New research and development efforts at the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, owned by the Energy Department, might lead to a resumption of nuclear testing, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today (see GSN, Aug. 16).

The three U.S. weapons laboratories — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico — are working on a number of new nuclear weapons research projects, such as smaller “bunker-busting” warheads and new plutonium “pits,” or triggers, for existing warheads (see GSN, Sept. 20).  The U.S. Congress has also approved millions of dollars in funding to reduce the time needed to prepare the Nevada Test Site for additional testing (see GSN, Sept. 17).

While the Bush administration has not yet formally requested permission to conduct an actual nuclear test, the more the U.S. military demands from research, the greater the need for new tests will become, weapons laboratory officials said.

“My view right now is there is no need to go back to testing,” said Michael Anastasio, director of Lawrence Livermore.  “But if the country demands more of us, the need for testing goes up.”

Experts warned against introducing new or modified warheads to the U.S. nuclear arsenal without testing.

“Certainly, you have to test whether it [a bunker-buster warhead] is going to survive after it goes into the ground,” said Harold Agnew, former director of Los Alamos.  “No amount of computer testing can do the job” (see related GSN story, today).

If the new plutonium triggers are deployed, even in old nuclear warheads, “it would be the first weapon put into the stockpile without a test,” which would be extremely risky, said Don McCoy, a senior weapons scientist at Los Alamos.

Increased Morale

The expanded research and development efforts at the U.S. weapons laboratories have led to increases in funding and morale, according to the Chronicle.  Two years ago, the laboratories were criticized for a number of security lapses, including the Wen Ho Lee espionage case (see GSN, Jan. 15), and critics called for reduced funding and staff.

Now, funding for the laboratories has increased to $6 billion this fiscal year, up from $3.2 billion in fiscal 1995, the Chronicle reported.  The laboratories’ funding levels are expected to increase even further if some programs are funded directly by the planned homeland security department, as has been proposed, according to the Chronicle.

“I actually had a fear for the future viability of the lab,” Anastasio said.  “It just feels very different now.  It’s a positive tone as opposed to a going-out-of-business tone” (James Sterngold, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 22).

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