Dreaming of clean nukes——Can the Pentagon defend its plans for new nuclear bombs？

Is the US nuclear arsenal sufficient to address today's security challenges? The Pentagon apparently thinks not. A new report from its Defense Science Board (DSB) argues that """"nuclear weapons are needed that produce much lower collateral damage'. It lends support to proposals to build new nuclear weapons for attacking underground facilities. To a point, such 'bunker busters' are nothing new-the B-53 bomb, first deployed in the early 1960s, can destroy underground targets, although it creates lethal radioactive fallout that covers hundreds of thousands of square kilometres.