March 04, 2007	Sunday	Safar 14, 1428

WASHINGTON, March 3: The Bush administration is taking a major step towards building a new generation of nuclear warheads by selecting a design that is being promoted as safer, more secure and more easily maintained than today’s arsenal.

A team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will continue with designing the weapons design in anticipation of having the first warheads ready by 2012 as a replacement for Trident missiles on submarines.

The new weapons program, which has received cautious support from Congress, was immediately criticized by some nuclear non-proliferation groups as evidence the government wants to expand nuclear weapons production, not move toward eliminating the stockpile.

Critics also maintain that it sends the wrong signal around the world by pushing a new warhead, although characterized as a replacement for existing ones, at a time the United States is trying to curtail nuclear weapons development in North Korea and Iran.

Some lawmakers agreed.

“The minute you begin to put more sophisticated warheads on the existing fleet, you are essentially creating a new nuclear weapon. And it’s just a matter of time before other nations do the same,” said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “This could serve to encourage the very proliferation we are trying to prevent.”

Another Democrat, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, chairwoman of the Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee in the House of Representatives, expressed cautious support but promised “a long evaluation process” in Congress to assure the warhead will do what is promised without future underground testing.

Nuclear underground tests have not been done since a ban in 1992.

“This is not about starting a new nuclear arms race,” countered Thomas P. D’Agostino, acting head of the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nuclear weapons programmes.

Steve Henry, deputy assistant to the secretary of defence for nuclear matters, said the new design is hoped to lead to fewer warheads being needed.—AP