In These Times has a good article about the renewed efforts in the US since 9-11 to develop new, "more usable" types of nuclear weapons. Excerpt:
Nearly 20 years after the Berlin Wall crumbled, the United States is allocating more funding, on average, to nuclear weapons than during the Cold War. The Bush administration is pumping this money—more than $6 billion this year—into renovating the nuclear weapons complex and designing new nuclear weapons. Such hypocrisy is one of the main obstacles to nuclear arms reductions because it runs the risk of shattering the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in which the nuclear-armed states pledged to begin the process of disarmament if the non-nuclear states opted not to pursue the deadly technology.
Link: Duck and Cover: The Bush administration's "Complex 2030" plan is reviving the nuclear threat.
This article is from the May issue. Some good news is that last week the house panel voting on funding for the "RRW" program rejected it. From a statement by the Union of Concerned Scientists:
WASHINGTON (May 23, 2007) – In a dramatic rebuke to the Bush administration’s plans for new nuclear weapons, the House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee today eliminated funding for the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program, calling instead for a comprehensive nuclear strategy and stockpile plan. The RRW program called for spending $119 million to design the first of a new generation of nuclear warheads.
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