LIVERMORE, Calif., March 3 (UPI) -- California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been chosen to design the United States' first nuclear warhead in two decades. The Bush administration claims the program will improve the nation's security and allow the United States to reduce its weapons reserve, the Los Angeles Times said.
But critics say the government's haste to come up with a new hydrogen bomb contradicts its efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons elsewhere, the Times reported.
"I have serious concerns with the process leading up to today's announcement, and with the priorities of the Department of Energy," Rep. Peter J. Visclosky, D-Ind., chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that would fund the project, said Friday.
Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was also in the running for the warhead design contract. Sandia National Laboratories' California branch was part of both teams, the Times reported.
The Times reported that Livermore won the competition because its design assured it didn't need any underground testing.
Poster Comment:
More double standards.
We start a "war on terror", illegally invade another nation with no proof of them having done anything to us or anyone else, and in the process CREATE MORE "terror" than ever existed BEFORE the "war on terror" - AND THEN rationalize that we are justified in creating a NEW weapon which is arguably the ultimate weapon of terror and mass destruction... BUT if ANYBODY else wants to develop such a weapon we're coming after you...