NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6564

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From: [e-mail] (Greenpeace via Jym Dyer)
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Subject: FEATURE: Taking Stock of Nuclear Weapons
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Date: 15 Sep 92 05:42:10 GMT
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[Greenpeace Press Release from Environet -- Redistribute Freely]
================================================================
=> Via Environet:
=> 12 September 1992

      Greenpeace Feature: Taking Stock of Nuclear Weapons

         THE NUCLEAR SHUFFLE AT THE END OF THE COLD WAR

     Over the past two years, the U.S. has quietly begun the
largest relocation in three decades of its nuclear weapons
arsenal. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and end of
the Cold War, world attention has focused on the movement and
dismantling of the nuclear arsenals in the former Soviet
republics, while little attention has been paid to the similar
process going on in the United States.

     The end result of the U.S. nuclear shuffle, however, is
significant. Today there are more nuclear weapons on U.S. soil
than there have ever been during any period of our nuclear
history. And more nuclear weapons are on the move than at any
time since the height of the Cold War.

     Under the terms of several arms control and disarmament
agreements between Moscow and Washington, thousands of missile
warheads, bombs and artillery shells dispersed throughout the
United States, as well as those based in seven European
countries, are being consolidated and brought home. This return
to sender move has temporarily swelled the nuclear arsenal based
in the U.S. to 16,200, up from 14,600 during the arsenal's modern
day peak in 1985.

     With the nuclear shift, many stateside military bases are
warehousing more warheads than they have in decades. Still others
are being shut down as the number of weapons being retired and
dismantled also accelerates to record pace.

     These findings are contained in a joint report by Greenpeace
and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The just-
released report represents the most definitive inventory
available of the size, locations, and movements of the U.S.
nuclear arsenal. The report is based upon more that ten years of
work monitoring the nuclear machine, as well as extensive inside
information detailing the post-Cold War movements of nuclear
weapons.

     The Greenpeace/NRDC report, "Taking Stock," concludes that
nuclear weapons are currently stored in 25 states. South
Carolina, the longtime leader in numbers of weapons deployed,
continues to rank number one. There are now 2,258 warheads based
in the Charleston area, an increase of about 300 from 1985. The
number of weapons stored in thirteen other states New Mexico,
North Dakota, Texas, Washington, Louisiana, Michigan, Virginia,
Wyoming, South Dakota, Nevada, Kansas, Florida, and New Jersey
has also increased since 1985. This despite a 25 percent decrease
in the overall size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which currently
stands at some 19,000 warheads.

     With the nuclear moves of the past years, the number of
storage sites has decreased from 164 to 50. Greater and greater
numbers of nuclear weapons are being kept at a few large depots
as a result of the shifts. These include three run by the air
force, nine by the navy, and two by the army.

     Many of the vintage weapons are piled-up awaiting shipment
to Texas where they will be finally disassembled at the Energy
Department's Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas. This October,
Pantex is scheduled to shift to a dismantling schedule of 2,000
warheads per year, or an average of seven per day.

     Texas is clearly the long-term loser in this nuclear chess
game. Pantex, the country's only nuclear disposal site, not only
is the retirement home for the Cold War nuclear warheads, but it
is also slated to become the dumping ground for tens of tons of
plutonium recovered from dismantled warheads. By the end of the
decade, some 15,000-16,000 "pits" -- the plutonium cores of
retired weapons -- will be stocked in Amarillo.

     At present, 85 percent of the U.S. nuclear stockpile is
based domestically, and 10 percent is at sea abroad ballistic
missile submarines. The remaining five percent of the arsenal is
still located overseas in seven European countries Belgium,
Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, and Britain.

     In contrast, a decade ago 30 percent of U.S. atomic weapons
were based overseas in 13 foreign countries. And nuclear storage
homes previously included the Philippine, Guam, Spain and South
Korea. The largest number of nuclear weapons have been withdrawn
from Germany, which formerly housed half the U.S. overseas
arsenal. Over 100 storage sites have been closed in West Germany,
leaving just five today.

     Two states, New Hampshire and Arizona, are now out of the
nuclear weapons business. In the coming years, nuclear storage
sites in Alaska, California, Florida, Maine, New York, and New
Jersey will also close. Still, by the year 2000, 17 states will
continue to house nuclear stocks.

     Since 1945, the U.S. has produced nearly 70,000 nuclear
weapons, of which more than 50,000 have been retired and
disassembled. Of the nearly 19,000 warheads in today's stockpile,
11,500 are in active service and 7,500 await dismantlement. The
number of weapons in the U.S. arsenal is expected to further
decline to about 5,400 by the end of the century. This equals
only about one-sixth the size of the stockpile's historic high of
32,000 reached in 1967.

     These unprecedented shifts in the nuclear arsenal have
broken the normal rhythm of U.S. nuclear practice which
characterized the postwar era. No new warheads are being produced
and fielded, and none are in the pipeline for the foreseeable
future. The U.S. armed forces, having proved through the Gulf War
that modern wars can be won without nuclear warheads, is slowly
abandoning its former infatuation with atomic weapons.

     The end result will clearly be positive: the U.S. will have
a smaller, safer and more easily maintained nuclear force.
But nuclear disarmament is not in the cards. Many nuclear
policymakers are urging that the number of strategic nuclear
weapons not go below the 3,000 level. The same nuclear advocates
want atomic weapons to remain in Europe despite the disappearance
of any Russian military threat. There are also no plans to
eliminate over 1,000 nuclear weapons earmarked for fighting
nuclear wars around the globe.

     The current unprecedented movement of weapons by air, sea,
rail and road poses a number of risks. It is, of course, during
transport that nuclear weapons are exposed to the greatest
possibility of accidents. But more important, under the veil of
secrecy, nuclear stocks are shifting and piling up under the
noses of local communities that have no information by which to
assess the risks, nor to plan for possible disasters, should they
occur. Secrecy persists, despite the end to the Cold War and the
fact that deployment locations are well known to nuclear
specialists. The only people in the dark are the American people.
Some things never change.


     Greenpeace Feature Service. Written by William M. Arkin,
Director of Military Research for Greenpeace International. For a
copy of "Taking Stock: U.S. Nuclear Deployments at the End of the
Cold War" by Arkin and Robert S. Norris, send $5.00 to
Greenpeace, 1436 U Street, NW, Dept. TS, Washington, D.C. 20009

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