Fergie's Tech Blog

Defense Tech: U.S. Seeks to Make Stolen Nukes Useless

Ralph Vartabedian writes in The Los Angeles Times:

In response to a secret order from President Bush, the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories are developing technology to make the weapons virtually impossible to use if they fall into the wrong hands.

The security system will be part of a new generation of nuclear weapons, approved formally last week by a special panel of the Defense and Energy departments.

A nuclear bomb equipped with such safeguards could theoretically be left on the streets of Los Angeles or Manhattan and terrorists would be unable, even given months of tinkering, to detonate it. Scientists say they are working on technology that would destroy every component inside — including the plutonium and uranium — if anyone tampered with it.

posted by Fergie @ 12/05/2006 11:37:00 AM