Sam Nunn

“ If we continue to spin in different directions, which we’ve done in the last two or three days, the world is about become a much more dangerous place. A united and speedy and successfully implemented response that can be built upon as we go along is much more important that a perfect response.
We must also make it clear to North Korea that there will be dire consequences if it acts to sell or to spread nuclear weapons or nuclear materials. We must make sure North Korea understand that unlike previous warnings, we really do mean this one. ”

“ We are in an era of too many new threats and too much old thinking. We have an obligation to our children and to our grandchildren to think anew. When I say “we” I don’t just mean the United States, I mean the key countries and particularly the key nuclear weapons states of the world.
In his last year in office, when President Reagan was asked what he believed was the most important need in international relations, he talked of the need to cooperate against a common threat: “What if all of us discovered that we were threatened by power from outer space, from another planet. ”

“ Can you imagine a bomb going off successfully and destroying a major city whether it’s Moscow, or whether it’s Tel-Aviv or whether it’s New York or Washington or Beijing? If it happens, just think of what the terrorist groups are then going to say they have in basements of these cities and in SUVs running around; if they have one bomb, they’ll claim two or three. So the economic disruption and the shaking of confidence we’ve never experienced in human history. ”

“ Can we avoid catastrophic nuclear terrorism and nuclear use if our world keeps producing weapons-grade, fissile material and fails to secure or get rid of the supply of such material already in existence? A fundamental question. You already know my answer, but I think it’s a beginning point.
Number two: Can the nuclear power industry around the globe expand if we have a serious nuclear incident or catastrophe in the nuclear weapons arena? ”

“ The good news is that most nations, including the United States and Russia, are willing to give at least lip service to this concept. The bad news: no nation is stepping up, pushing for a treaty and there are a number of obstacles to its successful negotiation and implementation. To sharply reduce the chances that terrorists can acquire the materials they need to build a nuclear weapon, in my view, we must also phase out, and this will not be easy, we need to phase out the use of highly enriched uranium in civil commerce around the globe. ”

“ It will take a combination of carrots and sticks to achieve a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and to convince North Korea and show other nations like Iran that their country will be better off without nuclear weapons. While we’re urging our allies to sharpen their sticks on sanctions, we must be willing to cook our carrots on both economic and security assurances. In my view, the Bush administration must get beyond what I believe is a counterproductive ideology that views talking to our adversaries as a reward for good behavior and refusing to talk as an effective punishment. ”

“ While we are focusing with justified concern on Iran and North Korea’s quest for nuclear weapons capacity, a number of nations, some of them our good friends, are planning to go into the enrichment and/or reprocessing business, and that conversion means making material for nuclear power. But when you start enriching, it’s very difficult to tell when you move from a nuclear power level of enrichment, which I believe is about four percent, to a 70 to 75 percent enrichment, which can blow up a lot of the world. ”

“ To prevent a nuclear arms race in Asia, the Unites States must publicly reiterate our security guarantees to Japan and South Korea. Generations of Japanese and South Korean citizens may not remember that the United States has assured their security all of these years. They must be reassured that they remain under the US nuclear umbrella and that we will regard a nuclear attack by North Korea against South Korea or Japan as an attack against the United States. And it is also very important that American citizens understand that long-standing commitment. ”

“ This will include converting nuclear facilities that use highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium.
The bottom line is that if we keep producing more and more material that can be used by terrorists to build a bomb and the explosion of information continues as it is going today, then it is just a question of time until we have a catastrophe. And when we have that catastrophe, it’s not going to only be a humanitarian disaster in one city, it’s going to shake the economic confidence of the world. ”

“ We must find new and better answers to the imperative of the nuclear age: how to maximize the benefit of nuclear power, which I believe in, but at the same time minimize the proliferation dangers. That is a dual challenge. ”

“ Can we start phasing out the using of highly enriched uranium in civil commerce? You’re not going to be able to do it all at once, but in my view it’s a start.
Number five: Will a world growing more and more hostile to the division between those states that possess nuclear weapons and those that do not, be willing to agree to a new category of states that have enrichment facilities and those that do not? ”

“ So when someone asks, “Isn’t it hopeless? No one’s ever given up their nuclear weapons” that isn’t true. South Africa gave up their nuclear weapons after they had tested. Other countries have given up their programs, but not without a lot of conversation and a lot of assurances.
Also under the Nunn-Lugar program, we have done a lot of things in the former Soviet Union relating to not only weapons, but weapons material. Today the Russians, with our help, have completed about 50 percent of the job of securing nuclear weapons and materials in Russia. ”

“ History shows that nations rarely give up nuclear weapons without credible assurances of their own security. In the case of North Korea, these assurances must come from several key nations, but must begin with an extensive United States-North Korea dialogue and understanding. It is enormously important that we talk. ”

“ So I think we need a Nunn-Lugar type program funded by many countries throughout the world starting with the G-8, to really help countries around the globe meet their obligations in securing their own borders and making sure they do not develop nuclear materials for terrorism and expose nuclear materials in their own country being sold or stolen. That is enormously important. It takes only a small amount of highly enriched uranium or plutonium to make a weapon that can blow up much of a city. ”

“ The Bush administration has worked with other nations on the Proliferation Security Initiative, which coordinates national capabilities to interdict the transport of nuclear, biological and chemical materials, their delivery systems and related technology. We at our foundation and most nuclear experts agree that securing nuclear material at the source is the most important feature, and you have to have cooperation around the globe for that. Securing material at the source is the least expensive and most efficient. ”

“ Gary, after he came to the University of Georgia, about the time, actually a little before, I got elected to the United States Senate, Gary quickly became a national and international leader in many fields but particularly in combating illicit nuclear trade and concentrating on the people and the culture. Gary was out front in recognizing the urgent imperative in training security personnel and changing the culture of the security environment in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. History does not usually record catastrophes avoided. ”

“ As energy needs rise, as oil and gas prices surge, and production shifts more each year to more volatile and less secure areas of the world and as the pace of global warming increases, nations and the private sector are looking more and more to nuclear power to meet those needs. ”

“ And today, world confidence in all three legs of the stool is eroding. The tenants of the Nonproliferation Treaty are mutually dependent and mutually reinforcing or they spiral down together also. We must make continuous progress in all three areas or we will destroy the mutual trust that is absolutely essential for our survival. We’re in a race between cooperation and catastrophe and at the moment, the outcome is unclear. ”

“ Today, as I see it, we are facing far different dangers, including the rise in the number of nuclear weapon states and the number of states that can produce weapon-grade material. Another key ingredients is not simply the weapons, it’s the weapons-grade material. ”

“ The wide availability of knowledge of how to make a nuclear weapon, that’s what fundamentally changed. Twenty or 30 years ago, countries did not think, could not believe that anyone besides a nation could gather the kind of technological capability together to produce a nuclear weapon. ”

“ Our cooperation and nuclear security is being sorely tested today by mounting tensions over three areas of consensus and commitment that created the Nonproliferation Treaty and held it together for nearly 40 years. ”

“ Because if we’re not it’s going to be extremely difficult to get even our friends — countries like Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia — those countries are going to be very reluctant to agree to another standard of have states, enrichment-wise and have-not states, enrichment wise. ”

“ I want to thank Gary Bertsch because Gary is doing something for a young squirt like Gary that I can’t believe: He’s retiring next year. I want to be one of the first to say what a wonderful job you’ve done here. You’ve put together a tremendous team. You’ve been a big help to me while I was in the United States Senate, and you’ve been a big help to me in my public policy role since I’ve left the Senate. ”

“ The great increase also, and this is the other fundamental change, is the number of fanatics willing to use a nuclear weapon if they acquire the materials and the know-how. It’s very difficult to deter someone with the threat of retaliation when they’re suicidal to begin with — very difficult. ”

“ We’re clearly at a tipping point with regard to the both the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the production of weapons-usable nuclear material. And both are important. Terrorists are seeking nuclear materials and weapons as the list of potential suppliers expands. ”

“ The goal of this proposed initiative is to help make fuel supplies from the international market more secure by offering customer states that are in full compliance with their nonproliferation obligations reliable access to a nuclear fuel reserve under impartial IAEA control if their commercial supply arrangements are interrupted. In so doing, we hope to make a state’s voluntary choice to rely on the international market for fuel services more secure. ”