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CNN Live Today

Bush Wants Nuclear-Tipped Bunker Buster

Aired May 23, 2002 - 14:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As the president's, Bush and Putin, get ready to sign that historic arms reduction treaty, the Bush administration trying to increase one part of its nuclear stockpile: it wants to add a nuclear-tipped bunker buster.

At the Pentagon, here's Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): Underground caves and bunkers in Afghanistan shielded Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters for years, until United States jets started attacking them with conventional bombs.

But no one knows how much was actually destroyed. Afghanistan is just one example of the many countries that have buried their most valuable military assets deeper than conventional weapons can reach.

DOUGLAS FEITH, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The special difficulties posed by deeply buried, hard targets is something that is very much at the fore of our minds.

STARR: United States intelligence estimates there are nearly 1,500 underground sites around the world hiding nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, missiles and command bunkers.

The Bush administration's solution, modifying an existing aircraft launched nuclear bomb with new electronics and packaging so it can penetrate hundreds of feet of rock.

But Congress is divided on funding the plan. Many believe it all amounts to a new nuclear weapon and could spark another arms race.

JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: If the United States embarks on new nuclear weapons programs, there's no way that the Russians are going to get left behind.

STARR: Critics way a modified nuclear bomb would still need to be tested, ending years of United States adherence to a test ban.

The administration insists it is only improving an existing bomb.

GEN. JOHN GORDON, NATL. NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMIN.: We envision it as a straight modification of an existing system that's out there now, packaged in a way that could penetrate. STARR: Physicists say a nuclear bunker buster would still generate fallout, and there are concerns that it would lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons rather than keeping them solely for deterrence.

PIKE: There's no such thing as a small nuclear weapon. It's sort of like you go into a coffee shop now and it only comes in big, bigger and biggest.

STARR (on camera): Nuclear politics aside, it is physics that will limit the ability to destroy underground bunkers. Some enemy targets could be as much as 300 feet deep.

One expert recently said no weapon can go that far, unless someone takes it down an elevator.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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