December 26, 1998 The New York Times
WISE RESOURCE USE
To the Editor:
Re "Civilian Reactors Could Be Used to Make Warhead Material" (news
article, Dec. 23):
Kudos to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, who has put the national
security and the taxpayer ahead of special interests.
By choosing to use existing reactors producing electric power to make
tritium gas for United States nuclear weapons only when needed,
Richardson avoids spending $6 billion for a particle accelerator or $2.3
billion for a reactor to do the same job.
If political pressures forced such wasteful spending to buy an essential
supply for our armory, our country and our security would indeed be at
risk.
RICHARD L. GARWIN
New York, Dec. 23, 1998
The writer is a senior fellow for science and technology at the Council
on Foreign Relations.
The Garwin Archive