NUCLEAR REACTION

The most surprising thing about the recent news that the United States was once again capable of making nuclear weapons was the muted reaction it received. The United States is desperately looking for weapons of mass destruction – possibly including nuclear arms – in Iraq.

It is scolding North Korea for restarting its nuclear weapons program. Yet the news that it had restarted the production of plutonium parts for bombs was reported in a celebratory tone.

“The announcement marks an important symbolic and operational milestone in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear weapons complex,” the Los Angeles Times reported. Pits are hollow spheres made of plutonium that are surrounded by conventional explosives, which when exploded, cause nuclear fission as the sphere implodes. The United States has not made plutonium pits since 1989, when the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado was shut down after serious environmental problems and a raid by the FBI. Last week, a pit was made in New Mexico for a nuclear warhead to fit a Trident missile.

This announcement, rather than a cause for glee, should force the public

to consider the purpose of this change. This nation has the best and best-equipped military in the world. It wipes out totalitarian regimes in a matter of weeks. Energy Department officials suggest the U.S. nuclear arsenal is aged and may need new components. President Bush is fond of talking about the need to combat the threat of terrorist cells and rogue nations. But military officials say nuclear weapons would not be any more efficient than conventional weapons in combating these threats. Worse, a U.S. nuclear attack would further inflame anti-American sentiments. The development of nuclear weapons by the United States will only make rogue nations want these devices even more. With this announcement, nonproliferation is history.

The restarting of our nuclear weapons program also showcases the Bush administration’s continued disregard for international agreements.

In 2000, the United States recommitted itself to the United Nations’ Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, a document signed by 187 other countries. The five nuclear powers that had these weapons in 1968 when the treaty was originally signed in 1968 – the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China – pledged to end the nuclear arms race by eliminating their arsenals. This is the very treaty the United States has repeatedly condemned North Korea for withdrawing from.

The plutonium pit production doesn’t come cheap either. The one pit produced so far cost $1.5 billion. The United States is now spending $6 billion a year on its nuclear weapons complex, half again as much as it spent during the Cold War, the peak of the nuclear age. This at a time when other needs, such as health care, Social Security and education, are underfunded.

Call it an unwarranted money pit or an example of poor priorities, neither is a reason to cheer.