Bunker-busting mini-nukes

US plans bunker-busting 'mini-nuke'
By Gay Alcorn, United States Correspondent, The Age
March 20 2002

The Bush administration will begin work on new "bunker-busting" nuclear
weapons next month, signalling a dramatically different American approach to
nuclear strategy.

The White House, while playing down the significance of the Pentagon's
leaked Nuclear Posture Review, is pushing ahead with one of its key
recommendations: "mini-nukes", or low-yield nuclear weapons that could
penetrate hundreds of metres underground to blow up stores of weapons of
mass destruction in countries such as Iraq.

Mini-nukes are emerging as the most radical change to nuclear policy in at
least a decade. They are part of what the USA Today newspaper yesterday
reported was a vigorous rejuvenation of the American nuclear program, which
has been in decline since 1991, when former president George Bush senior
halted development of a short-range attack missile warhead and stopped all
nuclear weapons research, including weapons testing, the following year.

But the former president's son is pushing forward with new urgency since the
terrorist attacks of September 11, in the belief that the threat of a
pre-emptive mini-nuke strike could deter so-called "rogue" nations from
launching chemical, biological or nuclear attacks.

Critics say the approach represents a significant shift from a decade of
international consensus that nuclear weapons were so destructive they should
never be used as a first-strike option.

USA Today, citing Energy Department documents, said the administration
planned to adopt the Pentagon's recommendation to reassemble teams at the
nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories to study the feasibility of
mini-nukes and to shorten the time needed to conduct nuclear tests from two
years to several months.

The United States has not conducted a nuclear test since 1992, and has
pressured countries such as India and Pakistan to stop testing their nuclear
weapons. The administration says it has no plans to resume testing, but it
has not ruled it out. President Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, but the Senate did not ratify it; the Bush
administration opposes it.

The National Nuclear Security Administration's deputy administrator for
defence programs, Everet Beckner, told the newspaper that designers would
work on a $US40 million-$50 million ($80 million-$100 million)
"bunker-busting" study and would seek Congress' approval before designing a
weapon. The US already has one nuclear weapon that can burrow underground,
the B61 Mod 11 gravity bomb, but it is considered unable to penetrate far
into hard ground to reach hidden facilities.

Part of the rationale for the study is to intellectually challenge America's
nuclear scientists [Isn't this very nice of the Administration? Sabri], said
to be suffering bad morale because there is not enough for them to do.

"Nobody wants to work here," a weapons designer at a nuclear laboratory in
California, Tom Thomson, told USA Today. "There's no sense of mission."

The discussion in the US about specially designed nuclear weapons revolves
around their possible use in Iraq, which is believed to have an active
biological and chemical, and possibly nuclear, program.

Last week, President Bush said "all options", including a nuclear strike,
were open to protect the US from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Yesterday, Mr Bush said he understood that Middle Eastern leaders were
stressing that the violence between Palestinians and Israelis was more
urgent than dealing with Iraq.

"I appreciate their advice," he said, "but we will not allow one of the
world's most dangerous leaders to have the world's most dangerous weapons
and hold the United States and our friends and allies hostage. That's just
not going to happen."

Gradually, the administration is building a case for action to overthrow
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Mr Bush's first term. The Washington
Times, a conservative newspaper with close links to the defence
establishment, reported that military combat units were beginning the steps
to prepare for war with Iraq, including updating contingencies and checking
readiness levels.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/03/19/1016519809236.html