Subcritical=Hypocritical
On April 4, 1997, Secretary of
Energy Federico Pena announced US plans to conduct a series of
"subcritical" underground nuclear tests at the Nevada
Test Site as part of the Stockpile Stewardship and Management
Program to maintain and expand United States nuclear weapons capabilities
under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The first of the these
tests is now scheduled for late June 1997, with a second similar
test to follow this summer of fall. The Coalition is working to
cancel these tests for the reasons below:
1. Subcriticals
would undermine efforts to achieve the CTBT's entry-into-force.
In order for the CTBT to enter into force requires ratification
by 44 named nuclear weapons-capable states. Conducting subcritical
experiments would likely harden the position of several states
concerned that the US (and other declared weapons states) will
continue nuclear weapons development through their "stockpile
stewardship" programs such as subcritical experiments. This
would undermine efforts to encourage these states to ratify the
Treaty.
2. Subcriticals
would complicate verification of the CTBT.
Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Treaties requires that
the CTBT signatories not undertake any action that would violate
the CTBT. Although the DOE claims that the subcriticals do not
violate the "zero-yield" CTBT, it will be difficult
for other countries to verify that the subcriticals do not actually
achieve critically.
3.
Other nations might choose to emulate US subcritical experiments.
This is in despite of the fact that there is no verification plan.
IF they do, further questions about CTBT compliance would emerge
without the necessary verification mechanisms to provide answers.
4. Subcriticals
are not necessary and would perpetuate the use of the Nevada test
Site for nuclear weapons.
There is no evidence to date to suggest that plutonium aging has
degraded the expected performance of the stockpile. DOE has not
yet conducted an independent technical review of subcriticals'
utility, timing, or site selection. Nor has the US government
thoroughly evaluated the nuclear arms control and non-proliferation
impacts of conducting such activities
5. These
tests are a gross and fraudulent waste of taxpayer's money.
DOE has awarded a 5-year $1.5 billion contract to the Bechtel
Corporation to manage the test site; to maintain the capability
to perform full scale underground tests there; and to conduct
subcritical underground tests to assess the effects of new manufacturing
techniques on weapon performance. The approximate cost of each
experiment would be $20 million.
Stockpile Stewardship and Management?
The Stockpile Stewardship and Management program-at a cost of
$40 billion over the next 10 years- is intended to maintain and
expand the US nuclear weapons capabilities well into the 21st
century. The program plans to preserve the capacity to maintain,
test, modify, design and produce nuclear weapons, with or without
underground explosions. Nuclear weapons design will be advanced
through the use of (including but by no means limited to) computer
simulations coupled with the data from more than 1000 past tests
and new information from inertial fusion (including the National
Ignition Facility [NIF]), above ground hydrodynamic explosions
(including the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrotest [DARHT] Facility),
and subcritical underground tests at the Nevada Test Site. This
revitalized US weapons design and manufacturing complex will be
capable of turning out at least 150 new weapons a year.
Where?
At the Nevada Test Site, 980 feet underground at the LYNER (Low-Yield
Nuclear explosion Research) facility.
What?
50 to 500 pounds of high explosive charge, including special nuclear
materials such as plutonium 239. They are designed not to reach
critically or produce a self-sustaining reaction-thus "subcritical."
Why?
DOE (Department of Energy) claims that subcriticals are needed
to (1) improve knowledge of the dynamic properties of aged nuclear
materials (like plutonium) and (2) to maintain the Nevada Test
Site capabilities and readiness. As part of the "stockpile
stewardship" program which DOE claims is necessary to maintain
a safe and reliable stockpile while complying with the test ban,
subcritical data will provide for computer simulations.
