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Experts Debate Plans to Refurbish or Replace Cold War-Era U.S. W-76 Nuclear Warhead
Plans are under way to refurbish or possibly replace the U.S. stockpile of a Cold War-era nuclear warhead carried on submarines, while experts continue to question the weapon’s value, the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, July 27, 2004). There are about 1,500 active W-76 warheads in the U.S. arsenal, experts said. “It’s by far the most numerous,” said weapons experts Hans Kristensen of the National Resources Defense Council. Developed in the 1970s, the submarine-launched weapons are among the oldest U.S. warheads and at increased risk for corrosion, decay and other damage as they age, the Times reported. A planned $2 billion upgrade between 2007 and 2017 would extend the missiles’ lives by 30 years. The U.S. government is also considering replacing the W-76. “This is the one we worry about the most,” said Everet Beckner, defense programs director for the U.S. Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Experts and arms control advocates see problems with both plans. Former Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Richard Morse and other weapons scientists argue that problems with the warhead could cause it to explode with less than its intended yield, according to the Times. “What’s out there in those boats is at best unreliable and probably much worse,” Morse said. Federal officials deny Morse’s claims. Beckner said a March 24 meeting with Morse and three W-76 critics gave him “high confidence that this nuclear weapon is a good design, was built properly and will function if required.” Arms control supporters say that replacing the warhead in the U.S. arsenal could lead the government to resume nuclear testing and lead to a new arms race, the Times reported (William Broad, New York Times, April 3).
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