Senate Approves Feinstein/Stevens Amendment to
Prohibit the Development or Use of Nuclear Armed Interceptors
June 26, 2002

Washington, DC - The U.S. Senate last night approved an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ted Stevens (R-AK) that would prohibit the development or use of nuclear armed interceptors as part of a ballistic missile defense system.

Senators Feinstein and Stevens developed this amendment in response to reports that the Administration was considering nuclear armed interceptors and language in the House Defense Authorization bill that appears to endorse this concept.

"It was reported in April of this year that the Pentagon was pursuing plans to resume research and testing of nuclear armed interceptors as part of a Ballistic Missile Defense System," Senator Feinstein said. "I think this would be a great mistake and would endanger the health and safety of all Americans. The amendment prevents the use of nuclear armed interceptors by prohibiting the authorization or appropriation of funds for nuclear armed interceptors."

The amendment simply states: "'None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this or any other Act may be used for research, development, test, evaluation, procurement, or deployment of nuclear armed interceptors of a missile defense system."

The use of nuclear armed interceptors represents a departure from the missile defense testing that has occurred up to this point. For the past year, the Pentagon has been pursuing an approach to missile defense, in which the missile defense system has to individually hit each incoming warhead in order to eliminate the total threat. But under this current approach, the system does not differentiate between live warheads and decoy warheads and other countermeasures.

This dilemma led the Pentagon to explore the concept of using a nuclear armed interceptor to destroy all of the incoming warheads, real and decoy alike. Instead of targeting a particular missile, a nuclear tipped interceptor would be exploded in the vicinity of the missile, ensuring the destruction of the missile and any other objects around it.

"This approach overlooks a laundry list of catastrophic side-effects that would accompany a nuclear blast in the atmosphere. Even a low yield nuclear blast in the atmosphere would have grave consequences on public health and on the global economy. Atmospheric winds, for instance, could spread fall-out over American or allied sovereign territory, the very territory we are trying to protect from nuclear attack. Add the possibility of intercepting a chemical or biological warhead, and we exponentially increase the risk of spreading spores or chemical agents over a wide area.

I think we all can see the serious ramifications of pursuing such an ill-advised policy, and I am pleased that Senate approved this amendment and helped prevent us from going down this path."

The amendment is cosponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

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