US plans revamp of nuke arsenal

Worried that the nation’s ageing nuclear arsenal is increasingly fragile, US scientists have begun designing a new generation of nuclea...

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Worried that the nation’s ageing nuclear arsenal is increasingly fragile, US scientists have begun designing a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be sturdier and more reliable , federal officials and private experts say.

Officials say the programme could help shrink the arsenal and the high maintenance cost. Critics say it could possibly ignite an arms race.

So far, the quiet effort involves only $9 million for warhead designers at the nation’s three nuclear weapon laboratories, Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia. Federal bomb experts at these heavily guarded facilities are now scrutinising secret arms data gathered over a half century for clues about how to achieve new reliability goals.

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The relatively small initial programme, involving fewer than 100 people, is expected to grow and produce finished designs in the next five to 10 years. Most important, officials say, the effort marks a fundamental shift in design philosophy.

For decades, the bomb makers sought to use the highest technologies and most innovative methods. The resulting warheads were lightweight, very powerful and in some cases so small that a dozen could fit atop a slender missile. Other nations, behind the atomic curve, settled for less.

Now, US designers are studying how to reverse course and make arms that are more robust, in some ways emulating their rivals in an effort to avoid the uncertainties and deteriorations of nuclear old age. Federal experts worry that critical parts of the arsenal, if ever needed, may fail.

In late November, Congress approved a small, largely unnoticed budget item that started the new design effort, known as the ‘Reliable Replacement Warhead Programme’. Federal officials say the designs could eventually help recast the nuclear arsenal with warheads that are more rugged and have much longer lifetimes.