Domenici: N.M. Business-Lab Invovlement in Nonproliferation Program Key to U.S. National Security
from the Office of Senator Pete V. Domenici
U.S. Senator Pete Domenici said the participation in a U.S. nonproliferation program by the national laboratories and businesses in New Mexico is working to ensure that foreign scientists who once specialized in weapons development do not end up working for rogue nations or terrorist groups.
Domenici today witnessed demonstrations of projects initiated through the U.S. Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP), a program administered by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Domenici was instrumental in the creation of IPP in 1993.
The demonstrations were presented through partnerships that involve Stolar Research Corp. of Raton and Canberra Aquila Inc. of Albuquerque. Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories also participate in the IPP program. As part of today's event, Stolar Research Corp. penned a new contract agreement with the Institute for Measuring Systems Research in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, to design and manufacture advanced radar equipment.
"Some may question where the IPP fits within our national security interests. But we must ensure that terrorist groups and hostile nations are not able to gain access to weapons of mass destruction. Programs like IPP are vital to meeting that challenge because we must engage the men and women who have the technical talents to design and build weapons of mass destruction," Domenici said.
"From its beginning, IPP has stood apart as the only program to fully engage U.S. industry in our nonproliferation goals. It boils down to promoting peace through technology commercialization," he said.
"I commend the spirit and dedication shown by companies like Stolar that are working to advance nonproliferation activities. Their participation in the IPP is rooted in our extraordinary national laboratories. But the success of the program also relies on the entrepreneurial spirit and expertise of American industry and the scientific and technical talents within the former Soviet Union," he said.
IPP involves three-way, cost-sharing partnershipsprivate U.S. industry partners, former Soviet weapons institutes, and DOE national laboratories. The goal is to transition former weapons scientists, engineers, and technicians into non-military, commercial applications for former Soviet weapons technologies. The nonprofit U.S. Industry Corp. (USIC) is an association of more than 160 American firms involved in IPP work.
Domenici noted that in the past four years, USIC-affiliated companies and their partners have created more than 2,800 jobs in the former Soviet Union, and hundreds of jobs in the United States. It is estimated that $186 million in IPP funding has attracted $195 million in private sector cost-shares.
Domenici is chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee that has approved a FY2007 funding measure that provides $28.14 million to continue IPP support.
Stolar Research Corp., employing more than 60 workers in Raton, today demonstrated IPP-related work on "drillstring radars" to improve coal, oil or methane gas drilling. It also demonstrated its advances into detection devices to locate plastic or metal landmines.
http://domenici.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=258346