U.S. Redesigning Atomic Weapons

New York Times | 2/7/05 | WILLIAM J. BROAD

[wagglebee]

Worried that the nation's aging nuclear arsenal is increasingly fragile, American scientists have begun designing a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be sturdier and more reliable and to have longer lives

Of course the New York Slimes fails to mention that their pal BJ Klintoon did absolutely nothing to maintain our vital weapons programs.

[dgallo51]

No! He outsourced that job to China.

[wagglebee]

Oh yeah, how dumb of me -- Klintoon put his Chicom comrades in charge of our nuclear program.

[Logophile]

Some critics say checking the reliability of the new designs is likely to require underground testing, violating the ban and inviting other nations to do the same, thereby endangering American security.

Am I the only one here who wonders whether these unnamed "critics" really exist?

[Thebaddog]

I'm betting that this is a subtle way of saying that everybody has our designs so we are starting over with better security this time.

[darth]

If Kerry had won and the leftist dims had their way America would have been disarmed by the slow corrosion of our nuke arsenal....unilateral disarmament by neglect.

[wagglebee]

The author probably took lessons from Jayson Blair.

[granite]

Asked about a possible attack by the United States or Israel, which have both said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable, Rohani said: "If such an attack (against Iran's atomic facilities) takes place then of course we will retaliate and we will definitely accelerate our activities to complete our (nuclear) fuel cycle." Speaking in a rare interview, Rohani said Iran's ability to produce its own nuclear parts had made it "invulnerable" to attack since it could simply rebuild whatever was destroyed.

[Mad Mammoth]

But critics say it could needlessly resuscitate the complex of factories and laboratories that make nuclear weapons and could possibly ignite a new arms race.

Screw the critics, they don't know s--t from shinola, and in that same spirit, maybe they could explain just WHO they think is going to engage in a 'new arms race' with the United States? Who has the military industrial base to do this effectively and actually compete with us?

As for spending only 9 million on modernization of our nuclear arsenal? Holy smokes, make it 9 BILLION and do it all, and do it right!

[wagglebee]

Correction:
If sKerry had won, our entire nuclear arsenal would have been put under the control of Kofi Annan and the UN at 12:01PM on January 20, 2005.

[King Prout]

got news for the critics: there already IS a new arms race going.

[BCrago66]

Don't know how to link?

[wagglebee]

Try this page, it will explain everything.
http://htmlgoodies.com/

[granite]

TEHRAN (Reuters) - "But I do not think the United States itself will take such a risk ... They know our capabilities for retaliating against such attacks," the mid-ranking cleric added.

[wagglebee]

I wonder what sort of things the Japanese leadership was saying during the summer of 1945.

[devolve]

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[mad_as_he$$]

You mean Poor old Slim Pickens coulda been riding a dud?

[spinestein]

[Experts say a costly federal program to assess and maintain their health cannot ultimately confirm their reliability because a global test ban forbids underground test detonations.]

I can think of another way to test them.

[Redbob]

"...critics say it could needlessly resuscitate the complex of factories and laboratories that make nuclear weapons and could possibly ignite a new arms race."

Between us and who?
Cuba?
Canuckistan?

Ireland?

[Bones75]

So the expected lifetime was 15 years, and most of them are older than 20 years. Should I be more worried than I am? I was under the assumption they are indeed quite old, but will still do the job if asked.

Question: This expected 15 year lifespan, is this in reference to the wear and aging of the overall mechanicl and electronic components of the weapon, or the nuclear decay of the isotopes cores themselves? (i.e. the Pu-241 pits, etc?)

Is there a chance our weapons may fizzle if used due to the fact that the core metals have decayed into other elements, or will we just get a much lower yield?

Any experts out there?

Bones