WP: U.S. to Step Up Disassembly of Older Nuclear Warheads

[deminks]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302136.html?nav=rss_nation/nationalsecurity

The Bush administration plans to speed up the dismantling of old, retired nuclear warheads in coming years, in part to counter any impression that the United States is starting a new arms race with its work to develop a new generation of more reliable nuclear arms, according to U.S. officials.

Members of Congress have been pressuring the administration to step up the pace of dismantling the estimated 4,000 to 6,000 non-operational warheads in the stockpile. The exact numbers are classified, but congressional and administration sources say that in recent years fewer than 100 warheads have been taken apart annually.

One reason for the slow pace is that Pantex, the government production facility near Waco, Tex., could not handle much of the work at the same time that it is refurbishing thousands of operational nuclear weapons, officials said.

"There is not much dismantlement going on," Rep. David L. Hobson (R-Ohio) said in an interview yesterday, adding that the plant has encountered some difficulty in its program to refurbish and extend the useful life of warheads. "They only turned to dismantling when the production lines working on the life-extension program ran into trouble," he said.

[driver8]

1. That's because they need to make room for the new ones!!

"New and Improved", I think they call them.

[Sinti]

2. Yup, apparently they plan on building 100-some-odd per year

of the new, energetic, and happy kind - so out with the old, retired, and grumpy ones.

[Earth_First]

3. Comming soon to a railcar near YOUR home: nuclear waste. n/t

[FreakinDJ]

6. NO - recycle pluto

Don't want to discuss any thing that could be classified but.....

The optimum word would be "recycled" sprinkled with such buzzwords as "increased potential"

[oscar111]

4. ALL URANIUM BACK INTO THE GROUND.. man is not competent to handle it

Einstein said he would not push for the bomb, if he could relive his life.

[0007]

5. I'll vote for that.

"If the innocent honest Man must quietly quit all he has for Peace sake, to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered what kind of Peace there will be in the World, which consists only in Violence and Rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of Robbers and Oppressors.": - -- John Locke - (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist.