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USA to spend record amounts on nuclear weapons

boosting spending on nuclear weapons could cause the international community to doubt President Obama’s pledge to reduce the number of warheads the military maintains. “We have to think carefully about what signal we’re sending to other countries,”

U.S. Aims to Increase Nuclear Budget, Even as Arsenal Is Scaled Back, Politics Daily, Christopher Weber, 16 july 2010, The Pentagon has pledged to draw down its number of nuclear warheads, but even as it does, the Obama administration says it must hike spending to maintain the aging nuclear weapons infrastructure, according to a budget document obtained by The Los Angeles Times.

The National Nuclear Security Administration spending plan shows that the White House wants to increase nuclear weapons spending to an average of about $8 billion a year, compared with recent spending levels of $6 billion to $7 billion annually……critics say that boosting spending on nuclear weapons could cause the international community to doubt President Obama’s pledge to reduce the number of warheads the military maintains.

“We have to think carefully about what signal we’re sending to other countries,” Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists told the Times.

The president has made reduction of the nuclear arsenal a central part of his foreign policy agenda.

U.S. Aims to Increase Nuclear Budget, Even as Arsenal Is Scaled Back

July 16, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons