麻豆传媒

NUCLEAR bombs that can burrow into bunkers could be developed following
approval of a new US defence bill this week. Congress banned studies into
battlefield nuclear weapons in 1993, amid fears that they would be used in
combat.

But the Defense Appropriations Bill overturns that ban by ordering a
feasibility study on these 鈥渕ini-nukes鈥�. Stephen Younger, head of nuclear
weapons research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, relaunched
the debate in June with a discussion paper noting that a 5-kiloton nuclear
device, with precision targeting, could destroy a hardened missile silo or
bunker. A conventional warhead is ineffective against such sites. The bomb
dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 was a 15-kiloton device.

Since then, nuclear weapons states have relied on 鈥渕utually assured
destruction鈥� to prevent aggression. But Younger thinks nuclear weapons will
鈥減lay a role in strategic doctrine, independent of their role as a
诲别迟别谤谤别苍迟鈥�.

鈥淭hat means actually using them in battle,鈥� says Martin Butcher of the
pressure group Physicians for Social Responsibility. He believes that the
weapons would encourage nuclear proliferation and could kill off the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Younger writes that mini-nukes might destroy military targets without
鈥渃ollateral damage鈥� to nearby civilians. Butcher rejects this, citing a proposal
for a nuclear bomb that burrows into the ground and then detonates, destroying
buried command bunkers favoured by dictators like Saddam Hussein. The bomb might
miss the bunker he says, 鈥渂ut the radiation would still kill lots of people,
especially if the target was located in an urban area to deter attack.鈥�