Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : ‘Doomsday Project’ Reportedly Scrapped

The federal government, citing the end of the Cold War, is abandoning an 11-year-old, $8-billion project on ways to keep the government running after a nuclear attack, according to published reports. The “Doomsday Project,” as it is known, will officially end on Oct. 1, according to military officials familiar with the project who were quoted in today’s editions of the New York Times. The Pentagon spent $8 billion on the project, which sought to create an unbreakable chain of command for military and civilian leaders that would withstand a six-month war that included a sustained nuclear attack on Washington. “That was the requirement: six months,” said Bruce Blair, a former Strategic Air Command officer who analyzed nuclear war programs in the 1980s. “And at the end we had to have a cohesive chain of command, with control over our remaining nuclear forces, that would give us leverage over the Soviets.” Like many other Cold War programs, the Doomsday Project’s details remain top secret.