Monday, April 17, 2006

New Nukes in Your Backyard

Daily Kos: State of the Nation:

"As many of you probably know, 61 years ago, the first nuclear weapon was tested at the Trinity Site in southern New Mexico, at what was to become part of White Sands Missile Range. New Mexico is my home state, and my husband and I are currently visiting my parents in Albuquerque.

Right now, I'm sitting in front of our hotel room window. If I look to the southeast, I can see the Manzano mountains, shrouded in a smokey haze from a forest fire up north. They look barren and dry, but they used to harbor a dark, malignant force that could literally destroy the world hundreds of times over.

Until 1992, Manzano Base, which is east of Kirtland Air Force Base, was one of the main storage facilities for the US nuclear stockpile. The weapons that weren't dismantled were moved to an underground storage facility on Kirtland AFB; as home to nearly 3,000 nuclear warheads, New Mexico has the dubious distinction of hosting the largest US nuclear weapon storage facility in the world."

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