The Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) has been deemed feasible as a strategy for sustaining the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile for the long-term without underground nuclear testing.
The decision was announced last Friday in a news release issued by the National Nuclear Security Administration. "The Reliable Replacement Warhead will provide means to ensure the long-term reliability of the stockpile and enable us to establish a safer and more secure nuclear deterrent," said Linton Brooks, NNSA administrator. "It will give us the tools we need to build on the president's vision of maintaining the smallest nuclear stockpile that is consistent with national security requirements."
The Nuclear Weapons Council, a working group of senior officials from the Defense Department and NNSA who oversees nuclear weapons policy, made the decision after reviewing competing designs for a replacement nuclear warhead for the nation's sea-based nuclear deterrent, according to the release. The designs were submitted by Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The release also noted that while the program has been authorized by Congress, no decisions to build or deploy the warhead have been made, nor has the council selected a preferred design. The council continues discussing the two laboratory submissions.
To read the full news release, click here.
Roadrunner, a new hybrid computer moves at petaflop/s speed
World's highest magnetic fields help understand materials
Monte Carlo code predicts subatomic particle interactions 
