|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
United States: U.S. Seeks Shortened Nuclear Test Readiness, Modified Nuclear Weapons A top U.S. nuclear official said that a nuclear readiness study completed last year has concluded “the right posture is to be ready for a test within approximately 18 months” (see GSN, Jan. 10, 2002). U.S. nuclear agencies currently operate under a 1993 order by then-President Bill Clinton to be able to resume nuclear testing in 24 to 36 months, Agence France-Presse reported. The transition to 18-month readiness will take about three years, according to Linton Brooks, acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (Maxim Kniazkov, Agence France-Presse/The Australian, April 9). Earth Penetrating Weapons Officials last month delivered a study on the potential for modifying existing U.S. nuclear weapons to strike at deeply buried targets, according to Brooks. The delivery of the paper allows the nuclear agency to use $15 million to conduct cost and feasibility studies this month, the Washington Post reported. Scientists at two nuclear weapons laboratories would research the possibility of hardening existing nuclear weapons and attaching delayed fuses so the weapons can burrow deeper into the ground before detonating, according to the Post. Brooks told Congress that $6 million would be used to examine future nuclear weapons concepts “which someday may be needed.” Scientists plan to research a weapon to be used “against a particular set of biological agents where a large burst of radiation could be used to kill such bugs,” Brooks said. He also told Congress that the existing 9-year-old ban on developing a low-yield nuclear warhead has had “a chilling effect” on nuclear research and is “an artificial intellectual restraint” (see GSN, March 7). Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) objected to Brooks’ desire to repeal that ban, the Post reported. Reed said that developing new nuclear weapons would undermine U.S. nonproliferation efforts (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, April 9).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
