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U.S. Lawmakers Agree to End Ban on Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons Research
U.S. congressional negotiators yesterday agreed to overturn a 1993 ban on the research and development of low-yield nuclear weapons (see GSN, Oct. 20). The provision was included in a compromise version of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill that House and Senate conferees completed yesterday. While the lawmakers repealed the ban on researching nuclear weapons with yields below five kiltons, they ordered that Congress would need to approve any development or production activity (Representative Duncan Hunter release, Nov. 7). “The secretary of energy may not commence the engineering development phase, or any subsequent phase, of a low-yield nuclear weapon unless specifically authorized by Congress,” says the conference committee’s report on the bill (Mike Nartker, GSN, Nov. 7). The compromise bill would also fully authorize the Bush administration’s $15 million request to research the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator and its $6 million request to study advanced weapons concepts. Yesterday, however, House and Senate negotiators agreed to cut those requests in the fiscal 2004 energy appropriations bill (see GSN, Nov. 6; Hunter release).
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