Steps to Safety: Reducing the Danger of

Nuclear Weapons

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Hiroshima

before and after the Little Boy bomb hit

Nuclear Terrorism – Manhattan

• 52,000 people die immediately

• 238,000 people exposed to direct radiation

• 1.5 million affected by radioactive fallout

Nuclear Terrorism

• 2,170 metric tons of nuclear bomb making material in poorly guarded facilities

• Bomb making knowledge widely available

• Extremists have sought a nuclear bomb materials

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Nuclear War in South Asia

A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could lead to:

– 20 million deaths in major cities in India and Pakistan

– Radioactive contamination throughout the region

– Global climate disruption from smoke and soot

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Nuclear Winter in the World

• Nuclear explosions ignite fires that burn whole cities

• Soot lofted high into the atmosphere absorbs incoming sunlight

• Global “cooling” leads to shorter growing seasons—less rainfall

• Famine and disease spread globally

Global Death Toll from Starvation: > 1 billion6

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British & French nuclear submarines collide in Atlantic

Image: HMS Vanguard, which is believed to have been involved in an underwater collision with a

French submarine 8

February 3, 2009

• nuclear weapons poised on high alert:• Britain & France

have ~584• US & Russia have

>20,000

• even state-of-the-art technology can fail

Nuclear Weapons on High Alert:An Accident Waiting to Happen?

• High alert Nuclear Weapons can go off in just 2 to 3 minutes

• Accidental nuclear launch is possible

• De-alert nuclear weapons to provide more decision time

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Nuclear Reductions with Russia

• Massive stockpiles make us less safe

• US and Russia have 90% of nuclear weapons worldwide

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Reduce Nuclear Arsenals

• April 1, 2009, US and Russian Presidents agree to new nuclear weapon reductions treaty.

What’s needed?• A new treaty that gets each nation verifiably

down to 1,000 nuclear weapons• A decrease in US-Russian arsenals would devalue nuclear weapons globally

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• A global ban on nuclear testing

• Prevents development of nuclear weapons

• Safe and realistic step to reduce nuclear risk

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Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty(CTBT)

three types of nuclear testing

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

• 148 nations have signed and ratified this important treaty

• For the Treaty to be implemented, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States must ratify

• The United States has signed this Treaty, but ratification will take a 2/3rd vote in the U.S. Senate

• U.S. ratification will lead other states to ratify

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Monitoring Sites Worldwide

The CTBT is more important than ever to strengthen international support for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Today Republicans and Democrats agree :

• President Obama said he aimed to "immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty."

• Former Secretary of State for President Ronald Reagan, George P. Shultz, “it detected the North Korean nuclear test" and although his fellow Republicans "might have been right voting against it some years ago…they would be right voting for it now.”

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Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Bipartisan Support for CTBTand a Nuclear Weapons Free World

Kissinger, Shultz, Perry, Nunn Renew Vision of Nuclear Free World

A Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

“A world free of nuclear weapons is a world in which the possibility oftheir use no longer exists.”

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“Concerning President Obama's commitment to the removal of nuclear

weapons from the Earth, I certainly support that ambitious goal.”

McCain, April 2009 Press Conference

Cost of Nuclear Weapons

In 2008, US spent

$52.4 billion

on nuclear weapons-related programs

(14X the amount spent on developing new sources of energy)

18Source: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Steps to Safety

• Take Nuclear Weapons off of High Alert

• Reduce U.S./Russian Nuclear Arsenals to 1000, as first step to deeper reductions on way to global elimination

• Ratify the CTBT

• Secure all “loose” nuclear material in 4 years

• Negotiate a ban on production of nuclear weapon (fissile) material

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Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC)

• NWC is a proposed treaty to ban nuclear weapons by:– prohibiting nuclear weapons

• development• production• testing• stockpiling• transfer• use• threat of use

– banning production of fissile material– requiring destruction of nuclear

weapons in stages– placing fissile material under UN

control

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Advocate for a Safer World Call your Senators and ask them where

they stand on CTBTCapital Switchboard: 202-224-3121

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