U.S. defends plutonium tests in response to protests from Hiroshima
Jun. 29, 2011
U.S. officials have defended the recent experiments conducted by the United States to examine the effectiveness of nuclear weapons using minute amounts of plutonium in letters to local leaders in Hiroshima, the Hiroshima prefectural and city governments said Tuesday.
Replying to letters from the leaders protesting against the tests conducted in March and last November, the officials said the experiments ''support'' President Barack Obama's speech made in Prague in April 2009, in which he declared his intention to create a world free of nuclear weapons and said it is time for nuclear weapons testing to be banned.
The officials' letters noted that the experiments conducted using the Sandia National Laboratory's ''Z Machine'' in New Mexico in March ''produce essential scientific data and technical information'' as part of efforts to ''maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without conducting underground nuclear tests.''
One of the letters, signed by U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, was addressed to Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki, and the other was addressed to Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and signed by Robert Luke, minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Yuzaki and Matsui had separately sent letters of protest to Obama in May.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on June 28, 2011)
Replying to letters from the leaders protesting against the tests conducted in March and last November, the officials said the experiments ''support'' President Barack Obama's speech made in Prague in April 2009, in which he declared his intention to create a world free of nuclear weapons and said it is time for nuclear weapons testing to be banned.
The officials' letters noted that the experiments conducted using the Sandia National Laboratory's ''Z Machine'' in New Mexico in March ''produce essential scientific data and technical information'' as part of efforts to ''maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without conducting underground nuclear tests.''
One of the letters, signed by U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, was addressed to Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki, and the other was addressed to Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and signed by Robert Luke, minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Yuzaki and Matsui had separately sent letters of protest to Obama in May.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on June 28, 2011)
