Twenty-two of the nation’s most eminent physicists sent a letter to Congress this month urging it to restrict President George W. Bush’s authority to order the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states without prior congressional approval.
UCSD physics professor Jorge Hirsch holds a petition signed by 21 other prominent physicists, written to urge Congress to restrict the president’s power to use nuclear weapons.
The physicists expressed alarm about the president’s public statement last April that a nuclear strike against Iran is “”on the table”” as an option to deal with strained relations with Tehran.
The letter was spearheaded by Jorge Hirsch, a UCSD professor of physics, and co-authored by 12 Nobel laureates, as well as the current and three past presidents of the American Physical Society.
Although the Bush administration is suspicious of Iran’s civilian nuclear program, the nation is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has agreed to allow its nuclear developments to be monitored on camera by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.
According to Hirsch, the IAEA has found no indication that Iran has breached the NPT by building weapons of mass destruction.
Under the document, the United States is also committed to reduce its stock of nuclear weapons, which the president has failed to do, Hirsch said.
Thousands of centrifuges are needed to enrich enough uranium to produce the amounts of energy required for civilian use, according to Hirsch. Iran currently possesses 164 centrifuges, he said, so even if the country ran all of its centrifuges continuously, it would take 28 years to make a single nuclear bomb at that capacity.
“”In general, against non-nuclear states, there would not be such an emergency that Congress would not have the time to react, so the executive should not have the sole power to make the decision,”” Hirsch said.
Other scientists echoed Hirsch’s sentiments.
“”I find it very scary that weapons as destructive of human life as nuclear weapons can be launched by us, or by anyone, on the authorization of a single individual, like the president,”” said George Trilling, an emeritus professor of physics at UC Berkeley and former president of the APS, who also signed the letter.
The letter emphasized the potential negative implications associated with the use of a nuclear weapon.
“”Employment of nuclear weapons would kill [an] untold number of innocent civilians in the target area, and the associated radioactive fallout could kill many thousands in other countries very far from the target,”” the letter stated. “”If the victim is a non-nuclear weapon state, such action would destroy, or at the very least severely undermine, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with disastrous consequences for U.S. and world security.””
In fact, according to Stanford physics professor and Nobel laureate Douglas Osheroff, using nuclear weapons as an act of preemption against any non-nuclear state, even one that is trying to build nuclear weapons unlawfully, will only serve to “”escalate the instability of the world to unacceptable heights.””
“”In the case of non-nuclear states, the U.S. is not in imminent peril,”” Osheroff said. “”Therefore, considering the use of nuclear weapons is not justified.””
Since the physicists have submitted their letter to each of the 535 members of Congress, only a small number of congressional aides have confirmed that the letter has been received, and no information has been provided on whether any action will be taken.
“”My hope is that this letter will inspire many other people, both scientists and nonscientists, to join their voices in asking Congress to legislate on this issue,”” Hirsch said.
