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Bush administration prepares for nuke tests resumption

Confirming that it has plans to resume nuclear tests at a short notice, the Bush administration is understood to have told a special top-secret briefing for Congressional staffers that it could seek additional funds for this.

Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Policy Crouch told the staffers that additional funds were needed to increase the speed at which nuclear testing could resume if needed.

However, Crouch told the staffers, as did Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to reporters earlier, that the administration has no immediate plans to resume testing.

Rumsfeld said the administration would continue 'for now' to observe the self-imposed 1992 moratorium.

The administration will work with Congress to determine the appropriate funding level, said a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the energy department agency that runs the nuclear weapons complex.

The preliminary costs for preparing underground nuclear tests are substantial, said a former senior official of the energy department.

PTI

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