Former Senator Sam Nunn and Senator Richard Lugar had the foresight to lead a bipartisan effort to create and fund the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR) as the Soviet Union faced rapid collapsed. The U.S. provided badly needing funding and expertise to assist in the dismantling one of the largest nuclear arsenals in existence. Over the life of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, over 7,500 former Soviet warheads have been deactivated. Without this timely assistance, both nuclear weapons and poorly secured nuclear material risked falling into the hands of rogue nations and terrorists. Much of this nuclear warhead material, which once was in bombs that threatened our existence, is now being used to power U.S. nuclear reactors. Senator Lugar has continued to champion the CTR to secure needed the annual funding to sustain this highly effective program.
Primary Source: U.S. State Department
Sam Nunn’s Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)
