Ted Turner, Sam Nunn announce Nuclear Threat Initiative

CNN founder Ted Turner

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CNN founder Ted Turner and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia on Monday announced a private foundation dedicated to lessen the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction -- nuclear, chemical and biological -- around the globe.

The announcement of the Nuclear Threat Initiative follows a feasibility study that began in July under the direction of Nunn.

Turner says his goal is to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. Nunn says he lauds Turner's goal but doesn't yet see it as feasible.

Turner pledged a budget of $50 million per year over the next five years to support the foundation that will be led by Nunn and work in concert with governmental and private efforts internationally.

The announcement was made at the National Press Club, where Turner urged media to help the foundation in its efforts to increase awareness and understanding of the scope of the nuclear threat.

The issue "seems to have fallen off most people's radar screens..." since the end of the Cold War, Turner said. Yet the United States and former Soviet Union states still have thousands of nuclear weapons on hand and "on high alert," he said.

Former Sen. Sam Nunn

Turner said the threat of intentional nuclear exchange may indeed be diminished from the Cold War era, but the threats posed by security issues and deteriorating control technology have increased, and the possibility of an "accidental exchange is not out of the question."

Turner said Nunn's undertaking would be to "take pragmatic and effective steps to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction as comprehensively and urgently as is feasible."

Nunn said the emphasis of the foundation will be to "reduce the pressure on the nuclear trigger."

He said that in order to reduce nuclear proliferation, the foundation would strive to bring trust and accountability to the process.

Turner said he personally advocates the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction as soon as possible. "If fewer is better, then zero is best," he said.

Nunn said he respects Turner's goal but doesn't yet see it as feasible "until much greater progress has been made in addressing the current dangers of nuclear use and proliferation, and in transforming the world by building transperancy, trust and new means of verification and security."

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National Press Club
Abolition 2000: a global network to eliminate nuclear weapons
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Doomsday Clock
Nuclear Control Institute (NCI), Washington D.C.

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