The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday detonated a conventional explosive underground at the Nevada National Security Site, the sixth in a set of experiments meant to enhance U.S. abilities to monitor low-yield nuclear testing and detect underground explosions.
The activity, part of the agency’s Source Physics Experiment research, involved the detonation of chemical explosives equivalent to 2,200 kilograms of trinitrotoluene (TNT) 31 meters underground, the announcement said. High-speed video, photogrammetry, synthetic aperture radar, accelerometers, and other technologies will be used to analyze seismic, infrasound, optical, acoustic, geospatial, and magnetic data from the test, it said
The NNSA will next begin Phase II experiments consisting of explosions in alluvium, a softer rock – in contrast with the hard rock used for Phase I – to identify the impact of geology on seismic waves from subterranean nuclear blasts. Five explosions during the next phase are set to be conducted in the next two years, the NNSA said.
Researchers from the Nevada site and the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia national laboratories are among those participating in the experiment series, which Anne Harrington, NNSA deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, said in the statement is intended to “advance technical solutions for treaty monitoring by the United States and its partner nations.”
