Our work for nuclear abolition: Now more important than ever November 9, 2024

The bad news. Based on what we know from Donald Trump’s first term and from the Project 2025 agenda, we face serious challenges ahead.

• While no U.S. president should ever hold the sole-authority to launch a nuclear strike, Trump’s history of inflammatory and escalatory rhetoric is especially concerning, like his 2017 threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea. 
• During his first term, Trump recklessly withdrew from critical nuclear nonproliferation and limitation deals such as the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. Advocates like PSR must stay vocal and vigilant as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia is scheduled to expire in 2026.
• Project 2025 advises that the USA “Expand and modernize the U.S. nuclear force so that it has the size, sophistication, and tailoring to deter Russia and China simultaneously.” 
• Robert O’Brien, former National Security Advisor for Trump, has advised the new administration to to withdraw from the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and prepare to test nuclear weapons in the Nevada desert.  If the USA resumed nuclear weapons tests now, it would shatter a strong, near–universal norm that has held for 32 years. The United States signed the CTBT in 1996 but has never ratified the treaty. One hundred seventy-eight nations, 91% of all nations, have signed and ratified the CTBT. Only one nation has detonated nuclear weapons in the new millennium: North Korea. 
• We are committed to building a broad, inclusive coalition pursuing nuclear abolition alongside systemic justice for all will come under threat, and we know many in our movement feel threatened today.

The good news. PSR is part of a global community working for nuclear abolition, and this is an opportunity to be even more unified in our efforts.

• The international community banned nuclear weapons during the Trump presidency in 2017; we can and will still make progress towards disarmament despite who holds the button controlling American nuclear weapons. 
• Less than a month ago, the United Nations voted to produce a major new scientific study of the consequences of nuclear war. Health, humanitarian, and environmental concerns remain the most powerful argument for nuclear abolition. 
• On December 10, the Nobel Committee will award the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo — an organization of Hibakusha, survivors of the nuclear weapons. This is a massive win for our movement and will focus national and international media attention on the horrific effects of nuclear weapons and the heroic efforts of those who have been impacted the most. Watch the livestream of the Award Ceremony.

We‘ve got a plan to fight back. PSR will continue to push the administration, no matter the party, to actively pursue nuclear disarmament and to provide care and remediation for the environments and peoples affected by nuclear weapons testing and production. We have a bold agenda for the year ahead, including:

• 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the Trinity test as well as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. PSR will work with local organizers as well as national and international coalitions to commemorate this moment and to reaffirm our decades long refrain of “Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Never Again!”
• PSR will continue working for nuclear justice, ensuring that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is reinstated and expanded. Together with a strong RECA coalition that includes Downwinders, uranium miners, atomic veterans, Indigenous activists, allied organizations, and members of Congress, we had major wins in 2024, including a bipartisan 69-30 vote of support in the Senate, in March. Our champions in Congress have been re-elected, and we’ll be pushing for a RECA vote in the House during the lame duck session.
• In 2025, PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Environment & Health Programs will join forces on an ambitious program to invigorate and equip our community of young health professionals in their activism for justice, peace, and a sustainable planet. During Trump’s first term in office, young activists around the world mobilized in intersectional movements for change, and now is another opportunity to grow this new generation of powerful PSR leaders.

We need your help. In the face of disappointment, grief is an appropriate response. But we should also remember the famous last words from labor leader Joe Hill, “Don’t mourn, organize!” We invite you to join us in the fight, channeling your anxiety and anger into collective action. In times of great instability, our work — especially as physicians and health professionals — towards nuclear abolition is even more important. As a supporter of PSR, you are part of a powerful community working together for a peaceful, nuclear-free world. We need you as a partner in this advocacy.