Unecessary action

Anonymously contibutedL In the recent House Armed Services Committee proposed changes to NNSA, the strangest item seems to have attracted the least amount of attention. In the final bill that was passed last week --- SEC. 4509. DESIGN AND USE OF PROTOTYPES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR INTELLIGENCE PURPOSES. (a) PROTOTYPES. - The Administrator shall develop and carry out a plan for the national security laboratories and nuclear weapons production plants to design and build prototypes of nuclear weapons to further intelligence estimates with respect to foreign nuclear weapons activities. (b) PROHIBITION ON PRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR YIELDS. - In carrying out subsection (a), the Administrator may not conduct any experiments that produce a nuclear yield. ----- What the Heck?! This appears as an unnecessary action by Congress. Did one of the Lab Directors corner some overworked congressional staffer at a cocktail party and say; "Hey, you know what will really help me improve the talent pool working on our weapons? Letting them dream up completely wild eyed guesses as to what a North Korean nuke looks and feels like in person." Or maybe... "Hi there Congressman, that CIA spy over in the corner by the dessert table... oh by the way, definitely you should try the apple caramel tarts... just told me she has some stolen, I mean clandestinely acquired before the Israeli GBU-28 bunker buster we loaned them destroyed the underground floor safe they were in, Iranian nuclear bomb blueprints. Sure would be nice if my lab could try building what they had in mind to see if it would have worked...what do you think?" May 12, 2012 2:43 PM Anonymous Anonymous said... Not the 1st time we've mocked up some strange looking nukes :) May 12, 2012 4:23 PM Anonymous Anonymous said... May 12 4:23 pm is absolutely correct. This is simply a codification of what the NNSA labs have been doing for years. The "prototypes" are used for detection system development, yield estimation, support for intelligence estimates of technological advancement, and aiding attribution if anyone actually achieves a hostile attack on the US or its allies. Of course, we are prohibited already from obtaining nuclear yield from any testing. No big news here. May 12, 2012 9:07 PM