PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for action on this request has passed.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed a major new initiative, Complex 2030, which would entail upgrading the entire U.S. nuclear weapons complex while designing and producing a series of new nuclear warheads. The Union of Concerned Scientists vigorously opposes this ill-advised, costly, and dangerous plan. A mandatory environmental impact review of Complex 2030 now underway provides an initial opportunity to have your voice heard.

Launching a New UCS Initiative

We are asking you and others now, and in the months ahead, to take part in a new UCS project, the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy Initiative. The project aims to get the administration and Congress to abandon Complex 2030 and, instead, undertake a thorough re-assessment of nuclear weapons policy and doctrine.

My name is Sean Meyer, and I recently joined UCS to lead this initiative. It seeks to reduce U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons and the size of the U.S. arsenal, limit the development of nuclear weapons by other countries, consolidate the U.S. nuclear complex, and strengthen non-proliferation efforts.

Action Request

One component of the initiative will be to use the required environmental review, known as a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), as a forum for raising issues and, potentially, putting roadblocks in front of the proposal.

Please submit comments to the DOE under the PEIS process by next Wednesday, January 17. At this stage, only comments on the scope of the PEIS are being considered. Urge the DOE to:

• Expand the scope of the PEIS review to include an alternative option that would abandon plans to build new nuclear weapons, consolidate existing nuclear facilities, and seek deep reductions in both deployed and inactive warheads in the U.S. nuclear stockpile; and
  
• Prepare a nonproliferation impact assessment to determine how Complex 2030 might affect U.S. efforts to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons and whether the project is consistent with U.S. treaty obligations to eliminate nuclear weapons, particularly Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Please email your comments to: Complex2030@nnsa.doe.gov

Below is a draft letter we strongly urge you to edit with your own thoughts and concerns and then submit. Be sure to include any information particular to your experience and expertise. We also encourage you to forward this email to other concerned colleagues who may also wish to submit comments to the DOE.

Also below are links to additional resources, including a UCS fact sheet on Complex 2030, the DOE's Notice of Intent for the PEIS, a recent New York Times article, and a compelling op-ed from the Wall Street Journal calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons signed by, among others, Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.

I look forward to working with you on this exciting initiative. Please feel free to contact me at smeyer@ucsusa.org or 617-301-8065.

Sincerely,

Sean Meyer
Project Manager, U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy Initiative

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Sample Letter

Theodore A. Wyka
Complex 2030 SEIS Document Manager
Office of Transformation, U.S. DOE, NA-10.1
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585

Dear Mr. Wyka,

The Complex 2030 PEIS Notice of Intent (10/19/06) states that the DOE will "evaluate reasonable alternatives for future transformation of the nuclear weapons complex." As currently proposed, however, the Complex 2030 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) review process does not include the option of the DOE abandoning plans to build new nuclear weapons, reducing the U.S. nuclear stockpile, and consolidating existing nuclear weapons facilities to the greatest extent possible. I urge the DOE to include this "reasonable" option as part of the EIS review—it will make managing the U.S. nuclear stockpile more efficient, less costly, and more consistent with the goal of reducing U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons.

Also, as part of the review, the Department of Energy should prepare a nonproliferation impact assessment of Complex 2030 to determine how Complex 2030 might affect U.S. efforts to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and whether the project is consistent with U.S. treaty obligations to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Sincerely,

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Links

Complex 2030: DOE's Misguided Plan to Rebuild the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, UCS Fact Sheet, December 2006

Notice of Intent To Prepare a Supplement to the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Environmental Impact Statement – Complex 2030, Department of Energy, October 19, 2006 

"U.S. Selecting Hybrid Design for Warheads," New York Times, January 7, 2007

"A World Free of Nuclear Weapons," Wall Street Journal, by George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, January 4, 2007; Page A15.

Future of the Nuclear Weapons Complex, DOE's Complex 2030 website

Complex 2030 PEIS Website

Toward True Security: An Alternative Nuclear Posture Review, UCS and colleagues vision for a sensible U.S. nuclear weapons policy, June 2001.