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Nuclear Weapons Production in the US
an article by Holger Terp
I would like to tell you about the new publication
of my book, Nuclear Weapons Production in the US,
published by the Danish Peace Academy, 2011 (279
pages). The entire book is available on line -
click here.
US nuclear weapon production sites (from Holger Terp book)
click on photo to enlarge
Here is an excerpt from the conclusion:
"The responsible military officials, politicians
and scientists who planned and developed nuclear
weapons during World War II saw only glimpses of
the enormous impact these weapons would have on
all life on this planet. And in the meantime there
are threats of this weapon system can also be
sensed in the general population, those who were
defended by these weapons. We are only able to
comprehend the tip of the iceberg of the many
unsolved problems there are and will come in the
future in connection with nuclear weapons. Is is a
fact that for political and military reasons we
were never told the full truth about these
weapons. Only now we can see, study and understand
the magnitude of the issues in one of the nuclear
powers: the United States.
"The military-industrial development in the
country has literally astronomical significance in
the health, the environment and the economy both
now and in the future and the main problem all
those years has been the lack of access to
relevant information. During the WWII, all
decisions on nuclear weapons were taken in
secrecy. The public was first informed about the
project after the first bombs was thrown. The
events during the World War created a tradition of
secrecy for military information with the result
that power was centralized with the president. Do
we want to continue it?"
Comments from CPNN readers are most welcome!
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?,
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LATEST READER COMMENT:
'THE WORLD IS OVER-ARMED AND PEACE IS UNDER-FUNDED'
30 August 2012 — The following opinion piece by Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon has appeared in leading newspapers in Argentina, Bangladesh, Burundi, China, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, The Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and European weekly publications and has been translated into 10 languages.
Last month, competing interests prevented agreement on a much-needed treaty that would have reduced the appalling human cost of the poorly regulated international arms trade. Meanwhile, nuclear disarmament efforts remain stalled, despite strong and growing global popular sentiment in support of this cause.
The failure of these negotiations and this month's anniversaries of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki provide a good opportunity to explore what has gone wrong, why disarmament and arms control have proven so difficult to achieve, and how the world community can get back on track towards these vitally important goals.
Many defence establishments now recognize that security means far more than protecting borders. Grave security concerns can arise as a result of demographic trends, chronic poverty, economic inequality, environmental degradation, pandemic diseases, organized crime, repressive governance and other developments no state can control alone. Arms can't address such concerns.
Yet there has been a troubling lag between recognizing these new security challenges, and launching new policies to address them. National budget priorities still tend to reflect the old paradigms. Massive military spending and new investments in modernizing nuclear weapons have left the world over-armed -- and peace under-funded.
Last year, global military spending reportedly exceeded $1.7 trillion – more than $4.6 billion a day, which alone is almost twice the UN's budget for an entire year. This largesse includes billions more for modernizing nuclear arsenals decades into the future.
This level of military spending is hard to explain in a post-Cold War world and amidst a global financial crisis. Economists would call this an "opportunity cost". . ...more.
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