[ RadSafe ] Report on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNET) and Rare Isotope Accelerator

[John Jacobus]

-----Original Message-----
From: fyi at aip.org 
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 2:00 PM
To: Jacobus, John (NIH/OD/ORS)
Subject: FYI #94: Senate Report Language on RNEP and
DOE's RIA

FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science
Policy News
Number 94: June 22, 2005

Senate Armed Services Report Language on RNEP and Rare
Isotope Accelerator

The report accompanying the Senate Armed Services
Committee bill, S.1042, contains language regarding
the controversial request to research the feasibility
of a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), or as it
is sometimes called, a "Bunker Buster."   Last year,
Congress followed the lead of House appropriators in
deciding not to fund an RNEP study.   This year, the
House Armed Services Committee took a different
approach, taking "nuclear" out of the weapon's
configuration, and moving funding for the program from
the Department of Energy to the Department of Defense
(see http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/078.html .)  House
appropriators provided no Department of Energy funding
for RNEP in the FY 2006 Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Bill (see
http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/073.html .)

The following are selections from the Senate Armed
Services Committee report (106-69) regarding RNEP, as
well as report language regarding possible nuclear
weapons applications of research involving the
Department of Energy's Rape Isotope Accelerator.

ROBUST NUCLEAR EARTH PENETRATOR:

AIR FORCE:
"The budget request included $15.2 million in PE
64222F for development of nuclear weapons support,
including $1.0 million for the development of nuclear
weapons and counterproliferation technologies to
support joint Air Force and National Nuclear Security
Administration efforts associated with logistics and
aircraft integration for the Robust Nuclear Earth
Penetrator (RNEP). The committee notes that the
evaluation of RNEP feasibility by the Department of
Energy is not scheduled to be completed prior to 2007.
Therefore, the committee recommends a decrease of $1.0
million in PE 64222F for efforts associated with
logistics and aircraft integration for the RNEP."

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY:
"The committee recommends $4.0 million for the robust
nuclear earth penetrator (RNEP), the amount of the
budget request. Funding is provided to prepare and
execute the sled track impact test at Sandia National
Laboratories on the feasibility of case hardening and
target penetration. The committee has received
testimony from the Secretary of Defense and the
Commander, U.S. Strategic Command, on the continued
proliferation of hard and deeply buried targets and
the resulting military utility of completing the RNEP
feasibility study.

"The committee notes that section 3117 of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (Public
Law 108-136) prohibits the Secretary of Energy from
commencing the engineering development phase (Phase
6.3) of the nuclear weapons development process, or
any subsequent phase, of a robust nuclear earth
penetrator unless specifically authorized by Congress.
The funding requested is for Phase 6.2 feasibility
study only. 

"The committee has not included the $4.5 million
requested within the Air Force budget for the
development of logistics, integration, and hardware
requirements for carriage of the RNEP on the B-2
aircraft. The committee does not believe that these
activities are necessary to evaluate the feasibility
of RNEP."


RARE ISOTOPE ACCELERATOR:

"Subtitle A - National Security Programs
Authorizations National Nuclear Security
Administration (sec. 3101)

"National security implications of the Rare Isotope
Accelerator 

"The committee is aware that the Rare Isotope
Accelerator (RIA) is a high priority civilian science
facility under study by the Department of Energy
Office of Science. The committee understands that RIA
would allow precise measurements of nuclear physics
phenomena through the development of beams of isotopes
that are 10 to 100 times more powerful than those
available today and in many cases not available at
all. The committee believes such research into the
fundamental structure of matter may have possible
utility in the analysis of nuclear weapons physics.

"The committee directs the Secretary of Energy to
report to the congressional defense committees no
later than 90 days after enactment of this Act on the
potential utility, if any, of data from the RIA on
issues concerning national security and on any
duplication between the potential capability of the
RIA and any capabilities being developed with atomic
energy defense funds."

###############
Richard M. Jones
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi at aip.org    http://www.aip.org/gov
(301) 209-3094
##END##########


+++++++++++++++++++
"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea and never shrinks back to its original proportion." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


		
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