THE ALLIANCE FOR NUCLEAR ACCOUNTABILITY TOP TEN LIST PRIORITIES FOR THE BIDEN/HARRIS ADMINISTRATION FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMMUNITIES.
Nuclear weapons will demand the immediate attention of the next Administration and Congress. The last remaining effective
arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, the New START Treaty, expires on February 5, 2021. The two trillion dollar plan to modernize US nuclear weapons has triggered a new and dangerous global nuclear arms race. ANA offers ten conservative actions the Biden/Harris administration can take immediately to reduce the nuclear threat, make the nation more secure, and save hundreds of billions of dollars.
- Extend the New START Treaty immediately and open negotiations on a new arms reduction treaty.
- Demonstrate leadership in nuclear nonproliferation efforts, including taking steps to fulfill US commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Compliance with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons should be included in a new Nuclear Posture Review.
- Downscale plans for modernization of the US nuclear weapons complex and stockpile. This action alone will save tens of
billions of dollars over the next decade. - Stop the design and production of new nuclear warheads. Plans for the B61-12, the W80-4, W87-1 and the W93 are provocative and militarily unnecessary. The further new designs stray from certified-reliable, fully-tested designs, the higher the pressure to resume full-scale nuclear testing.
- Provide a science-based policy assessment of the need for a production capacity of 80 nuclear weapons pits, secondaries and
cases per year. Any future production facilities should be sized to meet requirements for stockpile maintenance, not for armsrace level production. New pit production requires a new Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and must include a new waste repository, not the oversubscribed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. - Prioritize cleanup of contaminated sites that pose a threat to workers and the public, especially excess high-risk facilities.
The Government Accountability Office has documented that cleanup funding has been sacrificed in order to accelerate construction of new production facilities. - Stop Consolidated Interim Storage of nuclear wastes. There is no safety requirement for shipping hundreds of tons of
radioactive wastes on the nation’s highways and rail lines. - Develop plans for Hardened On-Site Storage of spent nuclear fuel at the point of generation until a final decision on permanent disposition is made and implemented.
- Prioritize health and safety and establish a policy of stopping all waste generation as quickly as reasonably possible. This
means no new licensing or relicensing of reactors and no development of Small Modular Reactors. The nuclear industry should not be subsidized or favored by the government over cleaner, greener, more sustainable energy sources. It should compete with
other energy sources on its own, without being propped up by billions of tax dollars. - Support increased state regulation of nuclear weapons facilities. Funding should be provided to increase staff for the
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, and Congress must preserve the Safety Board’s access to information, sites and
personnel in order to carry out its critically important mission.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability includes more than thirty grassroots organizations that live in the shadows of nuclear weapons
complex facilities across the country. For more than thirty years ANA has advocated government accountability on nuclear weapons issues, including design, production, and testing of nuclear weapons as well as management of wastes and cleanup of contaminated sites.