Nuclear weapons complex

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The U.S. nuclear weapons complex falls under the oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which was created by Congress in 1999 and under the guidance of retired Air Force General John A. Gordon.


Ramping Up Nuclear Weapons

According to the December 11, 2003, Oakland Tribune, NNSA Administrator Linton F. Brooks had been "busy pressuring the country’s nuclear labs to ramp up work on new nuclear weapons designs ever since President [George W.] Bush signed a bill in November 2003 that repealed a 1993 ban on designing low-yield nuclear weapons, a goal that had been outlined in the Nuclear Posture Review. The Tribune reported that in a leaked memo from Brooks to lab directors, the nuclear weapons executive wrote: 'I expect your design teams to engage fully with the Department of Defense to examine advanced (thermonuclear) concepts that could contribute to our nation’s security. Potentially important areas of such research include agent defeat [bombs directed at chemical and bio weapons] and reduced collateral damage. . . . In addition, we must take advantage of this opportunity to ensure that we close any gaps that may have opened this past decade in our understanding of the possible military applications of atomic energy—no novel nuclear weapons concept developed by any other nation should ever come as a technical surprise to us.'" [1]

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