Administration Moves Forward With Controversial New Nuclear Warhead

On March 2, the Bush administration announced the winner of the year-long competition to design the first new U.S. nuclear weapon in almost two decades. The stated objective of the upgrade is to create a new generation of nuclear warheads that are environmentally safer, more secure from accidental or unauthorized use, and easier to maintain, despite their longer lifespan, than the existing stockpile of U.S. warheads designed and built during the Cold War. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), selected a design submitted by the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. […]