NEXT GEN NUKE? NOT!

If you listen to the New York Times, the country's atomic labs are designing "a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be sturdier and more reliable and to have longer lives." But Arms Control Wonk Jeffrey Lewis says that the Times has the story about the $9 million Reliable Replacement Warhead program all wrong.
Not long ago, the Wonk explains, "Congress shifted $ 9 [million] from 'Advanced Concepts' (which really was designing new nuclear weapons) to the 'Reliable Replacement Warhead' program that would 'improve the reliability, longevity, and certifiability of existing weapons and their components.'"
Rep. David Hobson (R-OH), one of Congress' fiercest opponents to new nukes, recently described the program as 'refurbishing some existing weapons in the stockpile without developing a new weapon that would require underground testing to verify the design.'"
Now, it's not like the Bush administration has given up on new nukes altogether; the Defense Department is expected to ask for millions this year to study bunker-busting atomic weapons. But this program mentioned by the Times today, that isn't how the Bushies are planning on doing it.