|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Arms Destruction Progresses in Former Soviet States Despite Challenges in Russia, Officials Say By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — Although U.S. efforts to secure and destroy weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet states have made progress, serious challenges to success persist in Russia, two Bush administration officials told a congressional committee yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 18). In the past year, the Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program produced a “real reduction in the threat posed by former Soviet weapons of mass destruction to the United States and its allies,” Lisa Bronson, deputy undersecretary of defense for technology security policy and counterproliferation, said in prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. Bronson said those efforts included: the completion of a fissile material storage facility at Mayak, Russia last December; the initiation of designs for security upgrades for six decommissioned nuclear warhead storage sites; the destruction of rail-mobile ICBM launchers and missiles beginning last May (see GSN, Feb. 11); the delivery last fall of basic equipment to security forces at 60 storage sites; and the December commissioning of security systems at two chemical weapons storage sites. Energy Department efforts marked progress as well, including a program for training foreign port authorities to detect nuclear smuggling and securing naval and land nuclear weapons sites in Russia, said Paul Longsworth, deputy administrator of defense nuclear nonproliferation at the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, in his prepared testimony. The department has also accelerated efforts to secure 600 tons of nuclear weapons-usable material at 50 sites across Russia, he said. Despite these successes, Longsworth said that liability issues, transparency, access, and problems with concluding contracts and agreements “will remain challenges in the years ahead” for U.S.-assisted programs. Plans for construction of U.S. and Russian facilities to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium are stalled (see GSN, Oct. 10, 2003), as the United States presses Russian authorities to grant full liability protections for Americans who will work there and elsewhere (see GSN, Oct. 17, 2003). Bronson noted similar issues, focusing on Russian credibility for following through on projects. Furthermore, she said the program faces challenges specific to securing Russian biological weapons materials. “We continue to be concerned with Russia’s compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention,” she said, and expressed concern about the solvency of some Russian laboratories. Bronson said Russia has not provided a sample of its genetically altered anthrax strain, and said an “efficient legal architecture” for assistance in Russia is needed. Bronson said that following a recent review, the Pentagon program has implemented measures, including risk reviews of prospective programs and sometimes-legal requirements for Russian implementation, to reduce the possibility of program failure. She said the program also is opening more overseas offices for better on-site management. “If risk cannot be mitigated, the project will not be pursued,” she said. Bronson addressed criticisms that such measures have slowed the pace of cooperative threat reduction activities (see GSN, Jan. 13). “Our judgment is that this results in a better program,” she said. The Pentagon also reviewed individual threat reduction activities to ensure they work toward administration goals for its global war on terrorism, she said. An estimated $185 million worth of activities will be turned over to Russian responsibility, with an additional aim of increasing Russia’s stake in their success, she said. Bronson defended the Bush administration’s decision to ask for slightly less funding for the Pentagon program in fiscal 2005 than for the previous year, a drop from $450 million to $409 million, saying that did not indicate a decrease in importance attached to the overall effort (see GSN, Feb. 11). She said Bush is committed to fulfilling a 2002 promise to spend $10 billion over 10 years on the programs. Bronson said many capital-intensive projects are reaching completion, in particular the construction of a major chemical weapons destruction facility, and newer projects are expected to be less capital intensive. “The aggregate FY 2005 request belies the number of important new projects that will move forward without large capital infrastructure investments,” she said. Critics, including lead Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, have charged that those amounts indicate a lack of sufficient commitment, saying the administration should be spending at least $30 billion for the Defense and Energy programs over 10 years as recommended by a bipartisan commission.
| ||||||||||
Back to top
