Energy Secretary Pushes to Ramp Up U.S. Ability
to Test Nuke Bombs
By Christopher Smith
The Salt Lake Tribune
Wednesday 16 February 2005
Washington - Although scientists continue work
on simulating nuclear bomb tests by computer, Energy Secretary Samuel
Bodman said Tuesday that the Nevada Test Site's ability to resume
actual underground warhead detonations must be enhanced.
The Bush administration's commitment to step up
preparations for a potential resumption of nuclear bomb testing in
southern Nevada comes less than a week after the Utah Senate
unanimously approved a House-passed resolution that urged the federal
government not to "return to the mistakes and miscalculations of the
past which have marred many Utahns" and that would create "a new
generation of downwinders."
Thousands of Utah residents downwind of the
Nevada proving ground blame atomic-bomb testing - which began in the
1950s and ended with a 1992 moratorium - for an airborne scourge of
disease and death due to radioactive fallout.
Appearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services
Committee, Bodman said the administration wants $2 billion in the next
fiscal year for the nuclear weapon stockpile stewardship program, which
verifies that America's aging atomic arsenal remains operational.
Last year, a bipartisan congressional effort
killed increased funding requests to allow an underground nuclear test
to be carried out within 18 months if needed, rather than the current
estimated preparation time of 24 to 36 months.
Although no such tests are planned, Bodman said
the administration remains convinced the "readiness posture" of the
nuclear proving ground must be enhanced.
"We will continue our efforts to maintain the
ability to conduct underground nuclear testing and complete the
transition to the 18-month test readiness posture that is mandated by
Congress," he told the panel.
Bodman also said a $660 million funding request
will keep on schedule a computer simulation project that will use data
collected from more than 1,000 previous nuclear bomb tests to help
certify stockpile readiness "without resorting to nuclear testing."
But he stressed the need to leave the door open
to a resumption of testing in the event that future enemy threats or
failures in the stockpile require actual detonation.
"Unanticipated events could include complete
failure of a deployed warhead type or the need to respond to new and
emerging threats," Bodman said.
The Department of Energy's 2006 budget request
includes $4 million this year and $14 million next year to resurrect
research on a potential "bunker buster" variation of an existing
warhead to destroy buried enemy targets. Congress killed the so-called
Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.
But some members of the Armed Services panel
said Tuesday that they wanted to question Department of Defense leaders
on whether there is truly a need for such technology.
Similar arguments have been raised in the House
debate on the bombs by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.
"No one is going to argue about pursuing new
technologies to address the threats posed by terrorists hiding in
hardened or deeply buried sites," said Matheson. "But we should ask and
answer this question about whether nuclear weapons, regardless of
yield, can even get the job done."