Steady Work for Nuclear Dismantlers

"Anybody who's involved in dismantlement can look forward to a long career," said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Ploughshares-funded Federation of American Scientists. The New START treaty signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev would scale back strategic arsenals by 30 percent, capping deployed U.S. warheads at 1,550.   But while Obama's new nuclear policy includes general promises to step up the pace of dismantlement, the administration's budget request indicates that dismantlement is will not be accelerated significantly.   "If people favor dismantlement, then absolutely they should be embarrassed about the low rate," Kristensen said. "It's a much lower priority today."