The Hindu : International : U.S. nuclear warheads plan under fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 10, 2005

International

International

U.S. nuclear warheads plan under fire

By Julian Borger

WASHINGTON, APRIL 9. Democrats and American arms control groups warned yesterday that a new Bush administration scheme to replace ageing nuclear warheads could be used as a cover for the eventual construction of a ``black arsenal'' of new weapons.

The plan, known as the reliable replacement warhead programme (RRW), was unveiled this week by Linton Brooks, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Instead of maintaining the old stockpile by monitoring the warheads and replacing occasional spare parts, RRW would entail the design, production and deployment of a new generation of warheads. These would not require testing, and therefore would not break the U.S. moratorium on nuclear tests.

Mr. Brooks said the new warheads would be used in existing cold war era weapons.

The construction of a warhead production facility would also maintain the expertise and infrastructure for the U.S. to respond flexibly to new threats.

"A covert plan"

``We need to maintain the capability to respond to potential future requirements,'' he said.

Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat and one of the party's leading voices on military issues, alleged that the administration was using the scheme as a cover for developing a range of ``smaller and more usable'' weapons which were blocked last year by Congress.

``This administration doesn't take no for an answer,'' Ms. Tauscher told The Guardian. ``But every time we erect a fence they jump it.''

Congress blocked development funds for the proposed robust nuclear earth penetrator, a ``bunker-buster'' for destroying enemy stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction or underground command posts.

The legislature also stopped the advanced concepts initiative, a broad-ranging research programme for developing a new generation of weapons.

Opponents said both projects would undermine global counter-proliferation efforts and could eventually tempt policymakers to use a new generation of smaller weapons in a crisis.

Greg Mello, the head of the watchdog organisation the Los Alamos Study Group, said the RRW plan could have the same impact because it enabled the nuclear laboratories to custom-build small numbers of a range of warheads.

He said: ``It raises the spectre of a separate arsenal — a black arsenal beyond public oversight.

``This is a way to perpetuate the nuclear weapons complex in its full panoply of capabilities and to allow the U.S. nuclear stockpile to evolve for new missions under the guise of so-called reliability problems,'' Mr. Mello went on.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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