Nuclear Weapons Testing is Back

(Editor's Note: Nuclear weapons testing is back on the election agenda in Utah, the reddest of red states, home of many “downwinders” who suffered cancer from the fallout of our previous regime of nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. It is not too much for conservatives to say that we may need to test again to develop a next generation of nuclear weapons. While others seek nuclear disarmament, in Utah it is a whole 'nother ball game. What this discussion fails to note is there simply is no military requirement for new nuclear weapons capabilities that might require the resumption of U.S. nuclear testing. The U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories do not need nuclear explosive testing to maintain the effectiveness of the existing U.S. nuclear arsenal. The U.S. already has the most sophisticated and deadly nuclear arsenal in the world.  Given this advantage, it is clearly in U.S. national security interests to prevent other nations from testing nuclear weapons which the test ban treaty would facilitate).

by Jen Dimascio of Politico

In Utah, where tea party conservatism is steeped in a past of nuclear
tragedy, arms control issues tend to be more important than they might
be elsewhere in the country.

That’s why in the race to replace Sen. Bob Bennett as Utah’s next
senator, Republican Mike Lee and Democrat Sam Granato have already
staked out positions on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia,
which the Senate is in the midst of debating, as well as President
Barack Obama’s ultimate goal — passing a new Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty.

But the state’s history hasn’t shaken the traditional partisan divide in
the Senate race. Lee, the favorite in the state that has not elected a
Democrat since 1970, opposes the passage of START and the CTBT; Granato
supports passing both.

Both politicians have a personal connection to what Utahans refer to as
“downwinders” — the people who have contracted various kinds of cancer
resulting from radiation exposure.