Political Quotes

“I want to raise an issue along the lines of my earlier discussion and part of what we just heard in the previous discussion. That is, where are we going with the nuclear enterprise? What is it all about? Where will it take us? My personal view is that we are in the first quarter of a new nuclear arms race. This amendment deals with a critical part of that effort to rebuild the nuclear weapons systems of the United States. We currently have maybe 10,000 unused nuclear plutonium pits. This is the heart of a nuclear bomb. It is pure plutonium, and it is the heart of the bomb. The 10,000 that are not used came out of nuclear weapons that have been dismantled as a result of the various arms control treaties that have been in place over the last 30 years, all to the good. The MOX facility deals with that unused excess plutonium and others. But this amendment deals with the notion of rebuilding and increasing the capacity of the United States to produce new plutonium pits. {time} 1945 We presently have the capacity to produce somewhere between 5 and 10 plutonium pits, again, the heart of a nuclear weapon, in the existing facilities. We are going to spend a few billion dollars--unknown--but somewhere probably between $1 billion and $2 billion or $3 billion building the facilities to increase the capacity to manufacture these plutonium pits to 50 to 80 a year.…”