A US department of energy panel of experts which provided independent oversight of the development of the US nuclear arsenal has been quietly disbanded by the Bush administration, it emerged yesterday.
The decision to close down the national nuclear security administration advisory committee — required by law to hold public hearings and issue public reports on nuclear weapons issues — has come just days before a closed-door meeting at a US air force base in Nebraska to discuss the development of a new generation of tactical ”mini nukes” and ”bunker buster” bombs, as well as an eventual resumption of nuclear testing.
Ed Markey, a Democratic congressman and co-chair of a congressional taskforce on non-proliferation, said: ”Instead of seeking balanced expert advice and analysis about this important topic, the department of energy has disbanded the one forum for honest, unbiased external review of its nuclear weapons policies.”
Neither the NNSA — part of the department of energy — nor the 15 panel members returned calls seeking comment yesterday.
The NNSA advisory panel is made up of academics, retired officials and business leaders.
Although federal law requires regular open meetings and publication of its reports, the energy department has not convened the panel since May 2002. Its reports have not been released.
The statute establishing federal advisory committees requires their dissolution to be officially gazetted in the federal register but, according to Markey, the NNSA panel was disbanded by a simple email to its members.
Daryl Kimball, the head of the independent, Washington-based Arms Control Association, said: ”This will make the department of energy and the NNSA even more opaque. It will be all the more difficult to understand what they are planning to do.”
Hawks in the Pentagon and the energy department are pushing for the development of tactical nuclear weapons with yields of less than 5 kilotons and hardened ”bunker buster” nuclear bombs, designed to penetrate deeply buried targets, where enemy leaders or weapons may be hidden.
According to the leaked agenda for the Omaha meeting in early August, Pentagon and energy department officials will discuss how to test small numbers of these new weapons, and whether this will require a break from the moratorium on nuclear tests.
Critics argue that the new weapons will blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear arms, and trigger a new arms race.
”The Bush administration is considering policy changes that will alter the role of nuclear weapons in national defence,” Markey said. ”Given the importance and sheer complexity of the issues raised … why was the only independent contemplative body studying nuclear weapons disbanded — and disbanded in such a surreptitious fashion?” – Guardian Unlimited Â