U.S. Plans to Modernize Nuclear Arsenal

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. Plans to Modernize Nuclear Arsenal

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 4, 2006; Page A02

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 F. 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 three to four 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.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030301757.html?nav=rss_nation

[Botany]

1. pissing money away .....

.... and Red China will win without firing a shot ..... they are financing this madness and
sooner or later will own us. Way to go bush & company.

[bpilgrim]

2. GIGADEATH

doesn't it just give you the warm-fuzzies, all over...

peace

[FloridaPat]

3. He's been working on getting more and better nukes since he's been

in office. Beware of what he's doing. The people running the pentagon were against all this, so he's been firing them slowly over the last few year and putting people in that agree with him. * is up to no good on anything having to do with nuclear bomb.

[TankLV]

4. Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck - in a handbasket.

Perversion rears its ugly head once again.

[daleo]

5. The Reliable Replacement Warhead

Why it sounds as harmless as a K-car.

[OneBlueSky]

6. ya know, the people running this government really are insane . . . n/t

.

[Judi Lynn]

7. US signals abandonment of nuclear disarmament

US signals abandonment of nuclear disarmament

March 04, 2006, 09:15 gmt



One of the remaining Fat Man atomic
bomb cases, identical to the one that
was used to drop the A-bomb on
Nagasaki at the National Atomic
Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico
© AFP/File Robyn Beck

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has signaled its apparent abandonment of the goal of nuclear disarmament "for the foreseeable future" as it embarked on a quest for a new generation of more reliable nuclear warheads.

Although the term "nuclear disarmament" quietly disappeared from the Bush administration's vocabulary long ago, the statement by Linton Brooks, head the National Nuclear Security Administration, marked the first time a top government official publicly acknowledged a goal enshrined in key international documents will no longer be pursued.

"The United States will, for the foreseeable future, need to retain both nuclear forces and the capabilities to sustain and modernize those forces," Brooks stated Friday as he addressed the East Tennessee Economic Council in the city of Oak Ridge, which is home to a major nuclear weapons complex.

"I do not see any chance of the political conditions for abolition arising in my lifetime, nor do I think abolition could be verified if it were negotiated," he pointed out.
(snip/...)

http://www.bakutoday.net/afp/english/shared/int/060304081535.b76w5gj2.php

[fujiyama]

8. And some wonder

why other countries feel the need to still pursue nuclear weapons.

Oh well, atleast they aren't even acting like they care. For once they just came straight out and said "yeah we don't give a shit - we're keeping these nukes and we'll build more...What ya goin' to do about it?"

Arrogance, hypocrisy, bravado, and hubris all mixed into one with this administration.

[saigon68]

9. Cheney and the Chimp would love to FRY a few brown and black men

They would however prefer to use NAPALM -- that way THEY could hear the darkies SCREAM and watch them WRITHE IN PAIN

THIS WILL SATISFY THEIR SICK SEXUAL URGES

[skyblue]

10. 1st build empire, then create nucular playland.

Then push the big red button.
3 states have missing nuclear fuel rods. VT, CT, and GA or SC I think.
What won't they do.