Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Alan MacHett" <machett AT ibiblio.org>]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041226/tc_nm/tech_supercomputer_dc

"Using [BlueGene/L] doing 360 trillion calculations a second, scientists
at Lawrence Livermore National Lab will simulate the explosion of an aging
nuclear bomb in three dimensions. The short, highly detailed video produced
by the world's fastest computer will attempt to illustrate how missiles
dating back to the Nixon administration would perform today."

"'The question we are asking today is, as the stockpile changes on its own,
will it continue to work and be safe?' he asked."


The interesting thing about the article is the opposition standpoint
presented -- their concern is that testing isn't necessary, so long as
the nukes work...!!:
"Paine contrasted present U.S. defense needs with those in the Cold War,
when planners needed to assure that nuclear weapons would destroy hardened
Soviet targets. 'There is less reason to focus on the accuracy of our
simulations,' he said. 'What we need to focus on from a deterrent point of
view is just that we have weapons that go off.'"

Shouldn't the concern be, why are we even still bothering with nukes???

-Alan