 Press U.S. to stop developing bunker-buster N-arms!: JCP Japanese Communist Party representative Inoue Satoshi at the Upper House Budget Committee meeting on March 9 demanded that the government press the United States to cancel its plan to develop nuclear weapons designed to penetrate deep into the ground. Inoue pointed out that U.S. Congressional Research Service reports released late 2003 predict that a nuclear explosion at the depth from between ten meters to 100 meters under the ground will cause radioactive fallout showering on much broader ranges than an explosion on the surface or in the air. He said that Japan should use the coming NPT Review Conference to press the United States to cancel its research and development plan for bunker-buster nuclear weapons and to fulfill the promise agreed in the 2000 NPT Conference toward nuclear abolition. Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka said, "Japan is not in a position to interfere with other counties concerning their research." Pointing out that the plan is opposed throughout the world, Inoue said that Machimura is not qualified to be a foreign minister of A-bombed Japan. Bunker-buster nuclear weapons will explode deep in the earth to destroy enemy facilities such as underground military bases. The U.S. administration is now requesting about four million dollars from the 2006 federal budget for research and development of such weapons and plans to carry out a test dropping of an inert bomb. (end) |