Unwanted US Atom Bombs Become Parts for New Ones

Some experts call stockpile in warehouses dangerous and provocative to other nations
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 2, 2023 4:15 PM CST
Unwanted US Atom Bombs Become Parts for New Ones
Stock photo   (Getty/muhammet sager)

In warehouses and bunkers throughout the nation, parts pulled from disassembled atomic bombs are stored, ready to be recycled into new weapons. Atomic bombs aren't thrown away when they're pulled from service, the New York Times reports; they're pulled apart and sent to the equivalent of a parts store. "It's like a giant Safeway," said Hans M. Kristensen, director of the private Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. "You go in with a bar code and get what you need." It's a dangerous practice, experts argue, and one that sends the wrong message to other nations about the nuclear intentions of the US.

The Biden administration announced in October that the most powerful weapon in the US nuclear arsenal, a hydrogen bomb called the B83 that's been around since 1983, is being retired. The B83 was roughly 80 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It won't really disappear, per the Times; parts of it are likely to show up in new weapons. At the same time, the government is building its first new warhead since the Cold War ended. The W93 is advertised as new, but planners want to use recycled parts, and the specs say the $15.5 billion warhead will be "anchored on previously tested nuclear components."

Franklin C. Miller, a nuclear expert who worked in the government for decades, said the stockpile is important. "If we had the manufacturing complex we once did, we wouldn't have to rely on the old parts." Other nations produce new atomic parts, and supporters of recycling say the growing nuclear weapons strength of China, for example, could someday require the US to expand its arsenal quickly. Pentagon documents show concerns about increasing tension between the US and Russia over nuclear weapons, per Roll Call, prompted by Russian President Vladimir Putin's statements suggesting they could be used in the war in Ukraine.

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Some experts find the practice dangerous, per the Times. Included in the parts the US keeps around are at least 20,000 plutonium cores. Safe storage is problematic, because plutonium is deadly to humans even in miniscule amounts. There's also an argument that other nations see the retention of explosive bomb parts as an indication the US wants to keep its options open, remaining able to produce scores of warheads as quickly as possible. Other nations might not find that reassuring, and the result could be nuclear proliferation. "Getting rid of them would be a good thing," said Frank N. von Hippel, a nuclear physicist at Princeton University. "It would signal that we have no expectation of rebuilding our arsenal." (More nuclear weapons stories.)

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