U.S. Labs Developing First New Hydrogen Bomb In Two Decades (Ralph Vartabedian)

  March 2, 2007 --The Energy Department will announce today a contract to develop the nation's first new hydrogen bomb in two decades, involving a collaboration between three national weapons laboratories, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

  The new bomb would include design features from all three labs, although Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory appears to have the taken the lead position in the project. Los Alamos and Sandia national labs in New Mexico also will be part of the effort.

  Teams of scientists in California and New Mexico have been working since last year to develop the new bomb, using the world's most powerful supercomputers. The bomb is known as the reliable replacement warhead, intended to replace aging warheads currently deployed on missiles aboard Trident submarines.

  The contract decision was made by the Nuclear Weapons Council, consisting of officials from the Defense Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Energy Department. Plans were under way Thursday to announce the contract award this afternoon. The nuclear administration will issue the contract and run the program.

  The development cost is secret, although outside experts said it will cost billions of dollars -- perhaps tens of billions -- to develop the bomb, build new factories to restart high volume weapons production and then actually assemble the weapons.

more

READ MORE: InsideBayArea.com