PRESS RELEASE

28 July 2002

Report Highlights US Push for
New Nuclear Weapons

As the United States moves closer to an invasion of Iraq, a major new report examines Washington’s growing interest in developing new nuclear weapons. “Bunker Busters: Washington’s Drive For New Nuclear Weapons” documents the “re-rationalisation” of nuclear weapons that gathered pace during the 1990s but has rapidly accelerated under the Bush administration.  The report also examines the damaging implications that these developments will have for international arms control and global security.

The Pentagon is examining the possibility of using low-yield nuclear weapons to destroy underground targets.  $15.5 million has been requested in the Fiscal Year 2003 budget to begin work on modifying an existing warhead to fulfil this mission.  In June the Republican controlled House of Representatives approved the funding but the Senate has voted to block it leaving the issue unresolved until a House-Senate conference in the autumn. Once initial funding has been secured for the new weapon, the programme will be all but impossible to stop making Congressional action in the autumn essential.

Developing new weapons to target underground bunkers is part of an attempt to expand the US nuclear arsenal and widen the range of missions it is designed to perform.  This was demonstrated with the release of the US Nuclear Posture Review in January, which requested contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons against Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya, Syria, Russia and China.

The threat to the global moratorium on nuclear testing is particularly stark.  New nuclear weapons may mean a return to nuclear testing by Washington for the first time since 1992.  Indeed, there are strong indications that the United States is seriously considering taking the first step towards a resumption of testing by withdrawing its signature from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

BASIC’s Director Dr Ian Davis said, “At this time of increasing tension on the Indian subcontinent, Washington should be doing all it can to emphasise the inefficacy of nuclear weapons rather than designing new systems and dreaming up new missions.  The Bush administration seems dangerously intent on new, more useable nuclear weapons and lowering the threshold for their use.  It is incumbent upon Europe to strengthen the voices in Congress who are opposed to these plans.”

For more information, please contact Mark Bromley on
+44 (0)20 7407 2977 or +44 (0)7958 997 253

Full Version of Bunker Busters: Washington's Drive for New Nulcear Weapons, available only in .pdf format.

Executive Summary of Bunker Busters: Washington's Drive for New Nuclear Weapons.

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