The Prevent War Team at Peace House has been on a mission to tackle the escalating threat of the new nuclear arms race since last fall. After showing the Daniel Ellsberg documentary “A Common Insanity” at the Nagasaki Remembrance event last year, we decided to turn Ellsberg’s call to action into a campaign.
We’ve been digging into the history of false alarms that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, the super short time frame (just 30 minutes!) the president has to decide if an incoming missile alert is real or not, and the inherent danger of weapons that you have to use or lose.
We’ve also been focusing on what we call the “new nuclear arms race,” which is the modernization of all nuclear weapons systems by the U.S. and other nuclear powers.
In the U.S., this nuclear modernization is a once-in-a-generation overhaul that could cost over $1.7 billion. Some of the things they’re buying include twelve new ballistic missile nuclear submarines for $130 billion, five new uranium facilities for $10 billion, and 80 plutonium pits (grapefruit-sized hollow plutonium spheres that trigger the nuclear explosions) that must be produced every year for the next 15 years, which would cost $30 billion.
But the most important part of our campaign is installing 400 new ICBMs in underground silos in five states for $141 billion. This isn’t just about replacing old missiles with new ones; they also need to build a whole new command and control system, including about 7,500 miles of underground cables.
Our campaign will start with a one-day conference at SOU, which is tentatively planned for April 25th. Our first goal is to stop the Sentinel missile program, which is the most dangerous part of this modernization. Check back here for updates.
Get more information about the massive pending expenditures by reading the New York Times series At The Brink
