NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: No nukes is good nukes

[NVMojo]

The resumption of full-scale nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site is not on the horizon, the nation's nuclear security chief said Tuesday.

But, Linton F. Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the Bush administration intends to retain the option of conducting full-scale tests below ground at the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The reason this administration has been unwilling to push for the ratification (of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) is that we don't want to close the door," Brooks said on a visit to the NNSA's Nevada Site Office in North Las Vegas.

"We have absolutely no evidence that we're going to need to test. ... We don't see any specific reason now that leads us to believe we'll need a test. On the other hand, we don't know everything about the future," Brooks said.

In Brooks' view, only a major problem with the nuclear weapons stockpile would prompt full-scale testing to resume at the Nevada Test Site, where the program was put on hold indefinitely in 1992, he said.

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