The new nuclear arms race

As the news in December showed, we are embarked on a new nuclear arms race. Early that month, the U.S. unveiled the B21 Raider nuclear stealth bomber, our first new bomber in 30 years. Later in the month

Congress passed, and the president signed, a budget to get us through the end of the fiscal year ending in September 2023. It comprises $858 billion ($858,000,000,000) for military spending and $772 billion for domestic programs.

As part of the weapons build- up, $1.6 billion of the military budget will go to Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) in New Mexico for the production of plutonium pits, the triggers in nuclear bombs. This is nine times the amount that was allocated for this project three years ago. The stated goal is for LANL to produce 30 pits a year by 2026, thereby helping to replace the plutonium pit factory that closed 30 years ago at Rocky Flats, Colo. At the same time, an additional 50 pits a year are supposed to be produced at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, making the total pit production 80 a year. Senator Elizabeth Warren shared

in a Senate hearing last spring that we are wasting billions of dollars in pursuit of an unattainable goal. It is unclear how much expanded pit production will cost — estimates keep rising. We have already spent billions. Plans for modernizing our nuclear weapons system call for $630 billion over the next 10 years. She finds this trajectory dangerous and unsustainable.

Work has already begun at Los Alamos. A new industrial-scale plant is being built for the production of the pits. To accommodate increased traffic of nuclear materials, the one road that leads to Los Alamos from the north/ south arteries that connect the state to other parts of the country is being widened. Technicians, security forces, facillity operators, engineers and others — 2,500 new workers — are being hired. New housing developments are rising to accommodate some of these workers.

We are earnestly engaging in a nuclear arms race, the insanity of which has not been impressed upon the American public, nor on our politicians of either party. Although we already have a stockpile of 3,700 nuclear warheads, our military has warned us that China will have 1,500 by 2035. As was noted many years ago, a nuclear war can never be won and should never be fought. Even Putin appears to recognize this, as he has so far resisted using a nuclear weapon. The more nuclear weapons there are, the likelier it is they will be used. Their existence only increases the distrust and the fear that countries have for each other. Also, nuclear weapons can be used for blackmail, as Putin is attempting to do. They could be used by terrorists; they could be used accidentally, which in the past has nearly happened. Their presence is actually a threat to our security.

Loretto needs to witness again, as it did decades ago, that nuclear weapons must be abolished. No new plutonium pits should be built at LANL, at Savannah River or anywhere else in the U.S. Contact the president and your members of congress about your displeasure with the new military buildup and budget, including the augmentation of our nuclear arsenal.