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The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program is a 1991 U.S. law sponsored by Senators Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn. The program provided funding and expertise for former Soviet states including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan and Belarus to decommission nuclear weapons, as agreed by the Soviet Union under disarmament treaties such as SALT II. Under the scrutiny of American contractors, nuclear warheads would be removed from their delivery vehicles, then decommissioned or stockpiled at designated sites in Russia. The bill's philosophy is widely summarized in the biblical phrase swords into ploughshares.
Outcome
Weapons deactivated and destroyed under this program include:
- 6,312 nuclear warheads
- 537 ICBMs
- 459 ICBM silos
- 11 ICBM mobile missile launchers
- 128 bombers
- 708 nuclear air-to-surface missiles
- 408 submarine missile launchers
- 496 submarine launched missiles
- 27 nuclear submarines
- 194 nuclear test tunnels
Other milestone results:
- 260 tons of fissile material received security upgrades
- 60 nuclear warhead storage sites received security upgrades
- 208 metric tons of Highly Enriched Uranium were blended down to Low Enriched Uranium
- 35 percent of Russian chemical weapons received security upgrades
- 49 former biological weapons facilities were converted to joint U.S.-Russian research
- 4 biological weapons sites received security improvements
- 58,000 former weapons scientists employed in peaceful work through International Science and Technology Centers (of which the U.S. is the leading sponsor)
- 750 projects involving 14,000 former weapons scientists and created some 580 new peaceful high-tech jobs; The International Proliferation Prevention Program has funded
- Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakstan are nuclear weapons free
Problems and Politics
The bill's implementation was carefully followed by its sponsors to ensure effectiveness; Nunn left Congress but now heads the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private organization concerned with nuclear proliferation issues.
Opponents have worried about costs, whether the bill is a Defense Department welfare program, whether monies could be better spent on U.S. warfighting capability including weapons and troops, and suspicion of Russia.
Russian Initiatives
Volunteers within the Russian social activist network translate or edit English translations of articles on decommissioning, though Western media give it scant attention.
One Nunn-Lugar site, Pavlograd has dedicated itself beginning in June 2004 to the decommissioning of nuclear missiles without burning their solid rocket fuel, thus preventing dioxins from threatening the local environment and human population. The Pavlograd missile factory PMZ has converted to an advanced astronautics "Space Clipper" program.
External links
- Richard Green Lugar (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Richard_G._Lugar) at WordIQ.com
- Samuel Augustus Nunn (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Sam_Nunn) at WordIQ.com
- Space Clipper (http://www.fas.org/spp/guide/ukraine/launch/rs22.htm) at Federation of American Scientists, Space Policy Project, World Space Guide
Source: based on information found at Senator Richard G. Lugar's website on the Nunn-Lugar Program [1] (http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar.html).
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