Lab Directors affirm: Nuclear deterrent secure under CTBT
President visits weapons lab, assured of stockpile's continued safety, reliability President Clinton visited Los Alamos National Laboratory Tuesday to highlight the importance of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty pending before the Senate. Secretary of Energy Federico Peña accompanied the President as the Directors of the nation's weapons laboratories -- Dr. John Browne of Los Alamos, Dr. Paul Robinson of Sandia and Dr. Bruce Tarter of Lawrence Livermore -- affirmed, "We are confident that the Stockpile Stewardship program will enable us to maintain America's nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing." The President, after reviewing laboratory operations, spoke to the community of Los Alamos, New Mexico. His remarks are excerpted: "Last fall, I sent the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty to the Senate for its advice and consent. In my State of the Union address last week, I asked the Senate to approve that Treaty		this year. By banning all nuclear tests for all time, we open a new era of security for America. "At the same time, our national security requires that we maintain a nuclear arsenal strong enough to deter any adversary and safe enough to retain the confidence of our military leaders, our political leaders and the American people. "Five years ago, I directed the development of the Stockpile Stewardship program to maintain our nuclear arsenal through science. The program is an essential safeguard to accompany the ... Treaty. Now, by combining past nuclear data with the high-tech simulations that computers like those here at Los Alamos make possible, we are keeping the arsenals safe, reliable and effective. And we're doing it without detonating a single explosion. "[The Directors of our national labs] confirmed that we can meet the challenge of maintaining a nuclear deterrent under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty through the Stockpile Stewardship Program. This Test Ban Treaty is good for America's security. Already, four former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ... have endorsed it. ... General Shelton, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Habiger, the

Commander-in-Chief of our Strategic Command, have both given the treaty their full support. This is in America's interests. "Five years ago, I extended the moratorium on testing passed by Congress in 1992. The Test Ban Treaty will hold other nations to the same standard we already observe. "We are confident that the Stockpile Stewardship program will enable us to maintain America's nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing." Nuclear Weapons Laboratory Directors

"It will also make it more difficult for states that don't now have nuclear weapons to develop them, because without testing there's no way for them to know whether a new weapon will work.... The treaty will also put in place an extensive global network of monitoring stations to detect and deter nuclear explosions. "Our national security demands that we monitor such nuclear weapons programs around the world. We have to do that with or without the Test Ban Treaty. But with the Treaty in force, we will gain a powerful new tool to do that monitoring."