Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Congress had no choice, here is what they aren't telling you.

I'm signing off, I like to limit my posting time, but today was 'unique'. Talk to you later. -Am

`Russia ahead in nuke technology'

By Vladimir Radyuhin



MOSCOW AUG. 17. Russia is ahead of the United States in the race to build a new generation of pinpoint bunker-busting nuclear weapons, a senior Russian nuclear official said.

In an interview to mark the 50th anniversary of the first hydrogen bomb test in Russia the former Atomic Energy Minister, Viktor Mikhailov, said Russia had maintained its lead over the U.S. in nuclear arms technology ever since the construction of the first thermonuclear bomb. The U.S. was the first to explode a thermonuclear device, but Russia stole a march by building the first hydrogen bomb. On August 12, 1953, Russia successfully tested a ready-to-use 7-ton thermonuclear bomb ten times more powerful than the atomic bomb the U.S. had dropped on Japan in 1945. By that time the Americans had only built a thermonuclear device that was the size of a three-storied building and weighed 65 tons.

According to Dr. Mikhailov, Russia has never relinquished its nuclear lead since that time.

"Whereas before 1953 we trailed the U.S. in the sphere of nuclear weapon technology, after 1953 — and to this day — they have been trailing us," he told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily.

The focus of the nuclear arms race has shifted today from building more powerful bombs to the construction of smaller, but smarter devices.

"The philosophy of thermonuclear weapons has changed today, and on the agenda is the development of high-precision and deep-penetration nuclear bombs," said Dr. Mikhailov, who is the research head of the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre in Sarov. The FNC is Russia's nodal research establishment for nuclear weapons programmes where all Russian nuclear bombs have been built.

The FNC director, Dr. Radyi Ilkayev, confirmed that Russia was developing new nuclear arms despite a bad funding crunch in recent years.

"The past 15 years have been tough for our nuclear centre, but we have never halted weapon programmes," he told the Itar-Tass news agency. The situation in the FNC has improved after Mr. Vladimir Putin was elected Russian President three years ago.

"In the last two years the Centre has been getting government orders and hiring more staff," the FNC head said.

During a visit to the Federal Nuclear Centre two weeks ago Mr. Putin said nuclear weapons "have been and remain the basis of Russia's security" and asserted that Russia "must and will remain a great nuclear power."

Dr. Ilkayev said Russia's nuclear weapons were "safe, reliable and efficient," and did not require nuclear tests to verify their condition.

"We can keep the country's nuclear arms arsenals in proper shape without conducting nuclear tests," he said. "We use computer, physical and mathematical simulation methods for this purpose."

However, Dr. Mikhailov thinks that eventually nuclear tests will have to be resumed.

"In the next 10 to 15 years we can move several steps forward without resorting to nuclear tests, but drawing on past experience and three-dimensional computer simulation. But sooner or later we will have to carry out a test, even though I am not sure it will necessarily be a powerful blast."

Mr. Putin said two weeks ago that Russia would honour its self-imposed ban on nuclear testing only as long as other nuclear powers did not resume tests.


http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/stories/2003081801641400.htm



Posted on Tue, Apr. 22, 2003

Administration moves ahead on nuclear `bunker busters'
By Dan Stober
Mercury News


Demonstrating a significant shift in America's nuclear strategy, the Bush administration intends to produce -- not just research -- a thermonuclear bunker-busting bomb to destroy hardened, deeply buried targets, the Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time.


http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5695249.htm