The U.S. Navy has accepted the first refurbished W-76 warhead back into its stockpile, the Energy Department announced yesterday, marking a milestone in maintaining the U.S. arsenal without conducting explosive nuclear tests (see GSN, Aug. 15, 2008).
W-76 warheads are deployed atop the Navy's Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles and first entered service in 1978. The Energy Department's semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has been conducting life-extension programs for that and other warheads as U.S. lawmakers have shown little enthusiasm for supporting the development of new designs (see GSN, Oct. 29, 2008).
"This is another great example of the unsurpassed expertise throughout NNSA’s national security enterprise,” said NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator William Ostendorff said in a press release. “It becomes more and more challenging each time we extend the life of our nuclear weapons. I am proud that our dedicated scientists and engineers were able to once again meet this unique responsibility” (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Feb. 23).