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United States: U.S. “Bunker Buster” Development Worries Russia By David McGlinchey In 1994 the U.S. Congress banned research and development on nuclear weapons with yields below five kilotons, but the U.S. Defense Department has asked lawmakers to lift the ban. “Where did this talk come from to do away with the five-kiloton threshold?” asked Nikolai Voloshin, the head of the Department of Nuclear Ammunition Development and Testing at the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry. “The idea is being circulated to do lower yield charges, I question the thoughts of using such low-yield weapons, which means that nuclear weapons cease to be a deterrent and become combat weapons,” he told Global Security Newswire at an international security conference here organized by the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories. Earlier this year, in a draft of the fiscal 2004 Defense Department budget request, Pentagon officials told Congress the ban must be repealed to “train the next generation of nuclear weapons scientists and engineers.” The Pentagon needs a “revitalized nuclear weapons advanced concepts effort,” but the ban has had a “chilling effect” on any such initiative “by impeding the ability of our scientists and engineers to explore the full range of technical options,” according to the draft request. Developing the new weapons would not be exceptionally difficult, according to Voloshin. He questioned U.S. motives in publicizing the debate on potential new nuclear weapons. “No one denies it can be easily done, why bring all the hype about it?” he asked. He also criticized the U.S. approach to international arms control agreements, specifically the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the Bush administration does not support. “We are very concerned about why the U.S. has not yet ratified the CTBT,” Voloshin said.
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