(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and 18 U.S. House Republicans formed a coalition to press Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm over her agency’s offer for China and Russia to inspect a sensitive U.S. nuclear testing site.
Stefanik and other Republicans blasted Granholm in a Thursday letter for recently offering foreign adversaries “unprecedented access” to the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, according to Fox News.
In September 2023, the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration invited Chinese and Russian officials to tour the site to prove the U.S. is upholding a three-decade moratorium against testing nuclear weapons, as it was previously reported.
“I am leading my colleagues in demanding that President Biden revoke this misguided invitation to our adversaries in Beijing and Moscow that grants them unprecedented access and insight into our nuclear weapons. Inviting Communist China and Russia to have a front-row seat for our sensitive nuclear weapons tests will give them invaluable information on how to defeat our nuclear capabilities and improve their own,” Stefanik said.
She then added that inviting foreign enemies to take a look at your nuclear weapons is a very bad move.
“At a time when our adversaries are growing their nuclear stockpiles to undermine America’s leadership, allowing them access to one of our nuclear test sites will only advance this pursuit and lead to our own destruction,” Stefanik said.
The National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] invited Chinese and Russian officials to tour the Nevada site — the place where sensitive nuclear experimentation is conducted — during the latest International Atomic Energy Agency summit. It was also reported that the countries didn’t immediately respond to the offer, Corey Hinderstein, a senior NNSA official, said.
“The notion of granting America’s adversaries’ access to our military sites — and enabling them to gain information about U.S. nuclear capabilities — is deeply alarming and fundamentally absurd,” Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., one of the letter co-signers, said.
