The Secretary of Energy,
Washington, DC, June 26, 1996.

Hon. Pete V. Domenici,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.

Dear Senator Domenici: I am writing to state my strong support for your efforts to enhance U.S. national security in the face of the increasing threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.

The Amendment No. 4181 that you have proposed to the Defense Authorization bill and published yesterday in the Congressional Record would contribute significantly to our ability to protect the American people and the world from threats posed by unsafeguarded nuclear material.

It would enable us to complete nuclear materials upgrades on an urgent basis at key sites in Russia which were agreed to between Vice President Gore and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin since our budget was submitted. It would aid our ability to fund our very successful `Lab-to-Lab' materials, protection, control and accounting program which has been the pace setter in gaining access to vulnerable sites in the former Soviet Union where nuclear materials are stored and are in need of security upgrades. Our progress in these areas has outpaced available funding. The faster such sites are secured, the less likely that weapons grade material will be diverted to rogue states or terrorist groups. The costs of prevention are far less than the costs of defending against diverted material or coping with the potentially catastrophic consequences of terrorist use of such material.

The amendment also augments our Nuclear Emergency Search Team, or NEST, capability to be transported quickly anywhere in the United States or the world to deal with finding and disarming a nuclear device.

The amendment would leverage existing research and development capabilities of the Department's National Laboratories to better verify and secure U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons pits awaiting disposition, and make full use of DOE's capabilities to detect and counter nuclear smuggling and other weapons of mass destruction.

Finally, the amendment will improve both our near term and long term work to prevent and counter the growing threat of weapons of mass destruction to the United States. We look forward to working with the Congress to address these priority concerns of the Administration.

Sincerely,
Hazel R. O'Leary.