Fifty-four years ago, the United States detonated a nuclear bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing more than 100,000 people, and slowly killing, crippling and maiming thousands more from the long-term effects of burns and radiation. The United States remains the only nation to have used nuclear weapons in war. We now have an opportunity to lead the way toward their elimination.

Although public perception of the threat of nuclear war has decreased, there are still 35,000 nuclear weapons in the world’s arsenals. Each has an average of 18 times the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and combined they have enough destructive power to kill everyone on earth dozens of times over.

Thousands of these weapons are on “hair trigger alert,” and can be launched within minutes. Several times in the last few decades, due to international tensions or human or computer error, the United States or Russia have come within minutes of a nuclear strike.

Equally disturbing, several nations have recently used nuclear testing to develop their first nuclear bombs, including India and Pakistan, and several more are suspected of developing nuclear weapons, including Iraq and North Korea.

Additionally, the dissolution of the Soviet Union has created problems with the management of their arsenal, and the Y2K problem increases the chance of an accidental nuclear launch due to computer misinterpretations of nuclear threats.

In the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower recognized the deadly potential of the nuclear arms race. He initiated efforts to stop nuclear weapons testing as a means of limiting the multiplication and proliferation of nuclear warheads. He declared that not achieving a nuclear test ban “would have to be classed as the greatest disappointment of any administration; of any decade; of any time and of any party.”

Finally, in 1996, after decades of negotiating by multiple administrations, President Clinton was first to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which would end all testing of nuclear weapons. The CTBT would provide for a highly reliable international monitoring system that would include seismological and atmospheric monitoring and short-notice on-site inspections.

The goals of the Comprehensive Test ban Treaty are to:

1. Slow or stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Without testing, additional nations can not develop nuclear weapons programs.

2. Slow or stop the development of more destructive nuclear weapons in existing arsenals. No new money or effort should go into making these horrific weapons more dangerous, especially while such money could be better dedicated to humanitarian needs.

3. Stop the environmental damage caused by the detonation of nuclear devices. To date, the world’s nuclear nations have conducted 2,057 nuclear tests, creating millions of cubic meters of nuclear waste.

The CTBT has now been signed by 152 nations and has been ratified by 41 of those nations including Britain and France. However, it has languished for the last 3 years in the U.S. Senate, which must ratify it by a two-thirds majority.

As of this writing, the CTBT waits on the desk of Sen. Jesse Helms, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees international treaties. He opposes the Treaty and refuses to hold the hearings required to bring the CTBT to a vote on the Senate floor. By failing to consider and approve the CTBT; let alone hold hearings; the Senate leaves the door open to nuclear proliferation and an even more frightening new nuclear arms race.

Several recent developments have indicated growing support for the reduction of nuclear arms. On July 20, Belfast became the 16th municipality in Maine to pass a resolution calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Recent bipartisan polls show that 82 percent of Americans support ratification of a nuclear test ban and the reduction or elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Sen. Susan Collins and nine other senators have called on the Foreign Relations Committee to hold hearings on the CTBT, although Collins has not indicated whether she will vote for the Treaty. General Colin Powell and other current and former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and Carter, have endorsed ratification of the CTBT. They believe it to be in the national security interests of the United States. Clearly there is broad and well-informed support for reducing and eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons.

Implementation of the CTBT is key to achieving this goal. It is critical that the Senate ratify this treaty by the Fall. As soon as September of this year, the nations that have ratified the CTBT will convene to begin planning its implementation. If the United States has not ratified the CTBT by that time, our government will not be able to take part in the convention. Perhaps more importantly, our failure to join in this effort will encourage other nations to drag their feet with regard to the treaty.

What greater contribution can our senators make to our nation’s future than to work to eliminate the greatest threat to all nations? Sens. Oympia Snowe, Collins — please, for all our sake — declare your support for a treaty that would forever ban nuclear test explosions.

Scott Miller is staff coordinator of the Abolition Resolution Initiative, a project of Physicians for Social Responsibility/Maine and Peace Action Maine. He lives in Portland.