Nuclear "bunker-buster" warhead plan...In the energy dept. bill??

[gatorboy]

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has abandoned research into a nuclear "bunker-buster" warhead, deciding instead to pursue a similar device using conventional weaponry, a key Republican senator said Tuesday.

Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., said funding for the nuclear bunker-buster as part of the Energy Department's fiscal 2006 budget has been dropped at the department's request.

The nuclear bunker-buster had been the focus of intense debate in Congress, with opponents arguing that its development as a tactical nuclear weapon could add to nuclear proliferation.

An administration official, speaking on condition on anonymity because negotiations on the department's spending bill have not yet been completed, confirmed that a decision had been made to concentrate on a nonnuclear bunker-buster.
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Okaayyyy, so maybe I don't know how this works. But how does the Energy Dept. benefit from nuclear warhead plans? I mean, sure, you're using energy to vaporize other countries but shouldn't this be a plan more suited for a military budget? Was this snuck in so it would pass?
I was always under the assumption that the energy dept was for...uhhh locating energy...For us. :shrug:

[Kenroy]

1. Wow...

I scanned the story, but missed the fact that it was in the energy department bill. How fucked is that? The Department of Energy isn't supposed to be developing weapons.

[gatorboy]

2. That's what I'm saying!

I can't say :wtf: enough!

[Zynx]

3. Department of Energy handles nuclear weapon work. Has for a long time.

[Kenroy]

4. Well, define "handles"

do they develop new weapons?

On edit:

I guess they do! I was unaware of this. According to the DOE website:

Defense Strategic Goal: To protect our national security by applying advanced science and nuclear technology to the Nation’s defense.

[Dudley_DUright]

5. All the nuclear weapons labs like Los Alamos and Sandia

are under Department of Energy control.

[MercutioATC]

6. Exactly.