U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Reduction Plan Announced

President Bush announced this week that he wants to shrink the aging U.S. nuclear stockpile to less than a quarter of its size at the end of the Cold War.

The plan, which requires congressional approval, calls for closing or abandoning 600 buildings at facilities across the country and gradually reducing the associated workforce by at least 7,200, the Washington Post reported.

Nearly 30,000 people still would be employed in nuclear-arms-related work.

"Today's nuclear weapons complex needs to move from the outdated, Cold War complex into one that is smaller, safer and less expensive," said Thomas P. D'Agostino, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the weapons program, on Tuesday.

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