New Nuclear Warhead Design Selected

March 2, 2007 — -- A new nuclear warhead design has been chosen to refit the Navy's sea-based nuclear weapons, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced today. This new design will reconfigure existing Cold War era warheads that officials said present environmental and safety challenges, as well as obstacles in the U.S. effort to draw down the size of its nuclear stockpile.

Congress had commissioned a review of these warheads in 2005 to see if a more efficient and reliable design could be found. The two teams submitted their designs last November. The warhead design for the Reliable Replacement Warhead, created by a team from the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories, beat out a competing design from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"This will permit significant upgrades in safety and security features in the replacement warhead that will keep the same explosive yields and other military characteristics of the current ones," said Thomas D'Agostino, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Design teams were given strict standards, including that there be no need to conduct underground testing in order to ensure the modified warhead's ability. The United States participates in a voluntary moratorium on underground nuclear tests.

The National Nuclear Security Administration contends that the chosen design will allow the United States to continue drawing down the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal, keeping the United States in line with international treaties and U.S. goals.

"This allows us to go to the smallest stockpile within our national security needs," said Steve Henry, deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters.

The National Nuclear Security Administration defends the U.S. commitment to reduce its nuclear stockpile, saying that it is in line to dismantle 50 percent more weapons in 2007 than it did in 2006. "In just five years, the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile will be at its lowest point since the Eisenhower administration," D'Agostino said.

Officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration said that the Reliable Replacement Warhead will allow the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile to be reduced because the new design will be more reliable, meaning fewer reserve weapons are needed. The new design would also allow for a more reliable infrastructure that would let the United States to build more of these should the security situation change.

The Reliable Replacement Warhead design is also expected to be more environmentally friendly. It will have "a much smaller footprint," said D'Agostino. Its production is expected to produce less waste than do current designs.

According to the National Nuclear Security Administration, the new design will also be safer for those who work around the warheads. The new design refrains from using beryllium, a metal known to cause the debilitating disease berylliosis when inhaled.

The number of missiles that will eventually receive these warheads is classified information, but scientists from the labs now embark on an eight- to 12-month review that will determine how much the warhead design would cost to implement and how long it would take to construct. The findings of that study will be presented to Congress for consideration. Pending congressional authorization, the warheads would be put into production.