GROUPS IN COMMUNITIES WITH U.S. WEAPONS FACILITIES RAISE CONCERNS OVER OBAMA NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW > Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

GROUPS IN COMMUNITIES WITH U.S. WEAPONS FACILITIES RAISE CONCERNS OVER OBAMA NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW

published Tuesday, April 06, 2010

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for further information, contact:
Nickolas Roth 914-673-6666
Susan Gordon 505-473-1670

for immediate release: April 6, 2010
GROUPS IN COMMUNITIES WITH U.S. WEAPONS FACILITIES
RAISE CONCERNS OVER OBAMA NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW

The Obama Administration’s nuclear weapons strategy, made public today in the new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), is “a mixed bag of inconsistent policies,” according to the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA).

“ANA applauds the NPR for opposing development of new nuclear weapons, endorsing further reductions in the stockpile, and limiting the role of nuclear weapons. These policies will help reduce the global threat,” said, ANA director Susan Gordon. “But, several parts of the NPR appear to contradict President Obama’s pledge to pursue a world without nuclear weapons.”

“For example, the document embraces investments that allow the U.S. to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal, if it were deemed ‘necessary’,” Ms. Gordon continued. “Under this policy, President Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget proposal calls for the highest spending ever for nuclear weapons, including three new production facilities. It is great that the NPR does not support immediate production of new warheads. But it leaves the door open for the U.S. to build new nuclear weapons in the future.”

“These new production facilities are inconsistent with U.S. Nonproliferation Treaty commitments to ‘irreversible’ reductions in its nuclear weapons stockpile,” added ANA Program Director Nick Roth. “The construction of more nuclear weapons production plants would also be a significant environmental and health threat to surrounding communities.”

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability includes three-dozen grassroots and national groups representing the concerns of communities near U.S. nuclear weapons sites directly affected by 65 years of nuclear weapons production and waste contamination.

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- fact sheets on current nuclear issues, including the Obama Administration’s plans for new weapons production facilities and U.S. treaty obligations are online at http://www.ananuclear.org