We must abolish nuclear weapons. Tensions keep rising between nuclear-armed U.S. and nuclear-armed Russia. Putin has withdrawn from the "New START" treaty. The threat of nuclear annihilation is greater now than it has ever been.

Mass murder is their only purpose. "Nuclear weapons should never be used and a nuclear war should never be fought, because everyone will lose," said several presidents, including Joe Biden. Faith leaders like Pope Francis call for abolishing nuclear weapons, asserting that it's immoral to possess them.

It's not only immoral, it's also illegal to possess nukes, since the International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was signed and ratified by the overwhelming majority of world nations and became law in January 2021.

Yet the U.S. possesses thousands of nuclear bombs. Think about the horror of the bomb that destroyed the city of Hiroshima in 1945. Most of the nuclear bombs we have today are 15 to 30 times more destructive than the Hiroshima bomb. Some are 3,000 times more destructive. Hard to imagine, but real.

We must eradicate nuclear weapons – before they eradicate us.

But wait – we’re making more nukes? The NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) is advancing a nuclear weapons "modernization" program, claiming without evidence that our nuclear bombs are "aging" and must be replaced with new ones. (Aging? The oldest nukes are a few decades old, yet the half-life of radioactive plutonium is 20,000 years.) As part of the "modernization" program, the NNSA has directed Los Alamos National Lab to greatly accelerate production of plutonium bomb cores. The plutonium core is the part of the bomb that causes mass destruction. They will soon be making at least 30 new bomb cores per year, every year, far into the future. 

How insane is that? We have to stop the production of nuclear weapons, not increase it! Then we have to dismantle our current arsenal.

Even the production of nukes risks a radiologic catastrophe. Making nuclear bomb cores involves processing tons of radioactive plutonium, the most toxic substance known, and creating tons of radioactive waste. Los Alamos National Lab is located in the middle of an earthquake hazard zone, and the area is regularly threatened by intense wildfires. If an earthquake or fire causes radioactive plutonium to escape into the air, it will travel on the winds for thousands of miles, and everyone who breathes even a trace of it will get cancer from it.

Nukes are a stunning waste of taxpayer money. To produce just one nuclear bomb core costs over $60 million. That's 700 nurses' salaries. To make 30 of them will cost around $2 billion each year – enough to solarize 175,000 homes. And the bomb cores are just one component of the multi-state nuclear weapons "modernization" program. The whole program is costing us $60 to $70 billion annually. We could end homelessness in the U.S. for $20 billion.

Some say we need all these nukes for our national security. They think having enough nukes to incinerate the world is a "deterrent" to other nations. But the opposite is true – our nukes threaten our security. The more nukes the U.S. has, the more nukes other nations get. The more nukes there are in the world, the greater the risk they'll be exploded – either intentionally by an insane leader or accidentally by a computer error or human mistake.

Our nation invented weapons of mass destruction and led to their proliferation around the world. Isn’t it our responsibility to lead the world in eliminating them?

Citizens must speak up now. We have to persuade Congress and the President to end nuke production and get busy dismantling them.

1) Call your senators and representative. The US Capitol switchboard will connect you: 202-224-3121. Tell them to STOP THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS "MODERNIZATION" PROGRAM, and redirect those funds toward dismantling our nuclear arsenal.

2) Contact the President:  whitehouse.gov/contact  Tell him to LEAD THE WORLD IN ABOLISHING NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

You'll notice this is not a typical petition – it's asking for more than a signature. By signing it you are confirming that you have contacted the White House and your members of Congress, or will do so. A flood of citizen comments will be needed to get the federal government to listen. Please speak up now.

Then please forward this to everyone you know who's concerned. 

A view of Hiroshima after the bomb