U.S. physicists march against missile shield

WASHINGTON, JUNE 13. Physicists and foreign policy experts mounted twin assaults on Monday on the hurry-up schedule for possible deployment of a U.S. anti-missile shield. About 40 physicists and engineers, descending on the Capitol from 16 States, trumpeted charges that the proposed National Missile Defence (NMD) was long on politics and short on science.

In a news release, they said the shield under development, estimated to cost as much as $ 60 billions, could be undone easily by relatively simple counter-measures, such as hiding nuclear warheads in mylar balloons with empty balloons along side. ``Any country that can deploy a long-range missile with a nuclear or biological weapon can deploy these counter- measures,'' said Mr. Joseph Lach, a physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago.

Alternatively, a nuclear warhead could be covered by a shroud cooled to very low temperatures, preventing the system's heat- seeking interceptor missiles from homing on the target, he said. The President, Mr. Bill Clinton, is to decide whether to start construction of a powerful radar station in Alaska, the kick-off to deployment, after a third intercept test next month.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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