A subcritical nuclear test advances nuclear bomb design capabilities by detonating high explosives along with fissile material, such as plutonium. Exotic diagnostics record detailed data on the performance of the plutonium under the test conditions. The test is called "subcritical" because it is set up so the high explosives stop short of triggering a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in the bomb material.
The Department of Energy (DOE) justifies these tests as necessary to maintain the "safety and reliability" of the US nuclear arsenal. However, peace and environmental groups point out that the nuclear arsenal can be properly maintained without such tests, and, further, that subcritical nuclear tests contaminate the environment, risk public health and safety, spur the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and undermine the ongoing international ratification effort for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), signed by President Clinton in 1996 and now awaiting Senate ratification.
Russia has answered the US subcritical tests "tit for tat" by conducting five of its own such tests, beginning late last year.
"Subcritical tests continue the US government's noncompliance with international treaties, such as the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the CTBT, which require us to end nuclear testing and, ultimately, to eliminate our nuclear arsenal," stated Marylia Kelley, Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs. "If we as a nation are unwilling to abide by the letter and spirit of the treaties we sign, we lose all moral authority to persuade other nations to forego nuclear weapons development and abide by their part of the bargain", Kelley added.
Darwin Morgan, DOE spokesperson, said " The primary objectives of Clarinet were to observe the speed and surface effects of the plutonium as it blew apart when shocked by the energy from detonating chemical-high explosives." (This plutonium is left 680 feet in the ground dangerously near groundwater that has already been found to be contaminated with plutonium and tritium from past nuclear explosions.) Morgan said Tuesday's experiment will help expand the knowledge base that scientists from the national Laboratories are developing under the stockpile Stewardship Program, a key element of the DOE's $6.2 billion defense budget the Clinton administration has requested for next year.
Corbin Harney, a Newe (Western Shoshone) elder, who's land was stolen to create the test site and other military bases, began a prayer ceremony at 9am. People from Healing Global Wounds, Shundahai Network, Alliance of Atomic Veterans, Nevada Desert Experience and other groups maintained a vigil all morning at the Mercury gates to the test site. Nine people were arrested for blocking the road at around the same time that "Clarinet" was exploded. They were cited for trespass and released. Later that afternoon others gathered in front of the Las Vegas Foley Federal Building for a small but spirited protest vigil.
N.KOREA CLOSE TO DEVELOPING MISSILE THAT COULD HIT U.S.
NY Times News Service
WASHINGTON -- North Korea is on the verge of developing ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental United States, the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, told Congress on Tuesday.
North Korea's communist government appears to be working to produce nuclear weapons covertly and to extend the range of its ballistic missles in ways that have surprised U.S. intelligence agencies, American officials have said.
In a review of threats to U.S. national security, Tenet told lawmakers that North Korea was working on a new generation of missiles that could soon "be able to deliver large payloads" to the continental United States.
North Korea's accelerated weapons programs comes against a backdrop of famine and increasing instability in the country, making its government's actions dangerously difficult to predict.
"I can hardly overstate my concern about North Korea", Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "In nearly all aspects, the situation there has become more volatile and unpredictable."
Tenet's comments concerning the threat from North Korea caps a remarkable reversal by U.S. intellegence agencies in the last few months.
In July, a bipartisan commission headed by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld concluded that countries it describes as rougue states could hit the United States with ballistic missiles with little or no warning.
ARMS EXPERT PREDICTS US CITY WILL BE DESTROYED BY A NUCLEAR WEAPON WITHIN 10 YEARS
Ambassador Robert Gallucci, U.S. special envoy on proliferation matters and dean of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University believes that it is likely that a U.S. city will be destroyed by a nuclear weapon within the next decade. He speculates the attack will come from a terrorist organization that has acquired nuclear weapons from a government hostile to the U.S. Galluci believes that the most likely means of delivery of a nuclear weapon for attacking a U.S. city will be a ship, airplane, or truck, not an incoming missile. (Post Gazette, January 23, 1999)
MOSCOW - The military declared 10 newly designed
nuclear missiles ready for combat Sunday in its first
deployment of the Topol-M, developed to maintain
Russia's position as a global nuclear power.
The single-warhead Topol-M, whose range has been
reported to exceed 6,200 miles, will be the new heart of
Russia's missile forces, and 40 are expected to be built
by the end of 2000 taking the place of heavier,
multiple-warhead missiles. The missile is designed to
be fired from a vehicle, and its mobility makes it more
safe from preemptive strikes than silo-based missiles.
The 10 Topol-M's were deployed in the Saratov region,
about 450 miles southeast of Moscow, the ITAR-Tass
news agency reported.
The deployment was a major step for Russia's
cash-strapped government, which doesn't have enough
money to maintain all its armed forces, and decided to
concentrate defense spending on developing the missile.
"This is a very important event, because even in the
difficult financial conditions of 1998 we have managed
to find funds for financing this top priority area," said
Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, according to ITAR-Tass.
Russia is facing its worst economic crisis since the Soviet collapse.
A parliament committee is drafting a bill that would
guarantee funding to the strategic missile forces until
2010, regardless of the country's economic situation, the
Interfax news agency reported.
The measure would ensure that Russia maintains nuclear
parity with the West, according to Roman Popkovich,
chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma,
the lower house of parliament.
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia conducted five nuclear
tests of a subcritical level at an Arctic testing range
this fall, a top official said Thursday, contradicting
previous denials.
Such tests are not prohibited by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because the amount of radioactive
plutonium used is not enough to create a nuclear explosion. But critics say carrying out even limited
tests could encourage other countries to conduct full-scale nuclear tests.
Deputy Nuclear Energy Minister Lev Ryabev said the tests on the Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya
were conducted Sept. 14 to Dec. 13, the Interfax news agency reported.
Weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium were used during the tests, but "there was no discharge of nuclear energy," Ryabev was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Western news reports and environmentalists claimed in September that Russia was preparing a subcritical nuclear test on Novaya Zemlya.
But Moscow denied the reports in October, after the tests had already begun, Ryabev said.
Gen. Igor Volynkin, who heads a Defense Ministry department overseeing nuclear weapons, said then
that there were no plans for nuclear tests at the Novaya Zemlya range and that Russia carries out
only "various physical modeling experiments" that do not qualify as nuclear tests.
SEMIPALATINSK, Kazakstan, Associated Press - Dispensary No. 4, set on the vast plains of Central Asia, was a medical clinic unlike any other in the Soviet Union.
Its secret task was to collect radiation data on people living near Semipalatinsk, the huge nuclear testing site in northern Kazakstan.
"I knew what was going on, but I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to get 15 years (in a labor camp) or, worse, shot," said Boris Gusev, who was the clinic's chief doctor until 1991. Gusev, 60, says he has done everything he can to help people with his knowledge since Kazakstan gained independence in 1991 and the sprawling test site was closed.
"I feel very good because with what I knew and saw, I could do something to help the people," said Gusev, now deputy director of the state-run Scientific Research Institute for Radiation, Medicine and Ecology.
But Gusev's change of heart comes too late for some of the estimated 1.6 million people exposed to high radiation levels during the 470 nuclear tests the Soviet military conducted here between 1949 and 1989.
More than 100 of the tests took place above ground.
Before some explosions, local residents were told to leave their houses and stay outside.
The ground would shake, glass would shatter and plates would fall from the cupboards. Sometimes buildings would collapse, residents said.
No one told them that looking at the nuclear mushroom cloud could damage their eyes — or worse.
No one warned them their children and grandchildren would lose their teeth, turn gray in their teens, suffer birth defects or die of cancer.
"The nature of the deformities that resulted - they're just gruesome beyond belief," said Dr. James Warf, a chemistry professor at the University of Southern California who has worked on nuclear projects and studied the effects of radiation in Semipalatinsk.
The people were meant to be part of the experiment, and the results are only now coming in. Kazakstan's cash-strapped government has done little to address the problem in recent years, and Russia simply ignores the issue.
Still, some Western experts have begun researching the effects of radiation on the region.
The Baylor College of Medicine in Texas has undertaken a project to wade through old data that is now becoming available.
"Unfortunately, the types and duration of exposure, controversy regarding historical data, the extended period of secrecy, and current economic and health problems make it quite challenging," said Dr. Armin Weinberger, the head of the Center for Cancer Control Research at Baylor.
At the Home for Psychiatric and Neurological Patients in Semipalatinsk, the vast majority of the 350 patients are believed to be victims of radiation, suffering from mental retardation, schizophrenia and physical malformations, said director Shaiza Rysbekova.
Kazakstan's government pays only a fraction of the $800,000 needed to run the home annually and medical staff have not been paid for two months, Rysbekova said.
The state's lack of money also has prevented the payment of compensation to many radiation victims.
Residents who lived in the Semipalatinsk area during the nuclear tests are entitled to a one-time compensation.
The state made payments in 1996, but only 56,445 pensioners received any money, getting the equivalent of $215 each.
It's still unclear how many people actually suffered health problems as a result of the nuclear tests.
All data collected during the Soviet era was sent to Moscow and has not been made public.
Kazak officials say that for every 100,000 people in Semipalatinsk, 245 will contract cancer, compared with 174 in Kazakstan as a whole.
The prenatal center in Semipalatinsk said that of every 1,000 births in 1997, 400 babies had some health problems or deformities and 47 died.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea, again denying it is building an underground nuclear facility, has repeated its threat to disavow a critical 1994 agreement requiring it to abandon a suspected nuclear weapons program.
In a report by its official Korean Central News Agency late Tuesday night, the communist country's Foreign Ministry said it made its position clear in negotiations with U.S. officials last week. Charles Kartman, a U.S. special envoy, had visited North Korea to demand U.S. access to the suspect facility.
The next round of negotiations is scheduled to be held in New York in early December.
"We have no obligation to allow inspection merely because they suspect our underground facility," an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman said in the report.
"This is as good as asking to search another's house. This is a grave violation of and insult to our sovereignty and dignity.
We can never accept their demand," the spokesman said.
The North's spokesman said, however, that Pyongyang could allow a one-time inspection of the facility if the United States compensates for its "groundless" accusation concerning the facility.
North Korea reportedly is seeking $300 million in cash in return for an inspection. The United States has rejected the demand.
Under the 1994 agreement with the United States, North Korea agreed to abandon its suspect nuclear weapons program.
In return, it will get two safe nuclear reactors worth $4.6 billion plus substitute fuel oil and other economic benefits.
North Korea has threatened to abrogate the agreement several times since it was reached.
Before the agreement was signed, the country was suspected of having extracted enough weapons-grade plutonium to make one or two nuclear bombs.
The spokesman said there are many underground facilities and tunnels in North Korea. But he added that the disputed facility at Kumchang-ri north of Pyongyang, the capital, is not nuclear-related.
U.S. officials said they have "compelling evidence" the disputed facility, about 25 miles from the North's main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, is for nuclear development. President Clinton warned during his visit to Seoul over the weekend that U.S.-North Korea relations would be thrown into danger if suspicions over the facility are not promptly cleared up.
On Sept 26th the US Department of Energy conducted the fourth "subcritical" experiment at the Nevada Test Site. Subcritical experiments are scientific experiments to obtain technical information in support of the Department of Energy's program to maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing.
Analysis of data from monitoring instruments confirmed that the experiment remained subcritical, that is, no nuclear chain reaction occurred.
The Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducted the experiment at 3:07 p.m. (PDT) to obtain information about how key properties of plutonium change as plutonium ages.
The data will help support the development of computer simulations that will be used to determine the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, without nuclear testing.
The subcritical experiments use high explosives to generate high pressures that are applied to nuclear weapons materials. the experiments are consistent with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because there is no nuclear explosion.
MOSCOW (AP) -- A 19-year-old sailor on a Russian nuclear submarine stole a machine gun and shot dead eight crewmen before barricading himself in the vessel at a northern port, officials said today.
Alexander Kuzminykh, a draftee who's been in the navy since last year, went on a shooting spree overnight on the vessel in Severomorsk, near the northern city of Murmansk, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Eight sailors were dead and the standoff was continuing, the statement added.
The submarine was of the Bars class, a nuclear-powered fleet submarine normally armed with nuclear cruise missiles and torpedoes, navy officials said. However, there were no missiles on the submarine because it was in port, officials said.
The shooting rampage began when Kuzminykh seized a machine gun from a guard, killing him and then fatally shooting seven more crew members, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The account gave no word on what might have prompted his actions. However, the Interfax news agency said Kuzminykh had been in detention on disciplinary charges when he seized the weapon.
After the shootings, Kuzminykh barricaded himself inside one section of the submarine, officials said.
The commander of the Russian navy, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, flew to the port to handle the situation, officials said.
Officials tried to contact the sailor and appealed to him to surrender, but he was not responding to their calls. Nor has he made any demands, the Defense Ministry said.
There has been a rash of mass killings in the Russian armed forces, which are plagued by brutal living conditions. The military is chronically short of money because of the country's economic problems and hazing of servicemen is a major problem.
RUSSIA FIELDS NEW NUCLEAR MISSILES
By The Associated Press - http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwssun04.htm
RUSSIA ADMITS NUCLEAR TESTS
in the San Jose Mercury News - http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/russianuke25.htm
EFFECTS OF KAZAK RADIATION COME TO LIGHT
NORTH KOREA MAY DEFY NUCLEAR ACCORD
By The Associated Press - http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-NKorea-Nuclear.html
SUBCRITICAL EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED SUCCESSFULLY AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY'S NEVADA TEST SITE
SAILOR KILLS 8 ON RUSSIAN SUBMARINE
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