WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A U.S. Energy Department plan to refurbish more than 6,000 aging nuclear warheads over the next 15 years is coming under fire from arms-control advocates, the Washington Post reported.
Opponents said the plan to keep up to 3,000 renovated warheads on "inactive reserve" is unnecessary and possibly counterproductive when the United States is trying to persuade India, Pakistan and other nations to halt or curb their nuclear-weapons programs, the Post reported Sunday.The Post said the plan to keep an "inactive reserve" of 2,500 to 3,000 warheads would more than double what the United States is allowed to deploy under the START II strategic-arms reduction treaty. The plan, part of a little-publicized Clinton administration nuclear policy, would allow the United States to match another country's sudden production of additional warheads, the Post said.
Robert S. Norris, a nuclear-arms specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, described the renovation plan as "the dark side of the stockpile." He told the Post that the United States will spend billions to refurbish warheads which it cannot deploy but has not decided to throw away.
Michael Krepon, president of the Henry L. Stimson Center and an arms reduction advocate, is quoted as saying the Pentagon pushed for the "inactive reserve" of warheads because its plan for fighting a nuclear war had not changed since the Cold War.
"It has simply downsized the active requirement and put half of what they say they need on the shelf. But the war plan requirement for 6,000 detonations has never changed," Krepon told the Post.
A Defense Department official said until Russia ratifies START II, the United States must hedge its bets against a possible reversal of that agreement, which would limit each side to between 3,000 and 3,500 deployed warheads, the Post reported.
The U.S. Senate ratified START II in 1996, but the Russian legislature has yet to vote on the treaty.