Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Indiana

Chelyabinsk, Russia – U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar and former Sen. Sam Nunn, toured the Shchuchye Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility (CWDF), located near Chelyabinsk, Russia, where the Nunn-Lugar program is providing assistance for design and construction of the CWDF. The tour and site visit was a part of their ongoing activities in Russia in celebration of the 15^th Anniversary of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program.

At Shchuchye, the United States, Russia, Canada, the Czech Republic, the European Union, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are working together to build a facility to eliminate more than 2 million artillery rounds and warheads filled with sarin, soman and VX agent currently in storage at Shchuchye, in the Kurgan Oblast of Russia. The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) has also contributed to the infrastructure around the site, to assist in the construction of a bridge for the safe and secure transport of chemical agents to the CWDF. The efforts of the these nations and NTI augment and the work the Nunn-Lugar program is undertaking with Russia to construct the CWDF to eliminate these weapons in accordance with Russia’s responsibilities under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

“I have visited Shchuchye on two previous occasions,” noted Senator Lugar, “and I am convinced that the weapons stored here must be dismantled quickly and safely. I look forward to the day when the last of these horrific weapons are eliminated and a dire threat they pose to all nations is removed. Progress on this project has been a particular focus of mine for the last seven years, seeking amendments to permit construction to continue and making sure that my colleagues in Congress understand the necessity of this work. My visit here today with Sam Nunn marks an important milestone in this program and on this site, a place where the security of the world is being guaranteed. The weapons destroyed here are highly portable and attractive to terrorists the world over. This project is essential to the national security of the United States. I have personally expressed my firm desire to see success here to President Bush, Secretary Rice and others, and, with dedicated efforts, we are succeeding.”

In November 1991, Lugar (R-IN) and Nunn (D-GA) authored the Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. This program has provided U.S. funding and expertise to help the former Soviet Union safeguard and dismantle its enormous stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, related materials, and delivery systems. In 2003, Congress adopted the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, which authorized the Nunn-Lugar program to operate outside the former Soviet Union to address proliferation threats. In 2004, Nunn-Lugar funds were committed for the first time outside of the former Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons in Albania, under a Lugar-led expansion of the program.

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard now totals 6,982 strategic nuclear warheads deactivated, 653 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed, 485 ICBM silos eliminated, 101 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed, 613 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) eliminated, 436 SLBM launchers eliminated, 30 nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles destroyed, 155 bombers eliminated, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) destroyed, 194 nuclear test tunnels eliminated, 355 nuclear weapons transport train shipments, 12 nuclear weapons storage site security upgrades, and 9 biological monitoring stations built and equipped. Perhaps most importantly, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan are nuclear weapons free as a result of cooperative efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program. Those countries were the third, fourth and eighth largest nuclear weapons powers in the world.

Beyond nuclear elimination, the Nunn-Lugar program secures and destroys chemical weapons and biological weapons, and has worked to reemploy scientists and facilities related to weapons of mass destruction in peaceful research initiatives. The International Science and Technology Centers, of which the United States is the leading sponsor, engaged 58,000 former weapons scientists in peaceful work. The International Proliferation Prevention Program has funded 750 projects involving 14,000 former weapons scientists and created some 580 new peaceful high-tech jobs.

Lugar makes annual oversight trips to Nunn-Lugar sites in the former Soviet Union.

On the web:

The Nunn-Lugar program: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/scorecard.html

The Nuclear Threat Initiative: www.nti.org

The annual CTR report has details on the program: http://www.dtra.mil/documents/oe/ctr/FY08%20CTR%20Annual%20Report%20to%20Congress.pdf.

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