Brian Howey: The destruction of a Soviet missile … under a rainbow

GEODEZIYA, Russia - A gentle rain began to fall on U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and the delegations of Americans and Russians as they headed into the crude cement and cinder block chamber where they would bear witness to history.

Before them stood an SS-25 missile motor, prepared for death. Outside this chamber about 18 miles from Moscow, the rain stopped and a brilliant rainbow appeared with the full spectrum of colors vividly on display. A few minutes later, Lugar and Nuclear Threat Initiative Chairman Sam Nunn, along with Sergey Nikolayovich Shevchenko who heads the Geodeziya facility, all traveled a mile away and entered a strange room with a pea green tint, smelling like a new shower curtain. Two television monitors sat on a table at the front of the room as close to 50 people gathered.

“Have there ever been three button pushers?” Lugar asked at one point, referring to the three buttons before them. Shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, American translator Arkady Morgulis could be heard: “Please prepare to put your fingers on the buttons.”

And at 5:34 p.m. Lugar, Nunn and Shevchenko did just that. A loud roar could be heard outside, akin to an airliner taking off. The walls rumbled. The senators sat, transfixed. The pitch and tenor of the roar grew, began to fade, grew once more, and then finally faded away with the rainbow. Inside the chamber a mile away, the temperature grew to 1,000 degrees centigrade as the SS-25’s propellants burned, destroying the missile. One of the TV monitors grew bright with the kind of light Robert Oppenheimer might have felt in the first split seconds at Trinity in the summer of 1945. It lasted about two and a half minutes.

For the first time in history, Americans had destroyed a Soviet era missile on Russian soil. Someone proclaimed, “Happy anniversary,” as the Nunn-Lugar program celebrated its 15^th year of existence. Nunn asked, “We’re going to view it?”

About 20 minutes later, the delegation returned to the burn site. The cinder and cement walls were still warm. They saw the hollow shell of the motor that could have transported the SS-25 into an American city.

“This used to be carried by rail,” Lugar said. “It could not be pinpointed by our bombers like an ICBM. This is true progress.”

By December, international observers will return to Geodeziya to inspect the burned out shells of some 12 other SS-25s.

After the post-burn tour, the delegation returned to a nearby building where they feasted on smoked salmon, caviar, turkey, ham and fruit. There were more than a half dozen toasts as bottles of locally-made vodka were opened. Lugar would only take a small sip (probably of water). He lauded the “patriotic Russians” who worked with the Nunn-Lugar program to destroy this missile and more than 100 like it in the coming months.

Nunn noted that the fissile material removed from the SS-25 and other missiles is processed into lower grade uranium. “Twenty percent of our electricity is fueled by nuclear power,” he said of U.S. energy needs. “Fifty percent of that fuel comes from the highly enriched uranium that has been blended down into energy producing fuel that was once on the end of a warhead that was aimed at America. So, by definition, 10 percent of the electricity in America comes from warheads that have been deactivated.”

Nunn, a potential 2008 independent presidential candidate, added, “The most important part is the foundation that has been built on trust and partnership. If we would work together as we do now, we can prevent catastrophic nuclear terrorism.”

Earlier in the day, the Americans had visited the Luch Rosatom facility at Podolsk south of Moscow. In 1992, a worker at the facility – Leonid Smirnoff – stole 1.5 Kg of highly enriched uranium and sought out terrorists to sell it to. When the first of $25 million Nunn-Lugar funds came into play at Luch, it was surrounded by a wooden fence. Today, it is secure; its storage has been reduced from 28 sites to five. Workers with access have been reduced from 1,600 to 300. A series of detectors prevent anyone from stealing the HEU. The plant now processes highly enriched uranium from 11 countries as the Russians and Americans seek to prevent terrorists from accessing the material that could easily destroy a city.

Dr. Ivan Fedik, who heads the Luch facility, said, “We are grateful that in a different time, you came to our assistance. This assistance has allowed us to conduct work with fissile material in a more safe fashion.”

Nunn would say, “The Old Testament talks of converting swords to ploughshares and that’s what we’re doing.”

On this Wednesday in August, they did it under a Russian rainbow.

Howey is publisher of The Howey Political Report at www.howeypolitics.com

Technorati Tags: Brian Howey Howey Political Report Howey Politics Indiana Politics Opinion Politics Richard Lugar Russia Senator Richard Lugar

• ‹ previous
• 2377 of 3858
• next ›