Trump Administration Begins Production Of A New Nuclear Weapon
Source: NPR
The U.S. Department of Energy has started making a new, low-yield nuclear weapon designed to counter Russia.
The National Nuclear Security Administration says production of the weapon, known as the W76-2, has begun at its Pantex Plant in the Texas Panhandle. The fact that the weapon was under production was first shared in an e-mail to the Exchange Monitor, an industry trade magazine, and independently confirmed by NPR.
The weapon is a variant of the Navy's primary submarine-launched nuclear weapon, the W76-1. That warhead is a "strategic weapon," meaning it makes a very big boom. The W76-1 is believed to have a yield of around 100 kilotons, according to Hans Kristensen, director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists, an arms control advocacy group. By contrast, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of about 15 kilotons.
The Energy Department would not provide details about the W76-2, but it's believed to have a yield of around 5 to 7 kilotons, Kristensen says.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/689510716/trump-administration-begins-production-of-a-new-nuclear-weapon
The new nukes will likely arm the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) Trump intends to deploy after quitting the 1987 treaty.
Botany
(70,450 posts)Can somebody get that crazy man out of the White House?
We already have enough nuclear bombs to en life on earth.
Roy Rolling
(6,908 posts)"Nuclear War will only exterminate the bad ones, God will save us good people".
UpInArms
(51,280 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)Auggie
(31,136 posts)Quote from the link.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)sent to Putin yet? Since he seems to be kept informed by this WH and gop.
Delmette2.0
(4,158 posts)They may contaminate half of the US before a weapon is actually produced.
Texin
(2,590 posts)Maybe he just plans to have them blow the EPA up. His plan was to do away with the EPA doncha know.