When the United States revealed in January that it is testing a more nimble, more precise version of its B61 atom bomb, some were immediately alarmed.
General James Cartwright, a former strategist for President Barack Obama, warned that “going smaller” could make nuclear weapons “more thinkable” and “more usable.”
However, what is little known is that for the past 25 years the United States and its allies have routinely used radioactive weapons in battle, in the form of warheads and explosives made with depleted, undepleted or slightly enriched uranium.