Nuclear Weapons: Technical Resources

Stockpile Stewardship
The post cold war nuclear weapons research, design, and testing program, called Science Based Stockpile Stewardship, has been justified as a means to understand the processes of aging in nuclear weapons, and to guarantee that each weapon in the U.S. arsenal remains in working order. Without full scale nuclear testing (which was the primary way of evaluating aging weapons and new designs prior to 1992) the National Laboratories have resorted to a program of advanced computer modeling/simulation, subcritical nuclear explosives testing, and a whole new gamut of new ways to carry out their nuclear weapons missions.

Plutonium Pits
Pit Lifetime, JASON's review on plutonium aging, JSR-06-335, The Mitre Corporation, (506KB pdf) November 20, 2006

A Little Primer on Plutonium and Poverty in New Mexico, also pdf file of brochure.

Press releases:
LANL Plan to Detonate Plutonium Poses Risks to Region, May 14, 1997.

photo: The WMD Way of Life: Pit production equipment (?) in Los Alamos parking lot (jpg), Jan 2006

Plutonium Explosions: Subcritical Testing
Since the United States' last full nuclear weapons test at the Nevada Test Site in September of 1992 all subsequent nuclear weapons explosives tests have been subcritical. A subcritical test is similar to a full scale nuclear detonation in that a plutonium core and other weapons grade elements are subjected to compression under a high explosives blast, but the implosion is not sufficient to sustain the criticality necessary for the process of nuclear fission.

New Weapons
Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Military, Department of Energy, and the nuclear weapons laboratories never stopped designing new weapons. Some are modifications on pervious designs such as the B61 which became the B61-11. Others such as the proposed earth penetrator and low yield nuclear weapons will be new designs.

Weapons Effect Simulations

Nuclear Testing
Between 1945 and 1992 the United States conducted over 1054 (official count) [1] full scale nuclear weapons tests on air, land, and sea, and even in space. Major test sites included several sites in the South Atlantic, Bikini Atoll, the Christmas Islands, Enewetak, and Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, Amchitka in Alaska, Rifle, and Grand Valley in Colorado, Farmington, Alomogordo, and Carlsbad in New Mexico, Hattiesburg in Mississippi, and approximately 904 nuclear explosions in Nevada at the Nevada Test Site.

Press releases:
"Subcritical" Nuclear Tests Have Apparently Begun at Los Alamos, January 13, 1999.

Archive of Government Documents

Biological Weapons

Nuclear Links

1. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office. “United States Nuclear Test: July 1945 - September 1992.” DOE/NV - 209 Rev 15 December 2000.