For immediate release
May 15, 1997
For further information, contact Jeremy J. Stone (202) 546-3300
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), founded by original atomic scientists in 1945,
released today a historic letter to the President from the senior living atomic scientist of World
War II, Hans Bethe, urging a halt to the funding of nuclear research into new categories of
nuclear weapons such as pure-fusion bombs. The Administration is now reviewing what research
will be permitted under the signed but unratified Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Nobel Prize winner Hans Bethe, who led the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos during World
War II, was the right hand man of Robert Oppenheimer in the construction of the first atomic
bomb. Bethe did not oppose research into the possibility of a hydrogen bomb, which some feared
might trump the atomic bomb.
But pure-fusion bombs or neutron bombs without fission triggers would not, even if invented by
others, threaten the retaliatory capability of our existing nuclear arsenal. Such weapons could
only be of important use to proliferators (who could avoid the need for fissionable material) or
terrorists.
Accordingly, Bethe advised President Clinton that the taxpayers ought not pay for physical
experiments, computational experiments "or even creative thought designed to produce new
categories of nuclear weapons". He noted that the Stockpile Stewardship Program--which he
supports--did not require such research.
Frank von Hippel, Chairman of the FAS Fund, asserted that these dangerous possibilities for
future military research could not be kept out of the Senate debate over the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty. For example, just last week, a former Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy
Commission, quoted the IAEA Daily Press Review of June 6, 1994, referring to a mini-neutron
bomb, and saying: "Russian Nuclear Energy Minister Mikhailov says that a new generation of
nuclear weapons could be developed by the year 2000 unless military nuclear research is
stopped." And, last year, in the May 15, 1996 Wall Street Journal Sam Cohen wrote about "The
Coming Neutron Bomb Threat."
FAS President Jeremy J. Stone said that this letter was "twice historic, a reverse replay of the
famous episode in which Albert Einstein wrote President Roosevelt about the possibility of an
atomic weapon and, in addition, a highly unusual call on Government not to fund even creative
thought for what amounts to new categories of weapons of mass destruction." The Federation
released, at the same time, a five page background paper written by Frank von Hippel providing
technical background.
New York Times article about Hans Bethe by Bill Broad (from the Congressional Record)
For Background by von Hippel, click here
To FAS home page, click here