A month or two ago I mentioned the possible use of He-3 in an ultra-clean thermonuclear weapon. There would still be some slight fall-out due to the uranium-plutonium alloy fission trigger. The Bush administration has been exploring the possibility of developing a new class of nuclear weapons. These weapons would be intended for use in limited war against rogue states. Our current nuclear weapons are intended for Multual Assured Destruction (MAD) and inappropriate for limited nuclear war.

Normally one can not be too cynical when analysing the actions of the United States government. However I believe it would be overly cynical to assume that Bush's recent Moon base proposal was motivated by the desire to create new nuclear weapons. He-3 really is pie-in-the-sky. The lunar mining technology is an unknown. Also as far as I know, He-3 based weapons have never been tested (pure deuterium weapons have been tested). A more reasonable assumption concerning Bush's Moon program is that it is a pork barrel exercise and nothing more.

Gary