Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 3. maj 2010
/ Time Line May 3, 2010
Version 3.0
2. Maj 2010, 4. Maj 2010
05/03/2010
Fransk massakre i Madrid, 1809.
05/03/2010
U.S. Declassifies Nuclear Stockpile
Details to Promote Transparency
By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2010 - The United States released newly
declassified details about its nuclear stockpile today, including
significant progress made in dismantling warheads, in an effort to
promote transparency and help stem nuclear proliferation.
The United States had 5,113 warheads in its nuclear weapons
stockpile as of Sept. 30, a senior defense official told reporters
today on background.
That represents an 84 percent reduction from the end of fiscal
1967, when the U.S. nuclear arsenal was its largest, with 31,255
warheads, the official said. The current stockpile is 75 percent
lower than when the Berlin Wall fell in late 1989, and the United
States had 22,217 warheads.
The United States is making continued progress in dismantling
nuclear warheads: with 8,748 dismantled between fiscal years 1994
and 2009 and several thousand more currently retired and awaiting
dismantlement, the official noted. Meanwhile, the number of
non-strategic nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal dropped about 90
percent from Sept. 30, 1991, to Sept. 30, 2009.
"For those who doubt that the United States will do its part on
disarmament, this is our record, these are our commitments,"
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the U.N. conference
on the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty today in New York. "And they
send a clear, unmistakable message." A senior defense official
expressed hope that it would set a standard for the rest of the
world, including China, to be more transparent about their nuclear
weapons programs.
Clinton said the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia,
once approved, will further limit the number of strategic nuclear
weapons deployed by both countries to levels not seen since the
1950s.
Clinton also noted that the new Nuclear Posture Review, released in
April, rules out the development of new U.S. nuclear weapons and
new missions and capabilities for existing weapons. It also
prohibits the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons
states that are parties to the NPT and comply with its
nonproliferation obligations.
President Barack
Obama has made reducing the threat posed by nuclear weapons and
nuclear materials a central mission of U.S. foreign policy, Clinton
told the conference.
"I represent a president and a country committed to a vision of a
world without nuclear weapons, and to taking the concrete steps
necessary that will help us get there," she said. "And, along with
my delegation, I come to this conference with sincere and serous
proposals to advance the fundamental aims of the NPT and strengthen
the global nonproliferation regime."
Although most nations live up to their nonproliferation
responsibilities, Clinton said Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions put
the entire world at risk and urged the international community to
hold it accountable.
She called out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for spewing
"the same tired, false and sometimes wild accusations" against the
United States and other nations during his address to the assembly
earlier today. "Iran will do whatever it can to divert attention
away from its own record and ... attempt to evade accountability,"
she said.
Clinton urged Iran to join with other countries represented at the
conference to "fulfill our international obligations and work
toward the goal of a safer world."
"When President Obama came into office, he recognized that the
greatest potential danger facing the United States comes from a
terrorist group like al-Qaida obtaining a crude nuclear device, not
from a global nuclear war," she said. "The threats of the 21st
century cannot be addressed with a massive nuclear stockpile. So we
are taking irreversible, transparent, verifiable steps to reduce
the number of nuclear weapons in our arsenal."
But in the meantime, Clinton emphasized that the United States
won't eliminate all its nuclear weapons until it's safe to do so.
"The United States will maintain a nuclear deterrent for as long as
nuclear weapons exist, one that can protect our country and our
allies," she said.
The U.S. nuclear stockpile includes both active and inactive
warheads, defense officials explained. Active warheads include
strategic and non-strategic weapons maintained in an operational,
ready-for-use configuration, warheads that must be ready for
possible deployment within a short timeframe, and logistics
spares.
Inactive warheads are maintained in a non-operational status at
depots, and have their tritium bottles removed.
05/03/2010
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