The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program last month eliminated 10 ICBMs and moved four train shipments of nuclear weapons to secure storage sites, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said last week (see GSN, Sept. 18).
Meanwhile, the Senate is set to consider defense authorization and appropriations bills that would provide the CTR program with $434.1 million in the next budget, an amount exceeding the Bush administration's request by $20 million.
Since its creation in 1991 to secure and eliminate weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet states, the Nunn-Lugar initiative has deactivated 7,292 strategic nuclear warheads and destroyed 720 ICBMs, 496 ICBM silos, 131 mobile ICBM launchers, 631 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 456 SLBM launchers, 31 ballistic missile-capable submarines, 155 strategic bombers, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles and 194 nuclear test tunnels.
The program has also secured 399 nuclear weapon train shipments, increased security measures at 17 nuclear weapon storage facilities and built 15 biological agent monitoring stations. It has removed all nuclear weapons from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, nations that once respectively held the world's third, fourth and eighth largest nuclear arsenals.
By sponsoring the International Science and Technology Centers, the Nunn-Lugar program has helped to provide civilian opportunities for 58,000 former weapons scientists. The International Proliferation Prevention Program has involved 14,000 former weapons personnel in 750 projects and established 580 technology-sector positions (U.S. Senator Richard Lugar release, Sept. 16).