In Effort to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism

Nadler introduces the Nuclear Gold Standard Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jerrold Nadler today announced the introduction of the Nuclear Gold Standard Act of 2006.  The bill would establish a “gold standard” for securing nuclear materials worldwide and to provide incentives to both the United States and Russia to accelerate our efforts to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear materials.

This bill was developed in consultation with Harvard Professor Graham Allison and includes his recommendations for preventing a nuclear catastrophe. 

“Quite simply, we ought to protect our nuclear material with the same vigor with which we protect our gold,” Congressman Nadler said.  “No gold has ever been stolen from Fort Knox.  We should ensure that no nuclear materials are ever stolen from our nuclear plants or those in Russia.  In fact, we ought to ensure every country around the world adopts a nuclear gold standard to prevent the theft of nuclear material by terrorists.”

The Nuclear Gold Standard Act comprises five mandates to improve nuclear security:

1)                  It calls on the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense to develop a framework to create a new global alliance against nuclear terrorism that incorporates a “gold standard” for securing nuclear materials.

2)         It requires the Secretary of Energy to work with his counterpart in Russia to develop a set of verifiable and enforceable standards to which all nuclear materials worldwide should be secured and against which inspectors can test.

3)         It encourages the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of State to provide assistance and create incentives for other countries to prevent nuclear terrorism.

4)         It provides funding, once a gold standard is developed, to enable us to implement the enhanced security measures and to accelerate our efforts to secure nuclear materials.  The bill authorizes $500 million more a year for five years to seven key programs that are responsible for securing nuclear weapon material all over the world in order to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons.  The bill also provides a financial incentive for Russian authorities to agree to a plan for the accelerated blend-down of highly enriched uranium in their country.                                                                 

5)         Finally, the bill requires accountability from the administration by requiring timely reports on progress towards these goals and does not release the additional funding until a gold standard has been created.

As the 9/11 Commission reported, when it comes to exerting the maximum effort to prevent terrorists from acquiring WMD, our government gets a D.  America can do better. 

Commission Chairman Kean and Vice Chair Hamilton have called on the President to provide the domestic and international leadership to secure all weapons grade nuclear material as soon as possible. According to their Dec. 5, 2005 remarks, “There is simply no higher priority on the national security agenda.” 

Chairman Kean reiterated his concern on March 28 when he said, “In short, we still do not have a maximum effort against what everybody agrees is the most urgent threat to the American people.”