Foreign Correspondence

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Nukes going off in America soon? Welcome to Nuclear Democracy

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IN OUR VIEW Nuclear weapons testing won't reveal anything new

The Daily Herald


You'd expect the son of a downwinder to be against the resumption of nuclear weapons testing in the Nevada desert.

Yet U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, is not. Cannon, who believes his father's cancer was due in part to radioactive fallout from atomic bomb tests, wants the country to resume nuclear testing.
He supports testing of the proposed Robust Nuclear Ground Penetrator and of our existing weapons stockpile to ensure our current arsenal still works.

"What we really need here is deterrence. We want people to get out of their holes and into the democratic process, and we want to scare them out," Cannon said in an Associated Press story. "We need to give them the fear of destruction, and hopefully, over time, people will realize that the democratic system works."

If terrorists are storing chemical or biological weapons in underground bunkers, there is no question that some means must be developed to take them out. Perhaps conventional military methods would be sufficient. Bunker-busting nuclear weapons have been proposed, but they raise other concerns. Do they really require live testing?

Utahns have already paid a terrible price, as Cannon knows, for America's security in the Atomic Age. Government officials assured us in the 1950s and 1960s that the tests were perfectly safe and that radioactive fallout raining down on Utah was harmless. Even the "safer" underground tests in the latter years released considerable radiation into the atmosphere, and it blew far beyond the confines of the Nevada Test Site.

It was only after Utahns started developing cancer at startling rates that the government's lie was unmasked.

Now it's a new age, and we face a new kind of enemy. The United States, and the rest of the civilized world, must respond with vigor and speed to the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists. It is the greatest threat of our time.

But what knowledge would be gained from renewed testing that would be worth risking the lives of American families again? With more than 40 years of testing data, scientists can develop new nuclear weapons and achieve a high degree of certainty in their effectiveness without actually conducting a live-fire test.

Experts say testing of current weapons won't reveal anything new, either. There are ways to test a nuclear weapon's operational status without having to actually detonate it. Diagnostic programs can check the weapon's electronic components, and an examination of a warhead can determine whether the weapon will still achieve its design potential.

If the United States were to resume nuclear testing, we would undermine our own efforts at getting North Korea and Iran to shelve their weapons programs. It might even spur them to redouble their efforts to find a way to strike us before we attack them.

Cannon would do well to use his influence as Utah's senior House member to lobby against the resumption of nuclear tests. He should be teaming up with another son of a downwinder, Rep. Jim Matheson, who is proposing legislation that requires environmental safety and health reviews, and congressional approval, for any new tests.

Matheson's bill, which is being sponsored in the Senate by Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, would also require the government to solicit comments from people who would be affected by potential fallout and install radiation monitors in any Utah community that requests it. In short, if we can't stop renewed nuclear testing, we need to make sure to get as many safeguards in place as possible.

Beyond the matter of testing, the use of nuclear bombs against terrorist stockpiles deserves close scrutiny. A massive bomb could actually spread deadly chemicals or biological agents. And it would create radioactive fallout that could poison both civilians and American troops in the region of the blast. And it could further undermine efforts to negotiate with the Irans and North Koreas of the world.

There are no easy answers in the age of terrorism. But there is one thing that's clear enough: American civilians living on American soil should never again be placed in harm's way by government-sponsored nuclear testing.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.