|
May 21, 2003
Senate votes to start research into low-yield nuclear
weapons
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
The Bush administration has won a big victory in its push to start
research into a new generation of low-yield and bunker-busting nuclear
weapons - which critics say would only increase the risk of global
nuclar proliferation.
In a vote on an amendment to the next year's $400bn Pentagon budget
bill, Senate Republicans overcame Democratic efforts to prevent the
repeal of a 10-year-old ban on research into these weapons, with a
yield of under 5 kilotons, roughly a third that of the Hiroshima bomb
of 1945.
In impassioned terms, a string of senior Democrats said that such
'mini-nukes,' if developed, would lower the nuclear threshhold. "If
we build it, we will use it, Senator Edward Kennedy declared, warning
of a "one-way street that leads to nuclear war." Illinois' Richard
Durbin was blunter still, calling the move "a declaration that America
is about to launch a nuclear arms race in the world again."
The Pentagon however has dismissed such concerns, arguing that it
merely wants to carry out research, and claiming that development
was another matter entirely, requiring separate Congressional authorisation.
"This is about studying such weapons, no more and no less," Donald
Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary said.
The argument revolves around two proposals. One involves low- yield
weapons for battlefield use. The other would authorise $15m of spending
on studies into ways of converting an existing weapon model into a
"robust nuclear earth penetrator" aimed at destroying command centres
and suspected germ and chemical stockpiles buried deep underground.
The current US earth-penetrating weapon is the B61-Mod 11, with an
estimated yield of 300 kilotons, which can slice through 10 feet of
frozen tundra or hard rock. An enhanced small weapon might achieve
a penetration depth of 33 feet or so, says the Natural Resources Defense
Council arms control group, but would still create lethal quantities
of radioactive fallout above ground. To inflict serious damage on
targets buried at 1,000 feet, a one-megaton bomb would be needed,
70 times the Hiroshima bomb, according to the NRDC.
But an equal worry is the probable damage to efforts to curb nuclear
proliferation, avowedly a top goal of the Bush administration. Republicans
argued that, unless the US beefed up its nuclear deterrence arsenal,
it would be unable to protect its national security. Some allies might
opt to procure nuclear weapons of their own in the belief the US is
unable to protect them. But Democrats and arms control groups say
that any sort of authorisation for mini-nukes would reek of hypocrisy
and undermine whatever credibility the US retains in its drive to
stop the spread of nuclear arms. They suspect that once again the
State Department is being steamrollered by the Pentagon.
"This is nothing more than 'workfare' for federal nuclear weapons
laboratories," the NDRC said, "and a retread of the very Cold War
policies this President Bush pledged to jettison."
COPYRIGHT: THE INDEPENDENT
|
|
