At the beginning of March, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced the winner of the so-called “Reliable Replacement Warhead” competition that pitted the nuclear laboratories against each other. Lawrence Livermore won out against its long-time rival Los Alamos. If all goes according to plan, the Berkeley-based lab’s design will eventually end up as submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Still, NNSA administrator Thomas D’Agostino insisted that the new warhead “is not about starting a new nuclear arms race.” But what else could it possibly be about? In the April 2007 issue of Sojourners I’ll catch you up on the new nuclear surge.

Frida Berrigan is a senior research associate at the New School University’s World Policy Institute.