US conducts limited nuclear test

[Sugarcane]

WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday it has conducted a "subcritical" nuclear test at an underground site to study the behavior of nuclear materials without triggering an atomic explosion.

The test, conducted Wednesday in Nevada, aims to gather scientific data that will "provide crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons," the Energy Department said in a statement.

"Challenging subcritical experiments maintain our capabilities to ensure that we can support a safe, secure and effective stockpile without having to conduct underground testing," said National Nuclear Security Administration head Thomas D'Agostino.

Staff from the Nevada National Security Site, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories conducted the experiment, known as Pollux. It marked the 27th subcritical experiment to date. The last one, known as Barolo B, took place in February 2011.

Subcritical nuclear tests, which do not trigger a self-sustaining chain reaction that would create a nuclear explosion, examine how plutonium behaves when it is shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.

The United States halted underground nuclear tests in 1992. By then, it had conducted 1,032 tests since 1945, according to UN figures.

US conducts limited nuclear test - thenews.com.pk

 

[graphican]

Is USA not signatory of CTBT ?

 

[JayAtl]

Is USA not signatory of CTBT ?

read the news again...

 

[graphican]

read the news again...

I thought CTBT meant comprehensive test ban treaty and comprehensive means complete.

 

[Kloitra]

I thought CTBT meant comprehensive test ban treaty.

http://www.ctbto.org/fileadmin/content/treaty/treaty_text.pdf

ARTICLE I
BASIC OBLIGATIONS
1. Each State Party undertakes not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion, and to prohibit and prevent any such nuclear explosion at any place under its jurisdiction or control.

2. Each State Party undertakes, furthermore, to refrain from causing, encouraging, or in any way participating in the carrying out of any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion

The treaty bans nuclear explosion.

it has conducted a "subcritical" nuclear test at an underground site to study the behavior of nuclear materials without triggering an atomic explosion.

The test was sub-critical, that is, no nuclear explosion involved. Infact, this was the exact purpose of the test. To ensure safety, part of which is that no explosion occurs by accident and reliability, that explosion does occur when intended.

The test, conducted Wednesday in Nevada, aims to gather scientific data that will "provide crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons," the Energy Department said in a statement.

In layman's term, they didn't tested a nuke.

Read this:
https://www.llnl.gov/str/Conrad.html

BAGPIPE, Oboe, Clarinet, and Piano could be the elements of an avant-garde musical ensemble. At Lawrence Livermore, however, they are the names of recent explosive tests conducted deep under the Nevada desert by Laboratory physicists and engineers. The tests are aimed at providing important data to experts watching over the nation's nuclear weapon stockpile.
In the Livermore experiments, chemical high explosives are detonated next to samples of weapons-grade plutonium (plutonium-239) to obtain new insights about plutonium and its alloys in the ensuing microseconds. The tests, conducted at the Department of Energy's 3,500-square-kilometer Nevada Test Site, are subcritical. That is, no critical mass is formed, so no self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction occurs as it does in a nuclear detonation. The experiments are permitted within the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty signed by President Clinton in 1998.

 

[JayAtl]

I thought CTBT meant comprehensive test ban treaty.

There is no test of atomic detonation, which is a core part of a nuclear weapons test.