U.S. Conducts Dress Rehearsal for Pollux Nuclear Test October 17, 2012 Nuclearcrimes.

org NEWS American nuclear weapons scientists in September conducted 'Castor,' the confirmatory experiment and precursor to the U.S.'s 27th subcritical nuclear experiment named 'Pollux,' which will be conducted later this year in Nevada. The news about Castor and time-frame for Pollux was confirmed in the October issue of the U.S. DOE NNSA's monthly newsletter 'OneVoice' (formerly 'SiteLines'), which chronicles the goings-ons at the former Nevada Test Site, now called the NNSS. Pollux, like an underground nuclear test, will be held in a below ground alcove and involve a high chemical explosion directed at a quantity of weapons-grade plutonium. Unlike an underground nuclear test, however, the Pollux experiment will entail a sub-critical quantity of plutonium ensuring that a nuclear explosion, which is defined by the CTBT as a self-sustaining chain reaction, doesnt occur. A nuclear energy release - due to the inducement of fission still occurs in subcritical tests and some argue that this means a subcritical test is simply a nuclear test or nuclear explosion in miniature. What has attracted the attention of other nuclear weapons states to the U.S.s next subcritical test is that the DOE has chosen with Pollux to marry subcritical tests with the use of a scale model of a warhead primary. In concept, a primary is the bomb design of 'Fat Man,' which was the atom bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Earlier this month, presumably in reaction to U.S. plans for Pollux, Russia announced that it is restarting its own subcritical nuclear test program, which is an event that both Russian and Chinese news sources have said marks the beginning of a new phase of the nuclear arms race. Media outlets in the U.S., however, have been silent about recent subcritical developments in Russia and in their own country. Subcritical tests, which are permitted under the CTBT, allow for vertical proliferation, or the development of new nuclear weapons options by nuclear weapons states. Pollux, which will be the first-ever subcritical nuclear test to involve what essentially resembles a nuclear bomb device loaded with plutonium-239, represents the latest attempt by U.S. weapons designers to push the limits of the treaty and produce the most realistic nuclear test simulation.