J. Exon: “I just want to summarize what the situation is with regard to this report. Senator Reid, Senator Kyl, and probably…”

“I just want to summarize what the situation is with regard to this report. Senator Reid, Senator Kyl, and probably others have confused the just-completed JASON report. But they did not reveal the full story. They are simply wrong, and they are comparing oranges with lemons. The entire quotation in the JASON report just put out, on hydronuclear testing, is as follows: A persuasive case has not been made for the utility of hydronuclear tests for detecting small changes in the performance margin for current U.S. weapons. So the newest JASON report does not endorse nuclear tests. Also, the particular quotation used by the Senator lacks accuracy. When they quote the JASON report as saying, ``However, experiments involving high explosives and fissionable material that do not reach criticality are useful in improving our understanding of * * * weapons materials,'' the Senator fails to mention the most important point, that the experiments that do not reach criticality are not hydronuclear tests. They are not hydronuclear tests. I simply point out that the portion of the report that the Senator quotes deals with experiments that are not hydronuclear in any way. Again, the JASON report is very clear. I quote from it. A persuasive case has not been made for the utility of hydronuclear tests . . . I hope this begins to set the record straight.”