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Krakatau Subcritical Nuclear Weapons Experiment
Conducted
Subcritical nuclear tests are a component
of the U.S. Department of Energy's Science Based Stockpile Stewardship
Management Program (SSMP) and are intended to show whether nuclear
weapons components such as Plutonium and Uranium will develop problems
as they age. The blasts will not produce a nuclear chain-reaction
explosion. They are called "subcritical" because they never reach
"critical mass." However, subcritical tests violate the spirit of
the
Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
As of October 1999 only two
countries have acknowledged that they engaged in subcritical nuclear
testing. These are the United States
and Russia.
France appears
to have promised the United
States to abstain from engaging
in subcritical testing. On June 4, 1996, after two years of negotiations,
France and the
United States
secretly enter into a pact to share
nuclear weapons data from computer simulated nuclear explosions.
Krakatau Subcritical Nuclear Weapons Experiment
Conducted Scottish
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament statement on this joint UK /
US nuclear weapons test.
National Nuclear Security Administration
Press Release
For Immediate Release February 23, 2006http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/newsreleases/KrakatauSuccessful_02232006.pdf
Krakatau, a joint United States/United
Kingdom (US/UK) subcritical experiment, was
successfully conducted at 12 p.m. on February 23,2006, at the
Nevada Test Site. The
experiment was conducted in the U1a complex. The Atomic Weapons
Establishment
of the United Kingdom and Los Alamos National Laboratory conducted
the experiment to gather scientific data that provides crucial
information to maintain the safety and reliability of each nation's
nuclear weapons without having to conduct underground nuclear
tests.
Krakatau was the 22 subcritical experiments
to date since they began in 1997. The
previous subcritical experiment, Armando, was conducted on May
25, 2004. The last joint US/UK subcritical experiment was Vito,
conducted on February 14, 2002. Krakatau was a follow-on to the
Vito experiment.
Subcritical experiments examine the behavior
of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by
forces produced by chemical high explosives. Subcritical experiments
produce essential scientific data and technical information used
to help maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons
stockpile. The experiments are subcritical; that is, no critical
mass is formed and no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction can
occur; thus, there is no nuclear explosion.
The Nevada Test Site's U1a Complex is located
85 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The U1a Complex is designed to
contain these experiments in a safe and secure environment in
an underground laboratory of horizontal tunnels with small excavated
experimental alcoves mined at the base of a vertical shaft, approximately
960 feet beneath the surface.
NNSA/NSO Office of Public Affairs
http://www.nv.doe.gov
P.O. Box 98518
Las Vegas NV 89193-8518
News Media Contact:
Kevin Rohrer, 72-295-3521 Rohrer@nv.doe.gov
Nancy Tufano, 702-295-3521 TufanoN@nv.doe.gov
Krakatau
subcritical experiment photos
Krakatau
subcritical experiment videos
Shundahai Network's Subcritical
Nuclear Weapons Tests Information Page
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