Better late than never...should of already been testing in N.Korea.
Blame Congress for that one, they shelved the program last year...this is not a new request, it is a resurrection of an old request...and apparently is not breaking news either, considering the date of the following article:
Feb 08, 2005 - The Bush administration is trying to resurrect a controversial study into whether a nuclear weapon could be designed to burrow deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers.Congress killed the study last year, partly out of concern that it undercut U.S. efforts to curb other countries' development of nuclear weapons.
Under the administration's proposed 2006 federal budget, the Department of Energy would spend $4 million on the so-called Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator study, while the Department of Defense would contribute $4.5 million.
The Energy Department, the builder and caretaker of the nation's nuclear arsenal, would spend $14 million more in 2007, the final year of the study, while the Defense Department would spend $3.5 million, according to budget documents and officials.
While the amounts are small compared with proposed overall defense spending in 2006 of about $440 billion, which includes the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons budget, the attempt to restart the study could ignite a bruising fight with Congress.
''Congress clearly rejected the Bush administration's request for bunker busters and other nuclear weapons last year,'' said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a leading critic of the study, which started in May 2003.
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