Update on the Nuclear Arms Race: What you can do to end it and make the US and the world more secure

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• Update on the Nuclear Arms Race What you can do
  to end it and make the US and the world more
  secure

Hiroshima Nagasaki Day Memorial Service August
9, 2009 Jimmy Spearow, Ph.D. Representing Sacrame
nto Physicians for Social Responsibility www.sacp
sr.org
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"Little Boy" 235 Uranium Bomb Yield 13,000
tons (13 Kiloton) TNT Dropped on Hiroshima
140,000 Civilian Deaths
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Fat Man 239Plutonium Bomb Yield 20,000 tons
(20 Kilotons) TNT
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Burn and Radiation Injuries
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Medical Effects of Nuclear Weapons

• Mortality from Fireball and Thermal Wave
• Acute Radiation Exposure
• Radioactive Fallout
• Immune suppression, Epidemics of Infectious
  Disease
• Blast Wave
• Electromagnetic Pulse Damage
• Societal Collapse, Economic and Environmental
  Costs
• Nuclear Winter
• WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION TERROR

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Medical Effects of Nuclear Weapons

• Mortality from Fireball and Thermal Wave
• Acute Radiation Exposure
• Radioactive Fallout
• Immune suppression, Epidemics of Infectious
  Disease
• Blast Wave
• Electromagnetic Pulse Damage
• Societal Collapse, Economic and Environmental
  Costs
• Nuclear Winter
• WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION TERROR

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Lethal Nuclear Weapon Effects

• Effects of 12-20 Kiloton 500
  Kiloton
• Blast
• Thermal Direct 1-2 Mile 5-6
  Mile
• Radiation Effects Radius
  Radius
• Radioactive Fallout 5-15 Miles
  100 Miles
• (Ground burst)
• Number of deaths gt100,000
  Hundreds of
• from attacking
  Thousands
• a major city
  

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A Nuclear War between US and Russia is likely to
result in 10-100 Million immediate Deaths on
each sidePrevention of Nuclear War needs to
have a high Priority
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Factors Driving the Nuclear and Conventional Arms
Race
Nationalism
Develop Weapons
Military
Industrial Complex
Insecurity Perceived Military Threats Nation
"A"
Perceived Military Threats
Insecurity Military Industrial Complex
Develop Weapons
Nationalism Nation "B"
Nuclear proliferation increases threats
Conflicts over resources or ideologies
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US/Russian Strategic Nuclear Weapons
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US/Russian Strategic Nuclear Weapons
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New Way of Thinking Arms Control and Conflict
Resolution can promote Mutual Security and Peace
Increased Security
Improved Domestic
Foreign Aid
Services Goodwill Desire to help others
Arms Treaties and
Disarmament Nation "B"
Arms Treaties and Disarmament
Goodwill Desire to help others

Improved Domestic
Foreign Aid
Services Increased Security Nation "A"
Conflict Resolution, Cooperation Mutual
Security
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www.teachpeace.com
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• Threats of Nuclear War
• Major Nuclear Powers
• US, Russia, China, Great Britain, France
• Militarization of Space, False Warnings Fear of
  Preemptive First Strikes ? Increased Risks
  Nuclear War
• Nuclear Proliferation by other Nations
• India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran? ?
• Escalation of Conventional War-gt Nuclear War
• Nuclear Terrorism by Non-State Actors
• Stolen or Smuggled Nuclear / Radiological
  Weapon

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Arms Control Treaties

• Limited Test Ban Treaty
• Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty
• Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
• Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty
• Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I)
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II)
• Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I)
• Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II (START II)

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Bush- Putin Agreement
START II
START III
START I
6,000
3,500
2,500
In Storage
In Storage
In Storage
1991 1993
Abandoned 2002
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George W. Bush Administration
Counterforce Nuclear Weapons Policy

• 2001 Bush-Putin circumvented START III
• 2001 Opposed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
• 2001 Withdrew from ABM Treaty
• 2002 Nuclear Posture Review--gt First Strike
  Policy
• 2002 Pushed to develop Bunker Buster
  Mini-Nukes
• 2002 Declared Iraqi WMD a threat to US security
• 2003 Invasion Occupation of Iraq.
• 2004 Deployed Missile Defense System
• 2007 Pushed to upgrade US nuclear bomb
  manufacturing plants (Complex 2030 Reliable
  Replacement Warheads)
• 2007 Pushed to deploy Missile Interceptors in
  Europe
• 2008 Abandoned negotiations on successor to
  START

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• President George W. Bush Military Policies
• 1) Disavowing Arms Control Treaties
• 2) Threatening Nuclear Conventional First
  Strikes
• 3) US Ballistic Missile Defense Militarization
  of Space
• 4) Using US military to garner and control world
  resources (Oil) (Economic Imperialism)
• These policies were very destabilizing, likely
  to
• Create Animosity toward the US
• Renew destabilize the Arms Race
• Increase Long-term Chances of Nuclear War

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• Opportunities for Nuclear Disarmament
• January 2007 - George Schultz, Henry Kissinger,
  William Perry and Sam Nunn Called to promote a
  world Free of Nuclear Weapons.
• Now is the time to push for nuclear disarmament
  by treaty negotiations.

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Change in Nuclear Weapons Policy

• President Barack Obama declared in Prague April
  2009 that the United States will
• "take concrete steps toward a world without
  nuclear weapons."

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President Obamas Nuclear Arms
Control Agenda

• President Obama negotiating a successor to
  Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with
  Russian President Medvemed
• Reduce number of US and Russian strategic Nuclear
  Weapons by one third.
• Contention over Ballistic Missile Defenses in
  Europe
• Russian concerns missile interceptors could be
  used to block Russian retaliation after a US
  pre-emptive first strike
• US Senate opposed to any concessions on BMD
• Urge Congress to Support and Ratify this Nuclear
  Arms Control Treaty.

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President Obama Supports Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty (CTBT)

• Bans the detonation of any nuclear bombs.
• Agreed to by 41 of 44 nuclear states, ratified by
  31
• 1999 Without hearings, ratification failed in
  US Senate 48- 51
• 2001 Bush withdraws from CTBT
• 2009 Obama Supports CTBT
• Urge Congress to Ratify CTBT

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Non-Proliferation Treaty

• Seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons
  and weapons technology
• In exchange for non-nuclear nations agreeing to
  not develop Nuclear weapons, Nuclear nations
  agreed to 1) Not target non-nuclear nations 2)
  Decrease the number of nuclear weapons and 3)
  Eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.
• President Obama Supports Strengthening
  Non-Proliferation Treaty and
• Taking nuclear weapons off Hair Trigger Launch

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• Unsolved Problems with Nuclear Power Waste
• Yucca Flats Nuclear Waste Depository on hold
• Bush Administrations Global Nuclear Energy
  Partnership
• -Reprocesses Nuclear Power waste to purify
  plutonium and Uranium - Domestically and
  Globally
• -Increases stockpiles of weapons-usable
  plutonium
• Nuclear Power Plant ? Reprocess ? Plutonium ?
  Warheads
• Major Nuclear Proliferation
  Risk
• -Reprocessing increases volume of radioactive
  waste
• ? Increased exposure to radioactivity
• PSR Urges President Obama and Congress to abandon
  nuclear waste reprocessing.

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Which Nuclear Weapons Policy will we
choose?
Deterrence

Counterforce
Mutually Assured Destruction
Or Non-Proliferation and Multilateral Nuclear
Disarmament
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The Future is in our Hands ! PSR Urges you to
support President Obamas Disarmament and
Non-Proliferation Treaty Efforts
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Other Sources of Information
Physicians for Social Responsibility http//www.ps
r.org Sacramento PSR http//www.sacpsr.org Nu
clear Age Peace Foundation http//www.wagingpeace.
org/ Teach Peace Foundation
http//www.teachpeace.com
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Summary

• PSR Urges you to contact your congressional
  representatives and request that they support and
  ratify President Obamas nuclear arms control
  efforts including
• A successor to Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
  (START)
• Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
• Strengthening Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Taking nuclear weapons off Hair Trigger Launch
• However, PSR Urges President Obama and Congress
  to abandon nuclear waste reprocessing.

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THE END
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Extra Slides for question and answer period
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Attack on Nuclear Power Plant anticipated to be
the Worst Nuclear Disaster
Anticipated Fallout from Bombing a Nuclear
Power plant Fetter Tsipis Scientific
American April 1981
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Unprecedented Public Health Disaster
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Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

• Negotiated with the former Soviet Union during
  the Cold War.
• Forbids testing and deployment of Sea, Space or
  Mobile ballistic missile defense systems.
• ABM Treaty is important While ABM system may
  shoot down rogue missiles, it can also be very
  destabilizing especially if coupled with first
  strike weapons.
• 2001 Bush administration announces US withdrawal
  from ABM treaty.
• 2004 Russia Develops Topol-M Crazy Ivan ICBM
• 2007 US plans to deploy ABM in Eastern Europe

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Factors Driving the Nuclear Conventional Arms
Race
Nationalism
Develop Weapons
Military
Industrial Complex
Insecurity Perceived Military
Threats Nation "A"
Perceived Military Threats
Insecurity Military Industrial Complex
Develop Weapons
Nationalism Nation "B"
Conflicts over Resources or Ideologies
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President Obamas Nuclear Arms
Control Agenda

• President Obama negotiating a successor to
  Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with
  Russian President Medvemed-
• Reduce US and Russian strategic Nuclear Weapons
  by 1/3
• Contention over US Ballistic Missile Defenses in
  Europe
• Russian concerns- missile interceptors could be
  used to block Russian retaliation after a US
  pre-emptive first strike
• US Senate opposed to any concessions on BMD
• President Obama Supports Comprehensive Test Ban
  Treaty
• Ratification narrowly failed in 1999
• President Obama Supports Strengthening
  Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Supports taking nuclear weapons off Hair Trigger
  Launch
• Urge Congress to Support and Ratify President
  Obamas Nuclear Arms Control Treaties.