| Secretary of Energy, lab director,
express confidence in program
Stockpile Stewardship was the focus of the first week of hearings on the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Secretary of Energy Federico Peña underscored
the value of the Stockpile Stewardship program in testimony today. He
said, “...I have visited each of the Department’s three weapons laboratories,
and have personally engaged each of the weapons laboratory directors in discussions
about the strength and adequacy of Stockpile Stewardship. I have also met with other
experts both within and outside of the Department, and I am pleased to report that
there is a strong consensus that Stockpile Stewardship is the right program to address
the challenges of maintaining our nuclear deterrent without underground nuclear
testing.... We can enter into the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty with confidence
that the safety and reliability of our nuclear deterrent can be maintained.”
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Secretary Peña, commenting on the annual certification process to assure that
the stockpile remains safe and reliable said, “I have spoken to each of the weapons
laboratory directors, and the Commander in Chief of Strategic Command to ensure that they are confident in
their assessment -- and they are -- of the safety and reliability of the stockpile.”
Bruce Tarter, Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in a
written statement
provided to a committee earlier this week, said he was “quite optimistic” that the
program will enable the United States to maintain confidence in the stockpile.
The lab director wrote, “My responsibility is to assure the President that nuclear
weapons in the enduring U.S. arsenal remain safe and reliable. To date I have been
able to provide such assurances with confidence even though we last conducted a nuclear
test in 1992.”
He continued, “The [Stockpile Stewardship program] is making use of -- and in some
cases driving -- tremendous advances in technology. We are rapidly advancing the state
of the art in supercomputing and we are
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