I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Bush Administration needs to spend more money on keeping nuclear materials and weapons out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory director testified on Capitol Hill today.
Siegfied Hecker, who served as LANL director from 1986 to 1997, said post-Cold War nuclear threat reduction is becoming increasingly complex, with North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and India, and "a nuclear puzzle in Syria" all presenting growing challenges. The National Nuclear Security Administration – an arm of the Department of Energy – is asking Congress for $1.2 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation programs, down $410 million from the current year’s appropriation.
The overall budget request is modest compared to the importance and impact of NNSA’s nonproliferation efforts. I recognize the demands on the federal budget, yet the amount of money spent on these programs is small compared to dealing with the consequences of failure in any of its elements, Hecker testified.
Hecker, co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, is also an adviser to the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. He has visited North Korea five times in the last four years to assess the country’s nuclear capabilities.
Keeping nuclear materials out of the hands of the "most dangerous people" requires not only global cooperation, Hecker said, but also technical expertise from U.S. laboratories, which he suggested could also use some more dough to fight nuclear proliferation.
"Unfortunately, financial support and the nuclear research environment are insufficient to meet the challenges confronting us," Hecker told the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee. U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, agreed and urged his colleagues "to seek Dr. Hecker’s advice and wisdom on matters of nonproliferation just as I have."
The NNSA’s overall $9.1 billion budget request is down slightly from the current level of funding, though spending on weapons activities would go up under the Administration’s 2009 plan, from $6.3 billion to $6.6 billion, according to testimony from William Tobey, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.
