From the Office of Utah Congressman Jim Matheson

MATHESON NEWS
Second Congressional District

For Further Information
Alyson Heyrend: (801) 455-5593 (cell)
www.house.gov/matheson

November 29, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Matheson: Study Further Calls into Question Need for New Nukes

Salt Lake City, UT-Congressman Jim Matheson said today that studies released by the National Nuclear Security Administration further support his contention that proposals to design and build new nuclear weapons aren't needed and are a waste of precious defense dollars.

The classified studies were done for the NNSA and have been underway for five years.  They looked at the properties of plutonium pits-used for all U.S. nuclear weapons-and gave specific information on how they age over time.  The conclusion almost doubles the previous estimates of the time plutonium remains potent as a weapons fuel---to 90 years at a minimum and perhaps much longer.

The studies were peer reviewed by an independent scientific panel of nuclear weapons experts and nuclear physicists, as mandated by Congress in the fiscal year 2005 Defense Authorization bill.

"The results of this study raise significant doubts about the administration's argument for manufacturing a new generation of nuclear warheads.  As long as our nuclear stockpile remains secure and reliable, why waste money on designing new warheads that have dubious value to our military and take us down the path to renewed nuclear weapons testing?" Matheson asked.  "Our focus should be meeting the legitimate security needs of our country, in a way that is fiscally responsible, not job creation programs for our nuclear weapons labs."

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Alyson Heyrend
Communications Director
240 East Morris Ave. #235
South Salt Lake, UT 84115
(801) 486-1236 (phone)
(801) 455-5593 (cell)
(801) 486-1417 (fax)