In September 1996, when President Clinton signed the "zero-yield" comprehensive test ban-a treaty outlawing all nuclear explosions-he managed to win over the treaty's strongest opponents. But this support did not come for free. The Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the weapons labs conditioned their approval of a test ban on a number of "safeguards." As part of the agreement, Clinton declared that if ever a high level of confidence in a certain type of nuclear weapon could no longer be certified, he would be prepared to invoke the supreme national interest clause under the test ban and conduct whatever nuclear testing may be required. "Exercising this right, however, is a decision I believe I or any future president will not have to make," Clinton's official statement read. His optimism may have been connected with another condition imposed by the military and the labs: full funding for the Department of Energy's Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program "over the next decade and beyond." The program is slated to receive about $40 billion over the next 10 years.

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