Free Republic

May 22, 2004 NEVADA FOCUS: Stewards of U.S. nuclear stockpile plan new testBy KEN RITTERASSOCIATED PRESS NEVADA TEST SITE, Nev. (AP) - At ground zero for the nation's nuclear testing, the stewards of the atomic stockpile stopped creating mushroom clouds and craters more than a decade ago. Now they devise complex underground experiments like the upcoming "Armando" test using radar, laser and X-ray imaging to explore the finer points of how plutonium performs in an explosion. Scientists call the experiments "subcritical" because they don't set off full-scale thermonuclear blasts like those that rocked the Nevada desert northwest of Las Vegas...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Senators from both parties have expressed concerns that continued research on a new "bunker buster" bomb could lead to a resumption of nuclear detonations at the Nevada Test Site. During a Senate energy and water subcommittee budget hearing Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she feared the Energy Department was "opening the nuclear door." She cited a report by the Congressional Research Service earlier this month that said the department plans to ask Congress to approve $485 million for the "bunker buster" bomb over the next five years. Lawmakers expressed concern the Energy Department was asking...

<p>Bush pushes for next generation of nukes By Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY MERCURY, Nev. — If the Bush administration succeeds in its determined but little-noticed push to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, this sun-baked desert flatland 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas could once again reverberate with the ground-shaking thumps of nuclear explosions that used to be common here.</p>