Dick Lugar: “As has been suggested by other Senators, the so-called Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction program, in operation for…”

“As has been suggested by other Senators, the so-called Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction program, in operation for the last 19 years, has made possible, through operations of U.S. military and U.S. contractors, working with their counterparts in Russia, the destruction of very sizable amounts of nuclear weapons--threats that we took very seriously in 1991, and that I hope Americans take very seriously currently. I have just received a report that, since October--and that is specifically during the month of November--we have eliminated eight more SLBMs in Russia. We have secured 10 more nuclear weapon transport trains and neutralized 100-plus more metric tons of chemical weapons agent. I mention this because I have been fortunate enough to receive monthly, at least for the last 15 years, similar reports. I have a scoreboard in my office that, in fact, illustrates, first of all, that 7,599 strategic nuclear warheads aimed at the United States have been deactivated through the cooperative threat reduction program. Each one of those warheads, as I have pointed out, without being melodramatic, may have been sufficient to completely eliminate my home city of Indianapolis.”