Retasking the DOE NNSA Labs?

The nation's nuclear weapons agency, already committed to slashing the size of America's battle-ready arsenal of bombs and warheads, is planning major cutbacks and transformations at its complex of laboratories and bomb-making plants across the country - including Livermore and Los Alamos.

Barred by Congress from developing new warheads to replace the decaying weapons of the Cold War, the agency intends to harness the skills of its scientists and engineers for research into counterterrorism, intelligence and nuclear nonproliferation, while continuing to assure that the remaining weapons stockpile is "safe and reliable," said Thomas d'Agostino, director of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Even so, the plans by d'Agostino's agency to revamp the complex of nuclear research and weapons production sites are controversial.

First off, it should be noted that the NNSA Labs - Los Alamos, Livermore, Sandia - have always done research that has little to nothing to do with nuclear weapons. There was one division dedicated to that work at LANL while I was there and a few that gave nontrivial support. However, a lot of good science of all sorts was conducted (including the Human Genome Project) and other programs pursued (including SDI). The work I got to do while at LANL wrt astronomy was emphatically not nuke weapon related.

That said, I do think it would be a mistake to get rid of nuclear weapons. I do not believe that international treaties and guarantees will ever be able to remove them, nevermind the means to produce them. The basic inherit advantage that these grant when held is simply overwhelming. You don't have to use them. Merely have them. For any weapon, if it is neglected it becomes useless. Having a nice big muzzle loader might look scary when in fact it is anything but that and especially when its rusty and might misfire on you.

On the other hand, the ens of thousands that were kept during the Cold War are ridiculous. We do not need that many to blast virtually any nation into the pages of history. At most, I feel, we need between 600 - 900 nuclear weapons. No more.