Nuclear weapons: The next nuke

[struggle4progress]

Nature 442, 18-21 (6 July 2006) | doi:10.1038/442018a; Published online 5 July 2006
Geoff Brumfiel

... Harnessing the power of supercomputers such as Purple and data from past tests, US weaponeers are working feverishly on an ambitious programme to design a new nuclear warhead that they can certify will work — even without a test explosion. They claim that the new weapon will replace the ageing warheads in the US nuclear stockpile; that it will be safer and more reliable than existing designs; and that it will be easier to build and cheaper to maintain. Some designers informally call it the 'wooden bomb', because theoretically it will be able to sit on the shelf for years with little maintenance. Formally, the new weapon is known as the Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW ...

The debate over the RRW has its roots in the 1992 testing ban, instituted by the former President George Bush as the first step towards signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. The United States never ratified the treaty, but the government has maintained its voluntary moratorium on testing.

"The test ban symbolizes that the nuclear arms race is over," says Robert Nelson, a physicist and arms-control expert at Princeton University in New Jersey. As long as the United States doesn't test, he says, other nations —including nuclear upstarts such as India and Pakistan — feel enormous pressure to follow suit. And the ban gives the United States a huge advantage over other established nuclear nations, because it already has data from 1,054 nuclear tests. China, by comparison, has conducted only 45 ...

Weapons designers at Livermore and Los Alamos are now working on RRW designs as replacements for the United States' most abundant nuclear warhead, the W76, which is deployed on submarine-launched missiles. Eight W76s, each destined for a different target, can sit atop a single missile. But today, most missiles routinely carry four ...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7098/full/442018a.html

NPT? What NPT?

[populistdriven]

1. its already happening.

its already happening.

What do you think the deepest oil well (Chevron) drilled in the Gulf of
Mexico (28,000 + feet)(10 kilometers) and an earthquake have in common?
Chevron Jack #2 Oil Well. Surprisingly, Chevron announced (big
announcement not quiet) info on the well on September 8, 2006 like it
was big news even though the well was completed in 2004.

September 10, 2006 - Gulf of Mexico earthquake. Can you say "bunker
busting nuke test". I have not been able to gather specific info and/or
exact location of Jack #2 oil well, but it is very close to the
epicenter of quake. The USGS puts epicenter at 270 miles southwest of
Apalachicola, FL, which is also about 270 miles southeast of Louisiana.
Articles I have read indicate Jack #2 oil well from 175 miles to 275
miles somewhere south of Louisiana. This is way out there in 7,000 feet
of water.

Estimates of costs based on economic articles I have read would put oil
at $20,000 to $30,000 per barrel and indicate an increase of American
reserves by 50 percent.?????!!! It is not financially responsible, unless...
Crazy claims like "dredging sea floor for manganese nodules". Glomar
Explorer all over again.

Maybe they are using nuke to frac the formation for better recoveries?

Follow the money