Well, this is nice. Hidden back on page A17 of today’s LA Times (registration may be required to read the linked story – why the hell do they have to do that?) was this gem. Thanks to W, we’re back in the business of making (these particular) weapons of mass destruction.
After ‘Decline,’ U.S. Again Capable of Making Nuclear Arms
Energy Department is restarting production of plutonium parts for its stockpile of bombs.
The United States has regained the capability to make nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years and has restarted production of plutonium parts for bombs, the Energy Department said Tuesday.
The announcement marks an important symbolic and operational milestone in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, which began a long retrenchment in the late 1980s as the Cold War ended and the toll of environmental damage from bomb production became known.
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Under a Bush administration plan, the Energy Department is beginning limited production of plutonium parts for the stockpile of nuclear weapons and will begin laying plans for a new factory that could produce components for hundreds of weapons each year.
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“To the average U.S. citizen, it would be accurate to say we have restarted the production of nuclear weapons.” – Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Energy Department weapons expert.