Freudian slip?(confusion over Dept. of Energy budget request for nuclear weapon pit financing)(Brief Article)

Simple error, wishful thinking, or Freudian slip? In its latest budget request, the Energy Department asked for money to build a new factory to manufacture "new-design pits" as well as more cores for nuclear weapons of existing designs (Albuquerque Journal, February 24).

When arms control advocates reacted to Energy's apparent intention to build weapons of new designs, officials backpedaled. Calling the new cores "new-design pits" was simple error, said a senior Energy official. The words "new design" were banished from the budget, and the phrase "replacement weapon pits" substituted.

By the next day, however, the department had realized that "replacement" also sounded a lot like "new." So officials came up with a third phrase, "replacement pits for stockpiled (existing) warheads." Brig. Gen. Thomas Gioconda, Energy's acting weapons chief, also stressed that "there is no change in policy relative to the design or fabrication of new warheads and associated plutonium pits."

That seemed right to some department watchers, who also believe there has been no change in policy--that Energy has intended all along to build weapons of new designs, regardless of testing moratoriums or domestic or international agreements not to do so.