Bush Administration to Renew Nuke Bomb Testing

Salt Lake Tribune | February 17 2005

WASHINGTON - Although scientists continue work on simulating nuclear bomb tests by computer, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday that the Nevada Test Site's ability to resume actual underground warhead detonations must be enhanced.
The Bush administration's commitment to step up preparations for a potential resumption of nuclear bomb testing in southern Nevada comes less than a week after the Utah Senate unanimously approved a House-passed resolution that urged the federal government not to "return to the mistakes and miscalculations of the past which have marred many Utahns" and that would create "a new generation of downwinders."

Thousands of Utah residents downwind of the Nevada proving ground blame atomic-bomb testing - which began in the 1950s and ended with a 1992 moratorium - for an airborne scourge of disease and death due to radioactive fallout.

Appearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Bodman said the administration wants $2 billion in the next fiscal year for the nuclear weapon stockpile stewardship program, which verifies that America's aging atomic arsenal remains operational.

Last year, a bipartisan congressional effort killed increased funding requests to allow an underground nuclear test to be carried out within 18 months if needed, rather than the current estimated preparation time of 24 to 36 months.

Although no such tests are planned, Bodman said the administration remains convinced the "readiness posture" of the nuclear proving ground must be enhanced.

"We will continue our efforts to maintain the ability to conduct underground nuclear testing and complete the transition to the 18-month test readiness posture that is mandated by Congress," he told the panel.

Bodman also said a $660 million funding request will keep on schedule a computer simulation project that will use data collected from more than 1,000 previous nuclear bomb tests to help certify stockpile readiness "without resorting to nuclear testing."

But he stressed the need to leave the door open to a resumption of testing in the event that future enemy threats or failures in the stockpile require actual detonation.

"Unanticipated events could include complete failure of a deployed warhead type or the need to respond to new and emerging threats," Bodman said.
The Department of Energy's 2006 budget request includes $4 million this year and $14 million next year to resurrect research on a potential "bunker buster" variation of an existing warhead to destroy buried enemy targets. Congress killed the so-called Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.

But some members of the Armed Services panel said Tuesday that they wanted to question Department of Defense leaders on whether there is truly a need for such technology.

Similar arguments have been raised in the House debate on the bombs by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.

"No one is going to argue about pursuing new technologies to address the threats posed by terrorists hiding in hardened or deeply buried sites," said Matheson. "But we should ask and answer this question about whether nuclear weapons, regardless of yield, can even get the job done."