Action Alert

* Action Alert:  Please contact your Utah House Representative asking for support of HR4 -- Resolution Urging Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.  The sponsor of HR4, Rep. Jen Seelig, has gained the support of all the Democratic Representatives and several Republican Representatives.  However, she has circled the bill in order to get more support from Republican law makers.  Ratification of the CTBT will not only safeguard the public health and safety of Utah citizens, but will actually improve our national security.  While nuclear weapons were once a powerful deterrent, they are now one of our biggest threats.  Experts are in strong agreement that we can now keep our nuclear arsensal strong without further testing.  In addition, there are hundreds of monitoring sites around the world that can now detect nuclear blasts, so verification of compliance with the terms of the treaty is no longer an issue.  National security experts like George Shultz, Sam Nunn, Brent Scowcroft and others all support ratification of the CTBT.
 
Additional CTBT Talking Points

National Security

Ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is in the best interests of United States national security and in the best interests of Utahns' public health .

The United States has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since President George H.W. Bush declared a moratorium in 1992.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is a multilateral agreement that would ban all nuclear weapons detonations. Such bipartisan statesmen as Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, William Perry, Sam Nunn, Brent Scowcroft, Robert Gates, Colin Powell and Amb. Linton F. Brooks agree that ratification of the CTBT will strengthen United States national security .


Ratification of the CTBT by the United States will create additional pressure on holdout states and increase the global taboo against testing by rogue states. Currently 182 nations have signed on to the treaty. The United States was the first nation to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Other signatory nations are Russia, China, Great Britain, and France. 151 nations have ratified the treaty including all of the United State's NATO allies. The CTBT has yet to be ratified by the United States, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan. China, India, and Pakistan are expected to ratify soon after the ratification by the United States.

Ratification of the CTBT will have no effect on the United States nuclear weapons arsenal as an effective and reliable deterrent . A 2002 report from the National Academy of Science on the technical aspects of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty found that while age related defects may occur that affect the reliability of our nuclear weapons stockpiles, "nuclear testing is not needed to discover these problems and is not likely to be needed to address them."

Since the National Academy of Sciences report, more significant findings have occurred. In 2009, JASON, a highly respected, independent, and congressionally funded technical review panel, found that the " lifetimes of today's nuclear warheads could be extended for decades, with no anticipated loss in confidence ."


Ratification of the CTBT locks in permanent United States nuclear weapons superiority. Without nuclear weapons tests, other nations cannot proof test war-head designs and build more sophisticated arsenals. Since the United States currently has the most advanced nuclear weapons arsenal in the world ratification of the CTBT will ensure the continued dominance of American nuclear capabilities.


In addition to our own monitoring network, r atification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty gives the United States access to the International Monitoring System (IMS) set up by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization . This global monitoring network is currently over 80% completed with 277 of the planned 337 monitoring stations in operation. The 2002 National Academy of Sciences study found that the monitoring network, which detects weapons tests via seismic, hydroacoustic, radionuclide, infrasound technologies, could reliably detect underground nuclear explosions down to .1 kilotons in hard rock if conducted anywhere in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. Both the 2006 and 2009 North Korea tests were detected by the International Monitoring System within hours of their occurrence.

Most importantly, ratification of the CTBT will further strengthen detection capabilities by providing for the ability to call for and conduct short-notice on-site inspections of suspected test sites. On-site inspections are not available until the treaty enters into force, which requires ratification by the United States.

Withdrawal by the United States is permitted by Article 9 of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in case future developments are seen to jeopardize our supreme national interests.

Utah's Public Health

Utahns are intimately aware of the consequences of nuclear weapons testing. Generations of Utahns have been affected by radioactive fallout from our country’s decades-long history of testing nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site.

Utahns have a tragic history of cancer and leukemia caused by nuclear weapons tests . If we fail to testify to our personal experiences with testing now, we will not only fail to bring an end to nuclear weapons testing, but we will also leave ourselves open to the possibility of suffering the ill effects of renewed testing in the future.

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