Why US Lab Is Designing A Bomb No One Asked For

"Standoff capability is something that people have wanted in weapons for years," says Heinz Schmitt, Sandia's vice president for weapons systems, in defending BIOS. "This is very much exploratory in nature."

But Pentagon and DOE officials say they have not asked for a modified version of the B61-11. Adds Capt. Leo Devine, an Air Force spokesman: "The Air Force has no requirement for it."

Still, DOE and Pentagon officials support the objectives of BIOS program. They say such work is not barred by any arms-control accords and is justified under a new nuclear-weapons program designed to allow the US to adhere to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The CTBT bars for all time test blasts used to verify new warhead designs and spot defects in weapons. Seen as a way of preventing states like Iran from developing nuclear bombs, the US sought a means by which it could sign the CTBT while maintaining a reliable armory well beyond its design life span.

The result was the $40 billion Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program. It requires labs to develop ways to simulate test explosions.

The labs are also charged with "maintaining" weapons-design skills without breaking the US pledge not to make new warheads. But therein lies the source of the dispute.

The government defines a new weapon as a new nuclear payload. It holds that repacking old payloads in new bodies or upgrading nonnuclear components does not result in new weapons, even if it adds capabilities to the stockpile.

In the case of BIOS, "we are looking at it from the point of view of what is the technology that it will take to put on wings and fly a current bomb," says Assistant Energy Secretary Victor Reis, head of the DOE's nuclear-weapons programs.

To ensure it does not cross the line between a simple modification and a new weapon, he explains, BIOS will not move beyond the concept stage unless cleared by the Nuclear Weapons Council, a multiagency body that sets US nuclear requirements.

A 'new' bomb?

Still, Dr. Reis, a former council chairman, says the panel sees BIOS as "a maintenance of our capability for nonnuclear devices" and thus "not a new weapon." That is not how many arms-control experts see BIOS. To them, the US went too far already by deploying the B61-11. BIOS, they say, takes the country further down that dangerous path.

"There is certainly no need for us to do this with our enormous superiority in conventional weaponry," says Frank von Hippel, former assistant director of national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology. He and other arms-control experts contend that how the US defines a new weapon is of no concern to Russia and China. They say these countries see the US trying to enhance its nuclear capabilities, giving them incentive to continue improving their own.

These experts also agree that states like Iran would likely seek weapons of mass destruction no matter what the US was doing. But by continuing to upgrade its stockpile, they say, the US could hurt international support for its counterproliferation policies.

Enhancements to US nuclear capabilities could also stiffen the Russian parliament's refusal to ratify the long-delayed START II treaty, which mandates further cuts in Russian and US atomic warheads, some experts say.

Critics also question Sandia's pursuit of BIOS without a formal directive or a military requirement. Some are concerned that laboratory scientists are trying to create a formal program where one did not exist. If the viability of BIOS is shown, they say, the Air Force is unlikely to turn it down.

"The purpose of the laboratories has always been to make new types of nuclear weapons, and this indicates that this has not changed," says Mr. Schwartz of the Brookings Institution. "Why are we still on a cold-war footing? Why are they masquerading behind stockpile stewardship?"

Officials deny such allegations. They say there is no guarantee the US can maintain a reliable stockpile beyond the life span it was designed for without test blasts. Given the post-cold-war uncertainties, they say, it is only prudent to ensure that the current arsenal is as effective as possible.

If there are policy contradictions, they say, those are for Mr. Clinton to sort out. "This is decided at the very top," Reis says, adding that BIOS does bring up "new questions to answer."

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