Why we can’t cut corners with nuclear security

Nuclear terrorism remains one of the most severe threats to American safety today. Poorly stored nuclear material is inadequately warehoused across the globe, and continues to accumulate. And we in the security community take extremists like Osama Bin Laden seriously when they say that they consider it a religious duty to obtain nuclear weapons and use them on the United States and our allies.

This is why it is so disturbing that, in their budget for 2011, House Republicans have proposed cutting funding for critical anti-terror nonproliferation programs by more than $600 million. Fortunately, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) can play an important role in reversing these reckless cuts.

Serving in the Army for more than four decades taught me that it’s far smarter—and far safer—to address threats as soon as possible, before they gain strength and multiply. Unsecured nuclear materials pose just such a risk: in mid-2009, the global stockpile of nuclear materials was large enough to build more than 120,000 nuclear bombs.

That’s why I have been a fan of programs aimed at securing fissile materials. And I’m not the only one who feels that way: The U.S. government’s National Security Strategy states, “there is no greater threat to the American people than … the danger posed by the pursuit of nuclear weapons by violent extremists.”

Further, Secretary of State George Shultz, Secretary of Defense William Perry, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Sen. Sam Nunn, among many others, all support boosting efforts to lock down these dangerous materials. These experts understand the threat that proliferation is a security challenge that knows no borders, that loose material in distant Kazakhstan poses a potential threat to California.

While these threats appear overwhelming, our government has been effectively confronting them for years, due in large part to the efforts of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, funded by NNSA, has defused more than 7,500 nuclear bombs since its inception; in 2010 alone, NNSA secured material that could have been used to make as many 800 bombs.

But cuts to anti-terror nonproliferation programs would halt in their tracks these tremendous gains to our national security. While the GOP has largely avoided cuts to defense programs—even to a number of defense programs the DOD has specifically requested not be funded—nuclear non-proliferation programs technically fall under the purview of the Department of Energy; for that reason, these programs, so critical to our security, now face nine-figure cuts to their budgets.

As the Chair of the Senate Energy and Water committee that oversees nonproliferation funding, Sen. Feinstein can play an instrumental role on this different and overlooked nuclear problem by ensuring nuclear security funding is a priority. These anti-terror nonproliferation programs have a track record of success- now is not the time to cut corners with regard to nuclear security. I urge her, and her colleagues, to recognize the vital benefits of these programs and make sure they are fully funded.  

Major General Paul Monroe is a California native; he served over 46 years in the United States Army and the California Army National Guard. He served as the 42nd Adjutant General of the California National Guard from 1999 to 2004.