US bill for new generation nukes cleared

The administration’s new tack has alarmed arms control advocates, who fear that the availability of smaller bombs that promise less secondary damage would encourage nations to use weapons nearly unthinkable for half a century.

The bill would provide $15.5 million in funding for research on a large hydrogen ‘‘bunker buster’’ bomb called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator. Unlike the proposed low-yield bombs, which have an explosive force of no more than 5 kilotons — 5000 tons of TNT — this weapon would have yields in the range of tens of kilotons making it at least six times more powerful than the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. It would generate shock waves that could crush targets 300 meters below the earth’s surface.

Critics contend the fallout would cover such a wide area and cause so many casualties that presidents would be reluctant to order its use. Along with the $15 million for research on the bunker buster, the bill would set aside $6 million for advanced research on nuclear weapons.

The bill also seeks $25 million in improvements for the Nevada nuclear weapons test site and US nuclear labs.

In 2001, the administration issued a policy statement called the Nuclear Posture Review that urged development of new nuclear capabilities and suggested that the US might, in some circumstances use nuclear weapons against some countries without nuclear weapons: Syria, Libya, Iraq and Iran.

The administration’s moves have stirred alarm in other parts of the world. The mayor of Hiroshima last month wrote to Bush to protest the research on the ‘‘bunker buster,’’ saying it represented a ‘‘frontal attack on the process of nuclear disarmament.’’ UN disarmament officials have also expressed alarm over the development. (LAT-WP)