Facilities planned that would repair old nukes designed to build new ones

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http://www.headwatersnews.org/HCN.carlsbadnukes.html

"The U.S. Department of Energy, wants to manufacture sphere-like “pits” of plutonium in facilities that were promoted as refurbishment centers for existing nuclear weapon stocks — as many as 450 a year — for use in thermonuclear bunker-busting weapons. The pits, also known as “triggers,” are essentially fission bombs: Each pit serves as a trigger for a nuclear warhead, setting off an even more devastating fusion reaction."

Promoters of these facilities, like Energy Sec.Spencer Abraham, even claimed that the facilities could one day be used for the dismantlement of nukes. But the reality is that the administration has planned all along to use the facilities for the production of the next-generation of 'tactical' nuclear weapons; mini-nukes. As if we need a 'usable nuke'.

"New Mexico plans to produce 10 to 20 pits per year beginning in 2007 — a project with an estimated start-up cost of at least $1.5 billion — pit-facility supporters want even more. Nuclear analysts at the Natural Resources Defense Council estimate that the nation has more than 10,000 intact warheads, 5,000 pits in “strategic reserve,” and another 7,000 pits left over from dismantled warheads. What’s more, plutonium pits remain functional for at least 45 years, and possibly much longer."

"Radiation-exposure analyses estimated that the average worker in a 450 pit-per-year facility would be at risk of one fatal cancer every 4,900 years (though one opponent pointed out that, according to the Energy Department’s own statistics, a 1,000-worker facility would suffer about one fatal cancer every five years)."

Congress hasn't completely signed off on the projects and even slashed the administration's requests for the plants and for research on the bunker-busters as well, in July. I can't remember anyone approving tactical nukes. How are they moving forward without direct authorization? I'm not naive, I just don't have enough info.