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From: prentice%triton.unm.edu@ariel.unm.edu (John Prentice)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: How is a nuke tested underground?
Message-ID: <1991May14.051449.6549@amd.com>
Date: 11 May 91 03:51:10 GMT
References: <1991May8.034438.11095@amd.com> <1991May9.064418.13758@amd.com>
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From: prentice%triton.unm.edu@ariel.unm.edu (John Prentice)


jfs@beno.CSS.GOV (Jim Scheimer) writes:
>	However, (isn't there always an however?) when a test is
>conducted in a region where there are pre-existing faults, the shock
>from the test can trigger what is known as local tectonic strain
>release. This is not a problem from an environmental sense...

I seem to recall that there are some concerns that the French tests are
doing serious harm to the structure of some South Pacific islands however.
I don't remember the details, but it was something like destroying the
intregity of the coral that many of these islands are built up on (?) .
There has been a lot written about this in the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists over the last few years.  Anyone know what the concerns 
actually are?

	[This now leaves the realm of sci.military; all replies
	 via e-mail to the author, please. --CDR]

-- 
John K. Prentice    john@unmfys.unm.edu (Internet)
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Computational Physics Group, Amparo Corporation, Albuquerque, NM, USA