throughout the world,” noted Dr. Peter Wilk, Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Whether by accident or intention, the detonation of a nuclear weapon by anyone, anywhere in the world, would have a catastrophic impact on all our lives,”
Physicians for Social Responsibility strongly urges Congress to support this new treaty when it comes up for ratification in the fall.
The future of the disarmament agenda is on the line now as New START ratification moves forward in the US Senate.
Tell your elected officials to cut funding for new nuclear weapons building capacities and to fund key national priorities: clean energy, universal health care, and restoring our environment.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) wrote an excellent report after the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Review Conference ended in May. It details the growing support from governments at the NPT-Review Conference for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Read more »
In March 2010, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and PSR docs Vic Sidel and Ira Helfand published a major new briefing paper on the global climate and health effects of nuclear war. Zero is the only option was produced for the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Read more »
PowerPoint presentation on how nuclear weapons put the United States at risk today--and how we can reduce and eventually eliminate the danger posed by the thousands of nuclear weapons still stockpiled in nuclear arsenals, the tons of nuclear bomb making material vulnerable to theft by extremists, and the specter of more nations potentially seeking nuclear weapons. Read more »
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