News Review Special Edition

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International Developments, April 1 - May 10, 2003

Bipartisan Push to Bolster US WMD Threat Reduction Efforts

On April 10, Republican Representative Curt Weldon, Vice Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, introduced the Nuclear Security Initiative Act (H.R. 1719) seeking to significantly enhance US non-proliferation efforts undertaken under the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programme. The measure, cosponsored by 23 members from both parties, was referred to the International Relations Committee for further debate.

The proposed legislation seems intended in part to strengthen the hand of pro-CTR elements within the Bush administration. As reported in the electronic version of the last News Review, the programme has been coming under sustained attack in recent months from senior Republicans in Congress, perhaps most vociferously Duncan Hunter, the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, on the grounds of the alleged ineffectiveness of various initiatives and a perceived trend of increasing Russian corruption and mismanagement. This negative assessment is reportedly shared by elements within the administration. (See 'CTR Under Fire as US Report Urges Greater Access to Russia WMD Sites', News Review Special Edition, http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd70/70nr12.htm.)

The new bill emphasizes the need for significant reform of the CTR, while stressing its indispensability as the framework and vehicle for a range of vital national security activity. At a meeting of experts drawn from supportive but politically diverse non-governmental organisations - including the Heritage Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign - Weldon stated (April 10): "As America is leading the military effort to disarm dangerous tyrants and hunt down terrorists, we must change the way we protect our homeland. Rogue states and terrorist organizations do not have the ability to build their own weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, if we target our efforts at non-proliferation programs, we are likely to thwart the efforts of the next madman seeking to acquire such weapons and terrorize our citizens and allies." Weldon's Republican colleague Christopher Shays (April 10) stated that the "Congress needs to wake up" to the issues addressed in the bill: "It is a disgrace that we...have so many debates about so many issues that mean nothing ultimately to the survival of the world, and yet we have had hardly any debate on the floor of the House on this [subject]". Democratic co-sponsor Chet Edwards (April 10) echoed Shays: "The new reality of nuclear terrorism has been met in Congress with more rhetoric than action. ... We have had, I would suggest, more discussion on the House floor over the past two years on the renaming of Post Offices and Federal office buildings that we have had on discussions on how to protect Americans from the ultimate nightmare of nuclear terrorism. That must change..." The same day, Edwards' fellow Democrat Ellen Tauscher argued that enactment of the measure would "greatly enhance the United States' ability to detect and defeat the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union and around the world, including Iraq should we discover any there."

The bill would both increase support for existing CTR projects and introduce new elements. Additional funding would be provided to the Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI) and the former Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) - now forming part of the Russian Transition Initiative (RTI) - designed to find non-military employment for former WMD-scientists and technicians. A 'Silk Road Initiative' (SRI) would be established to help non-Russian former Soviet republics provide such employment for former-WMD-complex personnel on their territory. Other portions of the bill would: accelerate action under the International Materials Protection and Cooperation programme to improve security and accounting at nuclear storage sites in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), and dramatically expand the scope of the programme to remove nuclear materials from vulnerable facilities worldwide; accelerate efforts to terminate production of nuclear warheads at two of Russia's four nuclear weapon manufacturing facilities; accelerate efforts to secure non-weapons-grade radioactive sources capable of posing a radiological, 'dirty bomb' threat; accelerate current plans to dispose of Russian stocks of surplus highly-enriched uranium (HEU); and intensify the search for new technologies and methods of detecting, tracking and intercepting illicit transfers of WMD material.

Notes: over the weekend of April 12/13, Congress adopted (the Senate unanimously, and the House by voice vote) a wartime supplemental appropriations bill providing - among measures totalling $79 billion - an additional $148 million to the Department of Energy for spending on non-proliferation programmes. The allocation includes $84 million under the International Nuclear Materials and Cooperation programme to develop and deploy radiation detectors at major US seaports; $17 million under the same programme to help secure materials which could be used in radiological weapons; and $15 million under the Non-Proliferation and International Security programme to increase non-proliferation assistance to countries outside the former Soviet Union. The final version of the supplemental package, however, dropped a provision approved by the Senate, and backed by the White House, authorising the President to use up to $50 million of existing (Fiscal Year 2003) CTR funds for non-proliferation projects in countries - including Iraq - outside the FSU.

On April 24, the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issued an Amended Record of Decision "stating" - in the words of an NNSA statement - "that it will move forward with its previously proposed strategy of fabricating approximately 6.5 metric tons of surplus US weapon-grade plutonium previously intended for immobilization into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at the Savannah River Site [in South Carolina]". The backdrop to the announcement is the September 2000 US-Russia agreement under which each side agreed to dispose of 34 tons of surplus plutonium. In January 2000, the Clinton administration adopted a 'hybrid approach' to the disposal of surplus US material, recommending the immobilization of 17 tons of the country's 50-ton stockpile, with the remainder to be converted into MOX fuel. The Bush administration - together with the Russian government - endorses a 100 percent MOX-conversion programme. According to NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks: "Today's decision moves us one step closer to disposing of weapon-grade plutonium both here and in Russia. It also strengthens our effort to provide a pathway out of South Carolina for plutonium brought there for disposition." Last year, South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges (Democrat) waged an intense but unavailing legal and political campaign against the transit of surplus plutonium into the state, complaining at the lack of guarantees from the federal government about the ultimate fate and destination of the material.

The NNSA statement summarised the remaining steps to be taken before the conversion programme begins: "The next major milestone for the plutonium disposition program, scheduled for Fiscal Year (FY) 2004, is obtaining a construction license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the US MOX facility, to be followed by the start of construction of that facility, in parallel with construction of a similar facility planned in Russia. The [US] facility is currently scheduled to start operations in FY 2008. When fully operational, the facility will produce 3.5 metric tons of MOX fuel per year. Over the life of the program, the US will dispose of enough surplus plutonium for thousands of nuclear weapons."

The total costs of meeting the September 2000 undertakings are estimated at $2 billion for Russia and $4 billion for the US. On April 23, Michael Guhin, a senior US official dealing with fissile material issues, told reporters that at least $1 billion in international financing for the Russian side of the project should be in place by the end of the year. According to reports, a statement on the subject is expected to emerge from the June Summit of G-8 leaders in Evian, France.

Reports: Nuclear Security Initiative Act of 2003 (H.R. 1719), introduced in US House of Representatives, April 10; Statement by Rep. Ellen Tauscher on Nuclear Security Initiative Act, Press Release, Office of Representative Ellen Tauscher (http://www.house.gov/tauscher), April 10; Edwards cosponsors expanded nuclear anti-terrorism bill, Press Release, Office of Representative Chet Edwards (http://www.house.gov/edwards), April 10; Bipartisan legislation bolsters threat reduction programs, Press Release, Office of Representative Curt Weldon (http://www.house.gov/curtweldon), April 10; US representatives announce new threat reduction proposals, Global Security Newswire, April 11; Wartime supplemental drops Nunn-Lugar expansion authority, Council for a Livable World, April 15; Senate and House pass war supplemental appropriations bills, Council for a Livable World, April 15; US-Russia nuclear disposal said advancing, Reuters, April 23; NNSA moves ahead with plutonium disposition program, NNSA Press Release NA-03-03, April 24.

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