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FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 74: June 12, 2003

Congress Agrees to Administration's Nuclear Weapons Initiatives

When House and Senate conferees sit down in coming weeks to resolve
differences in the $400.5 billion National Defense Authorization Act
for FY 2004 there will be many points to resolve.  Although some
provisions of this massive bill will be changed, there is unlikely
to be significant alteration to several controversial provisions
regarding research on new types of nuclear weapons or in nuclear
weapons test site preparations.

Both the House and Senate have approved their versions of the
defense authorization bill.  There was little disagreement about the
overall spending level, which is a bit more than the Bush
Administration's request (with actual funding yet to be determined
in the appropriations bill.)  Controversy this year centered more on
policy provisions within the legislation, among them three requests
by the Administration relating to nuclear weapons.

The nuclear weapons provisions of the two bills, H.R. 1588 and S.
1050,  largely reflect the Administration's recommendations in three
areas:

1.  Repeal of the prohibition on research on nuclear weapons with
yields of less than five kilotons:

The House bill repeals the statutory prohibition on low-yield
nuclear weapons development  contained in the FY 1994 authorization
law.  The committee report cited the need for weapons laboratory
personnel to actually exercise the design process, the pending
retirement of weapons testing personnel, the need for the National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to "understand 'the art of
the possible,'" by potential adversaries, and the committee's
contention that "the present Cold War stockpile may not meet future
technical requirements for a credible strategic deterrent."   It is
important to note that the accompanying House report states, "The
committee observes that before any advanced concept enters
engineering development (phase 3/6.3), and prototype hardware is
fabricated, NNSA requires the formal approval of the Nuclear Weapons
Council and a budget authorization from Congress."  During House
floor consideration of this bill Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) offered
an amendment to transfer the $21 million authorized for this
low-yield weapons research ($6 million) and for an earth penetrating
weapon ($15 million) (see below) to conventional weapons research.
This amendment was rejected on a largely party line vote of
199-226.   The Senate killed an amendment offered by Senator Dianne
Feinstein (D-CA) to prohibit R&D on low-yield nuclear weapons.
After a series of votes, the Senate agreed to an amendment requiring
explicit congressional approval for work on the new nuclear low
yield weapon to go beyond the research stage into development.  The
provision agreed to by the Senate states: "The Secretary of Energy
may not commence the engineering development phase, or any
subsequent phase, of a low-yield nuclear weapon unless specifically
authorized by Congress."  Testing, acquisition or deployment of a
low-yield nuclear weapon is not authorized by the Senate bill.  This
weapon would have an explosive force of about one-third of the bomb
dropped on Hiroshima.

2.  Research on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator:

The Administration requested $15 million to modify existing nuclear
weapons for deeper penetration into the ground to destroy
underground enemy bunkers.  The House rejected an amendment to
transfer these funds to conventional weapons research under the
Tauscher amendment cited above.  In the Senate,  Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
offered an amendment to prohibit the use of funds for the Robust
Nuclear Earth Penetrator.  This amendment was killed by a vote of
56-41.  The destructive power of this weapon would be ten times that
of the Hiroshima bomb.

3.  Nuclear Test Site Readiness:

Both the House and Senate bills require the Secretary of Energy to
achieve and maintain a readiness posture of 18 months for the
resumption of underground nuclear tests.  Current testing readiness
is three years.  No amendments were offered on the House or Senate
floor regarding this provision.  The United States has observed a
testing moratorium since 1992.  In 1999, the Senate rejected a
nuclear test ban treaty.

###############
Richard M. Jones
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi{at}aip.org    http://www.aip.org/gov
(301) 209-3094
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