Anti-nuclear proliferation and downwinder groups have criticized Bennett's past votes to fund research of modifying existing bombs into "bunker buster" bombs and low-yield "mini-nukes," claiming it could lead to a resumption of testing upwind from Utah.
Bennett says he is convinced the Bush administration has no plans to resume underground testing at Nevada's atomic proving grounds. Earlier this month he introduced legislation that would require congressional authorization, environmental impact studies and public health and safety reviews before testing could be resumed.
"I do not support efforts to disarm this country, but I cannot sanction activities which could endanger its citizens," he said in a statement. "Any decision to resume nuclear testing must be debated and approved by the Congress, not carried out in private by the executive branch."
Paul Van Dam, a former Democratic Utah attorney general who is vying to unseat Bennett in November, wants to permanently ban testing and opposes funding new nuclear weapons studies, arguing such studies threaten the health of future generations of Utahns and "takes away our ability to ask other nations to refrain from developing weapons of their own."
In anticipation of Bennett's scheduled Sept. 8 vote on the funding for nuclear bomb studies in the Senate Energy Appropriations Subcommittee that was postponed at the last minute, the nonprofit groups Physicians for Social Responsibility and HEAL Utah paid for radio ads urging listeners to ask Bennett to oppose the administration's funding requests.
In June, Utah's three House members - Republicans Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop and Democrat Jim Matheson - voted with an overwhelming majority in favor of a 2005 Energy Department spending plan that eliminates funding for the bunker buster and mini-nuke weapons studies and also rejects requests to get the Nevada Test Site primed to resume underground bomb tests within 18 months if needed. The bill included the GOP-led budget committee's scathing denunciations of the DOE's "obsession" to "advance the most extreme new nuclear weapon goals irrespective of any reservations expressed by Congress."
Yet three months after the House passed that trimmed-down budget, the Senate has yet to even get its version out of the subcommittee where Bennett is the third-ranking Republican.
"If the House's action . . . [is] sustained in this or future years, it would impede our ability to ensure the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham wrote Sept. 8 to Republican leaders of the House and Senate urging them to override the House version. "More broadly, it would disrupt critical elements of our strategy to adapt the nation's nuclear deterrent forces to the defense needs of the 21st century."
Utah anti-nuclear activists say they hope Bennett will reject the administration's overtures.
"The Rumsfeld letter shows the administration is twisting arms to feed its nuclear addiction, and that makes Senator Bennett's role all the more important," said Vanessa Pierce, program director for HEAL Utah. "Nationally, many organizations are turning their focus on the role Bennett plays in this decision because he comes from a state that painfully understands the ramifications from nuclear testing."
