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Groups challenge budget request for N-tests By Christopher Smith, The Salt Lake Tribune, February 21, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Nuclear arms control groups are challenging the Bush administration's argument for spending more money in 2005 to get the Nevada Test Site primed for resumption of nuclear weapons testing. The Department of Energy's new budget recommendation submitted to Congress calls for a $200 million increase in federal spending on "stockpile stewardship," the program to maintain and refurbish America's arsenal of nuclear weapons and certify the reliability of the warheads and missiles. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said that as the weapons age during the current moratorium on nuclear testing, scientists have a "phenomenally complicated" job certifying they will work effectively. "If someday in the future it were determined that we had an uncertainty, it would take us a minimum of three years to conduct a test to determine whether or not the stockpile was reliable," Abraham said in a budget briefing with reporters this month. "That is too long." The $6.5 billion budget request for DOE's nuclear weapons programs in 2005 is a 5.4 percent increase over the current year and includes funding to ensure the Nevada Test Site could execute an underground nuclear weapons test within 18 months upon orders by the president. But arms control researchers and activists say the three-year time frame is a gross exaggeration by DOE. "The idea that it would take us three years to field a test is ludicrous and stupid," said Chris Paine, senior nuclear weapons analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "If we wanted to do a stockpile confidence test, it would take a matter of weeks. This is just a pretext to step up the capabilities to resume an arms race." According to DOE's 2005 budget documents, the Nevada Test Site would receive a 14 percent increase in its "science campaign," with some of the money improving test readiness by "maintaining critical personnel, equipment and infrastructure." With the funding, DOE says the Nevada proving ground would be in an 18-month readiness posture by September 2005. http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Feb/02192004/utah/140296.asp -- |
