Labs compete to make new nuclear bomb
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are competing to design the nation’s first new nuclear bomb in two decades. I forgot that Congress gave the okay for updated warheards, but it’s back in the news today. I wonder where the 6,000 bombs that need to be replaced are going.
Congress approved the new bomb, known as the reliable replacement warhead, with bipartisan support in 2005 as part of a defense spending bill. The weapon would, by law, have the same explosive power as existing warheads. Proponents of the project say the U.S. would lose its so-called “strategic deterrent” unless it replaces its aging arsenal of about 6,000 bombs, which will become potentially unreliable within 15 years. A new, more reliable weapon, they say, would help the nation reduce its stockpile.
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