|
Congress rejects nuclear projects Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10250351.htmhttp://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10250351.htm
Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004
Congress rejects nuclear projects
The bipartisan vote kills research into bunker busters and low-power warheads
JONATHAN S. LANDAY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The Republican-led Congress has rejected the Bush administration's request for $36 million to study new low-power nuclear warheads and a weapon that could smash into deeply buried bunkers.
Though the administration could try to restore the funds, the bipartisan actions suggested that several of President Bush's most contentious defense initiatives could be dead. The decision last weekend was overshadowed by the controversy over the collapse of White House-backed intelligence reform legislation.
"Bipartisan rejection of the funding requests sends a strong signal that Congress does not buy the administration's flimsy arguments for new nuclear weapons and new nuclear missions," asserted Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, an advocacy group.
Brian Wilkes, a spokesman for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, which oversees the nation's nuclear weapons programs, said the agency was disappointed that Congress denied the funds for the bunker buster study and new weapons research.
"We are going to take some time to look at the numbers and assess what we are going to do," he said.
Critics argued that the nuclear bunker buster study, research into new kinds of nuclear warheads and the administration's other nuclear weapons initiatives undermine U.S. security by encouraging other countries to develop nuclear arsenals.
"It's a little hard to tell other countries of the world not to develop nuclear weapons or new nuclear weapons when . . . we are going to do it," said Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, who led a bipartisan effort to eliminate the funds.
Hobson said that at a time that the federal budget is under serious strain, the funds were better spent on efforts such as ensuring that the nation's existing nuclear weapons remain safe and dependable as they age.
The House of Representatives and the Senate last weekend approved a $388 billion spending package to fund scores of domestic government agencies whose 2005 budgets hadn't been passed before Congress adjourned for the Nov. 2 elections.
Stripped from the NNSA appropriation was $27 million to complete a three-year study by the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos nuclear laboratories into whether two existing models of nuclear warheads could be modified into a weapon that could destroy deeply buried underground facilities.
Administration officials contend that the United States might require such a weapon because potential foes, such as North Korea, have been building hardened underground facilities that could be used to produce and store chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
They argue that a weapon that could burrow deep into earth and rock before exploding might destroy enemy underground bunkers without releasing large amounts of radioactive fallout that could kill large numbers of civilians.
But many experts contend that it would be impossible to limit such fallout or produce a casing for a weapon that could withstand the impact of being dropped from high altitudes.
"At the end of the day, there are many people who don't believe it will work anyway," Hobson said. "I don't see wasting the money."
|
|
