U.S. Releasing Nuclear Data on Its Arsenal

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/world/03weapons.html?ref=us

U.S. Releasing Nuclear Data on Its Arsenal
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: May 2, 2010


WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Monday will release long-classified statistics about the total size of America’s nuclear arsenal, part of an effort to make the case that the country is honoring its treaty commitments to shrink its inventory of weapons significantly, senior administration officials said Sunday.

The American initiative will be cast by the White House as a small but significant step toward allowing the world to measure whether President Obama makes good on his promise of reducing American reliance on nuclear defenses. The commitment to make the figures public will be included in a speech that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver at the opening of a United Nations conference reviewing progress on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Mrs. Clinton will also announce new funds for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

For years, American intelligence officials have objected to publishing quantitative descriptions of the American nuclear arsenal, concerned that the figures might help terrorist groups calculate the minimum nuclear fuel needed for a weapon. But administration officials said reputable Web sites that track such issues have long noted that American weapons designers need an average of around 4 kilograms of plutonium, or 8.8 pounds.

“It became clear there was a way to get the transparency without revealing any state secrets,” a senior administration official said, declining to speak on the record because the numbers had not yet been declassified.

The numbers will combine three categories of weapons: deployed, in “active reserve” and in inactive storage. They exclude weapons designated for decommissioning. The United States and Russia have already revealed the number of deployed strategic weapons they possess. Britain and France have recently revealed details of their stockpiles. China has said little. India, Pakistan and Israel — which have all refused to sign the treaty — have not revealed numbers.

[Clio the Leo]

1. A symbolic yet VERY important move. NT