Buried in the energy bill signed by the president earlier this month are three little lines. The amounts are small, but together they do nothing less than put the United States on the road to developing and eventually testing new nuclear weapons for the first time since the end of the Cold War. Three little lines, but with potentially shattering impact: • The bill funds research on new, so-called mini-nukes, nuclear warheads with an explosive power a third or less of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In November, the administration succeeded in overcoming bipartisan opposition to lifting a decade-long ban on research and development of such weapons. • The bill also increased spending on ''bunker buster'' warheads that can burrow deep into the earth, even through rock, and destroy buried bunkers or command centers. • Finally, the bill provides money to refurbish the Nevada test site. Underground nuclear tests, halted since 1992, could then resume in a year and a half, rather than the two to three years now needed. Full Article