Opinion

Sensible Stewardship of Our Nuclear Weapons

Re “As Energy Secretary, Perry May Be Pressed to Resume Nuclear Tests” (news article, Dec. 28):

Rick Perry, if confirmed as energy secretary in the Trump administration, will indeed be under pressure to resume nuclear explosive testing and to build new types of nuclear warheads. But your article understates the powerful logic in favor of maintaining the current bipartisan consensus against both.

First, there is no technical reason to resume testing to maintain our current arsenal. Last year, the three nuclear weapons lab directors reported that the country was in a better position to maintain the nuclear arsenal with its multibillion-dollar science-based stockpile surveillance and refurbishment system than it was during the era of test explosions, which ended more than 20 years ago.