Nuclear research funds cut by GOP

By Walter Pincus
The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON — Congress has eliminated the financing for research supported by President Bush into a new generation of nuclear weapons, including investigations into low-yield atomic bombs and an earth-penetrating warhead that could destroy weapons bunkers deep underground.

The Bush administration called in 2002 for exploring new nuclear weapons that could deter a wide range of threats, including possible development of a warhead that could go after hardened, deeply buried targets, or lower-power bombs that could destroy chemical or biological stockpiles without contaminating a wide geographic area.

But research on those programs was dropped from the $388 billion, government-wide spending bill adopted Saturday, a rare instance in which the Republican-controlled Congress has gone against the president, a move that slowly came to light over the weekend as details of the massive measure became clear.

Dropping the programs was praised by arms-control advocates and some members of Congress who had tried unsuccessfully for several years to kill them. These opponents argued that such research by the United States could trigger a new arms race, and that the existence of lower-yield weapons — sometimes called "mini-nukes" — would ultimately increase the likelihood of war.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., described Saturday's result as "a consequential victory for those of us who believe the United States sends the wrong signal to the rest of the world by reopening the nuclear door."

The president's fiscal 2005 budget contained $27 million to continue research on modifying two existing warheads for the bunker-buster role, and projected nearly $500 million over the next five years should a weapon be approved.

While Feinstein and other Democrats had failed earlier this year to bar authorization of the program, it was a Republican, Rep. David Hobson of Ohio, who led the effort to keep the programs out of the omnibus appropriations bill adopted Saturday.

Hobson said yesterday that the Bush administration "should read this as a clear signal from Congress" that any attempt to revive the funding in next year's budget "would get the same reaction."

The action caught the administration by surprise. "We are disappointed Congress has not followed the administration's request in several areas and we will assess what we will do down the road," said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration.
 
Also cut from the nuclear program was $7 million for selecting a site for a $4 billion facility that would build what are called plutonium pits, the nuclear triggers for thermonuclear warheads. Arms-control advocates had opposed the facility, arguing that with a sharp 50 percent reduction in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, a small facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory could produce enough pits for the U.S. arsenal.

Hobson said he decided the research money should be deleted after visits over the past two years with scientists and managers at the nuclear labs and test sites, and after watching steps being taken by the administration to cut the nuclear stockpile and use "smart" conventional weapons for tasks once done by atomic warheads.

He said that the $9 million Bush request to study ideas for new low-yield weapons had been redirected into studies of "current technologies to make existing warheads more robust and easier to maintain without more testing." Hobson added he had opposed developing smaller-yield weapons "that someone might use," and instead wants the nuclear labs to employ modern technology to make "more reliable replacements" for the current warheads.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said Hobson "has shown enormous courage to break ranks with the White House and apply common sense on its excessive and extreme nuclear proposals."