U.S. Redesigning Atomic Weapons

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

[Bones75]

Oops. grammar error. that's "...isotopes IN THE cores themselves..."

Bones

[Paleo Conservative]

Mecca would be an excellent location.

[UCANSEE2]

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.

"ah, you truly have seen, grasshopper!"

[PhilDragoo]

[spinestein]

[NUCLEAR weapons are complex systems made of many different materials and interconnecting components. The materials may interact with air, moisture, and environmental hazards during manufacture, shipping, storage, and assembly as well as with each other once they have been enclosed in the weapon. They may weaken, harden, corrode, or even fail. These changes in properties, whether chemical, physical, or mechanical, are often lumped together under the label "aging."]

The entire article can be found here:

http://www.llnl.gov/str/Lemay.html

[need_a_screen_name]

BTTT

[Myrddin]

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

During the "cold war" the principal nuclear armed opponents were the Soviet Union and the United States. We had detailed lists of nuke targets in the Soviet Union and we could assign our "assets" against the known threat. Today, nuclear weapons have proliferated all over the world. It it unlikely that we have the same level of detailed, comprehensive lists of nuclear weapons that could be directed at the U.S. Further, we probably don't have the inventory to do the necessary counter strikes. We need to refurbish the current inventory, update our intel on credible threats and add inventory as necessary.

I expect a nuclear weapon will be launched from a militant Islamic state or North Korea in the near future. The Russians and Chinese are enjoying too much prosperity from trade with the U.S. to kill the golden goose. The Islamic states simply hate us.

[Don W]

When I read such inflammatory drivel, I am more saddened than angered.

The vast majority of "Canuckistanians" I know both admire and respect the USA. Some have reservations about the WAY the USA defends and protects its interests, but that is semantics.

When you make a blanket statement like you did, it makes our job (conservative Canadians, Irish, and Cubans who wish to be freed from the grip of castroism) that much more difficult.

Of the 300+ seats in Canada's house of commons, there are only 26 LiEberals/NDP elected from west of the Ontario-Manitoba border. That compares with 66 Conservatives, and one independant from the same area.

Canada's conservatives are working hard to bring an end to the communization of our land. It would more behoove you to NOT make it more difficult than it already is.

[American in Israel]

I am sure they exist, and that they are died in the wool socialists. The American nuclear arms are directly in the way of their path to a new socialist utopia.

[Coleus]

And the democrats always fail that it was a democrat who developed the Nuclear bomb (Manhattan project) and a democrat who dropped not one but two nuclear bombs on civilians causing a lot of "collateral damage".

I always like to remind them of those two facts.

[loboinok]

Who has the military industrial base to do this effectively and actually compete with us?


CarrotAndStick posted an article 11/17/04
Russia Developing New Nuclear Missle

They will probably get most of their money from their new oil companys.

[Paul_Denton]

Klintoon. Worst president ever. I am against ANY AND ALL U.S. nuclear disarmament or signing treaties like the START series. We need to have the biggest, baddest, planet-destroying arsenal we can. It is ultimatly the only way to stay free.

[Rca2000]

One of the most volitale of the components that tend to be affected by aging is the tritium supply, this is needed by BOTH the primary(nuclear trigger, as it is called in h-bombs), and the secondary, or fusion section. This is a radioactive gas, held in an airtight resivor, but it tends to decay over time.In the primary, the tritium "boosts" the yield, so that a much smaller primary can deliver the yield needed to implode the fusion secondary, and bring it to fusion, which is where most of the nuclear yield comes from. Without the proper amount of tririum enrichment, the expected yield will be FAR less than expected, and if low enough, the secondary would not function to multiply the yield of the fission primary at ALL, and a 150kt., or so bomb, would end up with a yield of 10kt, or less, if this occurred, which might not be enough in a nuclear emergency.

[Boot Hill]

"This expected 15 year lifespan, is this in reference to the...nuclear decay of the isotopes in the cores themselves? (i.e. the Pu-241 pits, etc?)"

"plutonium-241, although fissile, is impractical both as a nuclear fuel and a material for nuclear warheads."   (source)

--Boot Hill

[Lexinom]

If credible, this makes us the new emperor with no clothes...

[Paul_Denton]

Better to be the empire in the eyes of the world and protect our selves than be admired but weak (such as during clinton's era).

[Bones75]

oops.. wrong isotope, maybe... Pu-239 ppssibly.

[KC_for_Freedom]

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

Critics of testing, or critics of our nukes? I believe if substantial changes in the fuzing desing are being contemplated, then the underground program should be restarted too, and BTW anyone else who needs to test will do so regardless of the treaty. How else are they gonna show us that they have joined the nuclear club?