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Nunn-Lugar June 2010 Update

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced the following progress in the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program last month.

  • 6 Strategic nuclear warheads deactivated
  • 2 Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed
  • 6 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed
  • 4 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured
  • 48 metric tons of Russian chemical weapons agent neutralized

During the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the New START Treaty with the Directors of the U.S. nuclear laboratories, Lugar asked:

  • if United States nuclear weapons were safe, secure and effective,
  • if Russia was taking measures to modernize nuclear weapons,
  • if, without ratification of New START, there would be more uncertainty regarding Russian modernization, and
  • if that uncertainty would confuse and impair our own stockpile evaluation and adjustments.

Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X2Pze9BwhU.

In November 1991, Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA) authored the Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. This program has provided U.S. funding and expertise to help the former Soviet Union safeguard and dismantle its enormous stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, related materials, and delivery systems. In 2003, Congress adopted the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, which authorized the Nunn-Lugar program to operate outside the former Soviet Union to address proliferation threats. In 2004, Nunn-Lugar funds were committed for the first time outside of the former Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons in Albania, under a Lugar-led expansion of the program. In 2007, Lugar announced the complete destruction of Albania’s chemical weapons.

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard now totals 7,551 strategic nuclear warheads deactivated, 785 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed, 498 ICBM silos eliminated, 180 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed, 651 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) eliminated, 476 SLBM launchers eliminated, 32 nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles destroyed, 155 bomber eliminated, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) destroyed, 194 nuclear test tunnels eliminated, 487 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured, upgraded security at 24 nuclear weapons storage sites, built and equipped 20 biological monitoring stations, and neutralized 1444 metric tons of Russian & Albanian chemical weapons agent. Perhaps most importantly, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus are nuclear weapons free as a result of cooperative efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program. Those countries were the third, fourth and eighth largest nuclear weapons powers in the world.

Lugar makes annual oversight trips to Nunn-Lugar sites around the world.

The Nunn-Lugar program: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/scorecard.html

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