[NukeNet] Latest AP on the RRW

[Marylia Kelley]

Hi, this is the latest from AP. This version is from the San Jose Mercury
News.

There is some not-quite-true/spun-to-death "info" at the end. For example,
the budget numbers are off. But, on the whole, a good story from Scott at
AP (who routinely does a good job). --Marylia

San Jose Mercury News
Livermore lab's design to update warheads
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press

The Bush administration selected Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's
design Friday for a new generation of atomic warheads, advancing a plan to
update the nation's arsenal amid criticism from nuclear weapons opponents.

The Lawrence Livermore design beat one submitted by Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico because it can be built with more certainty in the
absence of underground testing.

``Both teams developed brilliant designs,'' said Thomas P. D'Agostino,
acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The warhead would replace those now atop missiles on submarines, the most
numerous warhead in the U.S. arsenal.

Critics fear the project could send the wrong signal to the world at a time
when the United States and its allies are trying to curb the spread of
nuclear technology.

Feinstein opposed

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she was ``100 percent opposed'' to
the new program, even though the choice of Lawrence Livermore brings great
prestige, and possibly jobs, to her home state.

``What worries me is that the minute you begin to put more sophisticated
warheads on the existing fleet, you are essentially creating a new nuclear
weapon. And it's just a matter of time before other nations do the same
thing,'' Feinstein said.

The announcement comes at a time when the administration is engaged in
delicate disarmament negotiations with North Korea, which reportedly
possesses several nuclear weapons, and Iran, which the administration fears
wants them.

Iran recently called on the United States to abandon its nuclear weapons
program.

``Today is a sad day for global security,'' said Marylia Kelley, executive
director of Tri-Valley CAREs, a Livermore-area watchdog group. ``Our
government is sending a signal that will increase international
proliferation pressures and increase the nuclear danger.''

Underground testing

Opponents of the program also question whether a next-generation bomb can
improve reliability and safety if it cannot be tested. Congress has
financed the research on the condition that the redesigned weapon reduce
the need for underground testing, which can leave residual radiation.

The goal is to replace the arsenal of aging warheads with a generation
meant to be sturdier, more reliable, safer from accidental detonation and
more secure from terrorist theft.

The replacements will have the same explosive yields and other military
characteristics of the current weapons, officials said, a point that senior
administration officials have made to Russia in arguing that the new
weapons do not represent an expansion of the U.S. arsenal.

Even so, the potentially costly initiative faces an uncertain future and
has generated much criticism from skeptics who argue that a new design for
the nuclear arsenal is unneeded and a potential stimulus to a global
nuclear arms race.

Feinstein cited a report in December saying plutonium pits in existing
weapons have a lifespan of at least 85 years, leading critics to question
whether the new weapons are necessary.

``This is a solution in search of a problem,'' said Daryl G. Kimball,
executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association.
``There is an urgent need to reduce these weapons, not expand them. This
will keep the Chinese, the Russians and others on guard to improve their
own stockpiles.''

Leaps in computer modeling and experimental capabilities in probing the
internal structure of plutonium allowed scientists to draw up an
essentially new weapon without testing, said Bruce Goodwin, associate
director of defense and nuclear technologies at Lawrence Livermore.

Goodwin said he and his team were ``honored'' by the selection. Competing
designers at Los Alamos had won the last two races for supplying Navy
submarine warheads in the 1970s and 1980s, carving out a near-monopoly on
U.S. ballistic missile warheads and garnering responsibility for about
three-fourths of active U.S. weapons.

Many of the warheads in the nation's stockpile were designed and built 40
years ago, and their plutonium and other components are deteriorating in
ways researchers do not fully understand.

The government spends billions of dollars each year tending to its aging
stockpile.

Reopening facilities

As the program progresses over the next six years, Lawrence Livermore will
work closely with production plants, assuming Congress will pay for it, and
that manufacturing facilities that have been shuttered as the U.S reduces
its nuclear stockpile are brought back to life.

If funded by Congress, the new warhead developed with engineering
assistance from Sandia National Laboratories would be used on the Trident
submarine-launched ballistic missile system.

The administration's Nuclear Weapons Council found several proposed
features of the Los Alamos design ``highly innovative'' and said they could
be integrated into the future warhead design.

Glenn Mara, principal associate director for weapons programs at Los
Alamos, said his lab will review the design and has expertise in the
technology to trigger detonation.

Revamping the nation's warheads will nurture a new generation of nuclear
scientists and engineers, Mara said.

The United States has not built a nuclear warhead since 1991. The
government spends about $5 billion a year maintaining the weapons, and
engineers have patched problems by opening up warheads that were never
meant to be opened. The accumulation of engineering tweaks meant the bombs
have moved away from their original designs, with unknown effects.

The Livermore and Los Alamos labs set aside bomb-designing more than a
decade ago in favor of maintaining the current stockpile.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The New York Times and MediaNews contributed to this report.

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Marylia Kelley,
Executive Director

Tri-Valley CAREs
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA  94551

Ph: (925) 443-7148
Fx: (925) 443-0177
Web: www.trivalleycares.org
Email: marylia at trivalleycares.org or marylia at earthlink.net