Our Stockpile of Nuclear Weapons May Not Work

Originally published by the Washington Times

Relying on a computer program instead of testing to determine stockpile reliability was a mistake

The Senate and House are currently engaged in a critically important debate over nuclear weapons testing.  The decision reached may preserve or destroy America.  We must resume nuclear weapons testing.

Here’s the situation.  Our thousands of nuclear weapons were designed, tested, and built in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, to win the Cold War.  None of these weapons has been tested since 1992, over a quarter century ago.  Nor has a single new weapon has been designed, tested, or built during this same period.

The tens of thousands of active nuclear weapons scientists in our three nuclear weapons labs have never designed, tested, and built a nuclear weapon.

Nuclear weapons are the most complex systems ever created by man.   The detonation of a nuclear weapons is so complex that there are many activities and processes occurring in the initial millionth of a second which we do not understand.  The heart of a nuclear weapon is made of plutonium, and many aspects of its aging process are still unknown to us.

During our half-century of active nuclear weapons testing (1945- 92), we conducted more than a thousand tests.  A great many of these were failures.  I doubt that any test was ever conducted in which unexplainable events did not occur.  Our best and most experienced weapons designers were noted for telling of many cases where the designs in which they had the most confidence were the ones in which the most complete failures occurred.

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Robert R. Monroe, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral, is the former director of the Defense Nuclear Agency