AMARILLO, TX (BDCi) – A bomb a hundred times more powerful than the dropped on Hiroshima, the last of our nation’s most powerful nuclear bombs will be dismantled.
The B53 bomb, put into service almost 50 years ago at the Cold War’s apex, will have its final components broken down today (26) at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo in Texas, the U.S.’s only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility.
The completion of the dismantling program lines up with President Obama’s goal to reduce the number of nuclear weapons.
Thomas D’Agostino, the nuclear administration’s chief, called the bomb’s elimination a “significant milestone.”
Only after the approximately 300 pounds of high explosives inside the bomb are separated from the special nuclear material (or “pit”) can the bomb be considered dismantled.
As older weapons retire from the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal, the Texas plant will have a big part in upcoming similar projects.
By: Diego Díaz Edited by: Janete Weinstein Source: AP Photo: AP 25 October 2011
10:56 a.m. P.D.T.