THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 17, 1995 TAG: 9508170021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Even when the Clinton administration comes down on the right side of an issue, it does it so clumsily that it forfeits all credit. The latest indecisive decision concerns nuclear testing.
For months the administration has been trying to decide whether to advocate a comprehensive permanent global ban on all nuclear testing. Some in the Pentagon and Republican party have argued that ongoing tests are needed to assure the reliability and safety of our existing arsenal. The Senate has voted $50 million for the purpose.
But a recently released report by scientists, including the top bomb designers at the Los Alamos, Sandia and Livermore national labs, says further tests aren't needed. According to the group's report, after 1,000 or more tests, ``the United States can, today, have high confidence in the safety, reliability, and performance margins of the nuclear weapons that are designated to remain in the enduring stockpile.''
Thus fortified, Clinton finally sat down with Pentagon and Energy Department officials to devise a ban that leaves an escape clause in the event of ``supreme national emergency.'' It's what the administration should have done in the first place, behind closed doors, without the waffling and psychodrama.
What's needed to keep the arsenal operational isn't more testing but a steady supply of more tritium. Testing will do us no good, but it could help regimes anxious to acquire or enlarge their own supply of nuclear arms. That makes a ban an important priority.
Instead of wrangling over this issue, the United States ought to be leading. The French, by resuming a test program, have made themselves objects of scorn. The United States should be helping to discourage further testing as the way slow or halt proliferation.
This won't be a safer planet if the nuclear club expands to 10 or 20 or more members. A ban on testing is only one step to deter proliferation. Strict controls on nuclear materials and a robust inspection regimen are also needed. But a test ban is an important issue symbolically as well as practically.
Clinton's maladroit handling of the issue has tempted his enemies to portray a ban as evidence of national weakness and to exploit it for political purposes. But the issue of nuclear arms is too important for partisan grandstanding.
There are plenty of other ways to get at Clinton. Long after he's history, what the nation does now on nuclear issues will have ramifications. It's time for Washington to speak with one voice in favor of a nuclear test ban and non-proliferation. by CNB