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From: Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Dunn)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: How is a nuke tested underground?
Message-ID: <1991May14.051431.6478@amd.com>
Date: 10 May 91 15:15:55 GMT
Sender: military@amd.com
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
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From: Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Dunn)


There is a museum at Kirkland AFB in Albuquerque which deals with
nuclear weapons.  One display indicates that in some cases, horizontal
tunnels are dug from the weapon, with instrument packages at the end of
the tunnels.  Between the instrument packages and the weapon are heavy
steel shutters which are open at the time of ignition.  After the
instruments have had a look at the radiation from the blast, the steel
shutters are driven shut in fractions of a millisecond by explosive
charges.  Amazingly, it seems that this can be done fast enough to
protect the instruments from the blast wave.  The instruments can be
recovered, as could material samples.  This type of research has
obvious applicability to SDI, where outer space explosions would mainly
destroy things by radiation at all wavelengths.  I believe also that
this type of testing is being used to develop the famous SDI
nuclear-pumped X-ray laser.

--
Bruce Dunn    Vancouver, Canada   Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca