Enhanced Radiation Weapons Statement by the President.

I have decided to defer production of weapons with enhanced radiation effects. The ultimate decision regarding the incorporation of enhanced radiation features into our modernized battlefield weapons will be made later, and will be influenced by the degree to which the Soviet Union shows restraint in its conventional and nuclear arms programs and force deployments affecting the security of the United States and Western Europe.

Accordingly, I have ordered the Defense Department to proceed with the modernization of the Lance missile nuclear warhead and the 8-inch weapon system, leaving open the option of installing the enhanced radiation elements.

The United States is consulting with its partners in the North Atlantic Alliance on this decision and will continue to discuss with them appropriate arms control measures to be pursued with the Soviet Union.

We will continue to move ahead with our allies to modernize and strengthen our military capabilities, both conventional and nuclear. We are determined to do whatever is necessary to assure our collective security and the forward defense of Europe.

The President today announced the nomination of nine persons to be members of the Federal Council on the Aging. They are:

NELSON H. CRUIKSHANK, of Washington, D.C., currently Chairman of the Council, for reappointment;

FANNIE B. DORSEY, chairperson of the State Institute of Aging in Frankfort, Ky.;

HOBART C. JACKSON, SR., founder and first chairman of the National Caucus on the Black Aged and executive vice president and director of the Stephen Smith Geriatric Center in Philadelphia (reappointment );

MARY A. MARSHALL, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and chairman of the Legislative Study Commission on the Needs of Elderly Virginians;

WALTER L. MOFFETT, of Kamiah, Idaho, a Presbyterian minister and director of the Nez Perce Tribe Housing Authority;

BERNICE L. NEUGARTEN, a professor in the department of behavioral sciences and school of social service administration at the University of Chicago, past president of the Gerontological Society, and member of the governing board of the International Association of Gerontology;

JAMES T. SYKES, chairman of the Wisconsin Board on Aging;

FERNANDO M. TORRES-GIL, a lecturer at the Andrus Gerontology Center and department of sociology at the University of Southern California;

WESLEY C. UHLMAN, a Seattle attorney and former mayor of Seattle.