Voice your opinion on possible nuclear buildup

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AXEL MEYER Physics professor emeritus, Northern Illinois University

Editor: The Bush administration's plans to overhaul the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex includes a new bomb plant capable of mass-production of nuclear weapons for the first time in two decades (details can be found at http://www.fcnl. org/nuclear/). Reportedly, the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project would be capable of producing 80 plutonium pits annually - the first major nuclear warhead production since the end of the Cold War. As a physicist with nuclear background at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1959-1967, I am deeply concerned that this proposal would further erode the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This plant would send a contradictory message to other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, which we accuse of seeking to build nuclear weapons of their own. While the U.S. is asking others to forgo developing nuclear arsenals, here we are seeking to increase our own capacity to build such weapons! After Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the huge Cold War buildup of nuclear weapons to more than 50,000 in the U.S. and Russia alone (enough to blow up the world several times over), it is mind-boggling that we are now planning to mass-produce more such weapons! Congress defeated the Department of Energy's last attempts to upgrade our nuclear arsenal when it refused to fund the proposed Reliable Replacement Warhead and a large-scale bomb plant last year. The currently proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project is yet another irresponsible new program that Congress should reject. We citizens can oppose the CMRR project by expressing our views directly to the federal government. The Department of Energy is required to consider our recommendations through public hearings held between Feb. 21 and March 25 and through acceptance of public comments until April 10. You can submit comments via e-mail to ComplexTransformation@nnsa/doe/gov. Also, you can write to: Mr. Theodore Wyka Office of Transformation, NA-10.1 U.S. Department of Energy/NNSA 1000 Independence Ave., SW Washington, DC 20585. Let's contact them and Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama on this critical issue. AXEL MEYER Physics professor emeritus, Northern Illinois University