Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

ACTION ALERT End Nuclear Hair Trigger: An Open Statement from the Science and Engineering Community

ACTION ALERT
End Nuclear Hair Trigger: An Open Statement from the Science and Engineering Community

Today, a prominent group of 94 scientists including 20 Nobel laureates and 90 members of the National Academies sent an urgent letter to President Obama asking him to take US land-based nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert—a dangerous Cold War-era practice that puts us all at unnecessary risk.

Will you join your fellow scientists in this urgent call to action?

Here's the situation. Today, some 1,800 US and Russian nuclear weapons are still on hair-trigger alert—ready to launch in a matter of minutes. This policy increases the risk of an accidental nuclear missile launch or a deliberate launch in response to a false warning, which would have catastrophic results. This is absurd and President Obama knows it. He even said so as a presidential candidate in 2008. We know the president wants to leave a positive legacy on nuclear weapons and the White House has indicated that the president wants to take additional nuclear risk reduction steps before leaving office.

This is possible and you can help make it happen. Please tell President Obama it's time to take our missiles off hair-trigger alert by signing our statement today.
Sincerely,
SeanMeyer_jpg
Sean Meyer
Manager of Strategic Campaigns
Global Security Program
Union of Concerned Scientists

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