National military, policy experts to attend nuclear symposium
WASHINGTON — The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will join other national military and policy experts in Albuquerque next week for a symposium on the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.
The Strategic Deterrent Coalition, a nonprofit organization founded by Albuquerque businessman Sherman McCorkle, aims to raise awareness of the importance of the nation’s nuclear weapons to national defense. Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories — two of the three U.S. nuclear weapons labs — are in New Mexico.
“The purpose is to inform and educate,” McCorkle said of the symposium scheduled for Tuesday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. “Many parts of the strategic deterrent (nuclear weapons arsenal) are now 40 to 60 years old and in great need of refurbishment. We have a remarkable lineup of speakers, and we are fortunate to have them.”
The event is open to the public, and registration costs $250. McCorkle said more than 250 people have signed up.
NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz and Gen. Paul J. Selva, vice chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are among the scheduled speakers. The event is being sponsored by some of the biggest names in U.S. defense, including Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, which is seeking an extension of its management contract at Sandia National Laboratories. Boeing, along with the University of New Mexico, is part of another team bidding for the contract.
Although President Barack Obama has called for a reduction in America’s nuclear arsenal, he has consistently sought budget increases to maintain the weapons. Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat who sits on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has pushed for the funding increases, as well, arguing they are vital to the labs’ mission and New Mexico’s economy.
But critics contend the billions spent on nuclear weapons in New Mexico don’t help the economy as much as the labs’ boosters claim. Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, which advocates for nuclear weapons budget reductions, characterized the coming symposium as a “love fest for the pending $1 trillion modernization of U.S. nuclear forces, which has the usual giant defense contractors salivating over huge profits.”
The Department of Energy, which oversees the labs, spends billions annually on nuclear nonproliferation. Obama’s budget request for nonproliferation in 2016 is $1.8 billion, a $118 million decrease from 2015.
McCorkle said the nuclear weapons enterprise is critical to New Mexico’s economy and that the symposium will highlight the need to modernize the nuclear deterrent. He said Los Alamos, Sandia, Kirtland Air Force Base and other elements of the nuclear enterprise in New Mexico provide 30,000 jobs in the state.
“There is not anyone in New Mexico who does not benefit from the 30,000 jobs the strategic deterrent creates,” he said.
For more information, visit www.sdc-usa.org.