Britain “developing new nuclear weapon”: report

[TexasLawyer]

Britain “developing new nuclear weapon”: report
(AFP)

12 March 2006

LONDON - Britain has secretly been developing a new nuclear warhead in co-operation with the United States, a British newspaper revealed on Sunday. Work on the weapon has been underway since Prime Minister Tony Blair was re-elected in May last year, The Sunday Times reported, citing an anonymous “senior British source”.

The government pushed ahead with the project, while at the same time claiming that no decision had been made on what -- if anything -- would succeed Britain’s current Trident nuclear deterrent, the weekly said. The research is being carried out at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, southern England, according to the report.

Scientists want to produce a warhead using proven components to avoid breaching a ban on nuclear testing, according to the newspaper. The Reliable Replacement Warhead is being designed so that it can be tested in a laboratory rather than by detonation. “We’ve got to build something that we can never test and be absolutely confident that, when we use it, it will work,” the senior British source told The Sunday Times.

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http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/March/theworld_March271.xml§ion=theworld&col=

[ReadTomPaine]

1. “We’ve got to build something that we can never test ...

and be absolutely confident that, when we use it, it will work,”

There's so much wrong with this statement, I don't know where to begin.

[formercia]

2. I hope they do a better job than vehicle manufacturers.

See, Mate, just slap these two hemispheres of U235 together.

[daleo]

3. Shouldn't that be "if we use it"? n/t