Blasts probe plutonium power refining supercomputer calculationsBerkely 10 August 2000 ull-fledged nuclear tests are off-limits but scientists quietly continue to test plutonium's power by exploding small, potent packages 1,000 feet beneath the Nevada desert. The plutonium, some of which comes from old weapons, is ``shocked'' by a high-explosive detonation that reproduces the pressures and temperatures that occur when a nuclear device is detonated. Data obtained through high-speed cameras and laser holography are used to refine the supercomputer codes that simulate full explosions.
Since 1997, scientists at Livermore Lawrence National Laboratory
have unleashed a series of tests -- called Bagpipe, Oboe, Clarinet --
attempting to gain new insight into how plutonium behaves under
extreme conditions.
Next in the series is Piano, a test so powerful scientists may
abandon their cost-cutting measure of confining the explosives to a
55-gallon barrel lowered into an underground alcove. They suspect
Piano would tear through the inch-thick steel skin of a barrel, so
the experiment may be detonated directly in the alcove, which then
would be sealed.
The tests are allowed under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
because they are subcritical, meaning no critical mass is formed
and there is no chain reaction.
Tests so far have used less than 65 grams, about two ounces, of
plutonium. Livermore spokesman David Schwoegler said the amount of
plutonium being used in Piano is classified, but it will not be
enough to reach critical mass.
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