[A-List] The real W'sMD culprit

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Saturday, March 04, 2006

U.S. plans to modernize nuclear armory


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is developing plans to design and
deploy refurbished or replacement warheads for the nuclear stockpile, and by
2030 to modernize the production complex so that, if required, it could
produce new generations of weapons with different or modified capabilities.

Referring to goals established two years ago, Ambassador Linton Brooks,
administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), told
the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces Wednesday that "we
will revitalize our weapons design community to meet the challenge of being
able to adapt an existing weapon within 18 months and design, develop and
begin production of a new design within 3 to 4 years of a decision to enter
engineering development."

A study by NNSA for restructuring the aging weapons complex, which includes
dealing with facilities that dismantle retired weapons, should be sent to
Congress this spring, Brooks said. Although there is some updating and
modernizing of the present complex, "full infrastructure changes ... will
take a couple of decades," Brooks said.

The first step in the long-range plan is focused around the Reliable
Replacement Warhead (RRW) program that was approved last year. That program
contemplates designing new components for previously tested nuclear packages
that would make the resulting bombs and warheads safer and more reliable
over the long term than older stockpiled weapons that are being refurbished.

The RRW warheads would create, Brooks said, a "reduced chance we will ever
need to resort to nuclear testing." In addition, he said, "Once we
demonstrate we can produce warheads on a timescale in which geopolitical
threats could emerge, we would no longer need to retain extra warheads to
hedge against unexpected geopolitical changes."

Under current plans, the number of deployed U.S. warheads on submarines,
missiles and bombers would be reduced to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012.
There would be an additional number, said to be above 2,000, that would
remain in a strategic reserve, and it would be the latter that could be
further reduced under the RRW program.

However, Brooks told the subcommittee that he believed more funds will be
needed to prepare for a new multibillion-dollar facility to produce "pits,"
plutonium triggers for thermonuclear weapons. There is controversy over how
reliable the plutonium pits are as they age because of radioactive decay.
Brooks told the panel the current belief is they are reliable for 45 to 60
years, but uncertainties have developed.

A small facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been established
to build pits, but its capacity will be 30 to 40 pits a year beginning in
2012, which Brooks described as "insufficient to meet our assessed long-term
pit production needs" created by the RRW warheads.

Brooks' description of the U.S. plan for nuclear weapons production came one
day before President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced
their agreement for sharing nuclear technology, while permitting India to
continue production of weapons-grade materials at one-third of their
reactors. It also came one day after testimony before the Senate Armed
Services Committee by Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency, described how India and other nations are moving
forward with their own nuclear programs.

"We believe that India and Pakistan ... continue expanding and modernizing
their nuclear weapon stockpiles," Maples said. "Pakistan has also developed
the capability to produce plutonium for potential weapons use."

He also reported that North Korea is continuing to produce plutonium for its
nuclear program and that China "is likely" to increase the number of its
nuclear-armed theater and strategic weapons and "has sufficient fissile
material to support this growth."

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