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Simulating Nuclear Explosions under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
This August 1997 report analyzes recently declassified excerpts from the U.S. Department of Energy's "Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan," a comprehensive "road-map" of U.S. plans and ongoing programs involving the nuclear weapons stockpile, and finds many conflicts between U.S. plans and the goals of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The printed report includes an additional Appendix containing copies of SLBM Warhead Protection Program vu-graphs obtained by the Los Alamos Study Group.
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- How the Secret "Green Book" Saw the Light of Day
- I. The Purpose of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
- II. Highlights from Recently Declassified Portions of DOE'S 1996 "Green Book"
- SSMP Program Strategy
- New Weapon Designs and Modifications
- New Warhead Prototypes
- Warhead Certification
- DOE/DoD Joint Flight Testing
- "Virtual Testing" Capabilities
- Predicting Primary Stage Performance
- Predicting Late Primary Stage Performance
- Advanced Dynamic Radiography
- Predicting Secondary Stage Performance
- Plutonium Properties and Dynamic Experiments
- Improved Computations for Weapons Simulations: The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI)
- New Weapon Designs and Modifications
- III. U.S. Nuclear Warhead Design Activities for Naval Strategic Forces
- IV. Key Elements of the SSMP Are Inconsistent with U.S. Nonproliferation Objectives and Policy Statements
- V. Conclusions and Preliminary Recommendations
- Appendix I: Recently Declassified Excerpts Concerning Design and Development of Nuclear Weapons under a Comprehensive Test Ban
- IV. Key Elements of the SSMP Are Inconsistent with U.S. Nonproliferation Objectives and Policy Statements
- Stewardship and Management Program Strategy
- Modifying Nuclear Weapons to Meet "Updated" Military Requirements
- Weapon Design Options
- Maintaining Capabilities For Nuclear Weapons Design, Engineering, and Underground Testing
- The Department of Energy Plans to Continue Making Weapon Modifications that Formerly Required "Certification" by Nuclear Explosive Tests
- DOE/DoD Plan Joint Flight Testing of Modified and New Weapons under the CTBT to Certify Their Military Mission Capability
- The U.S. Plans New Experimental and Computing Facilities to Improve Nuclear Weapon Physics Models and Nuclear Explosion Simulation Codes
- DOE Seeks Improved Fundamental Understanding of Weapon Physics to Create Comprehensive 3-D Models of Nuclear Weapon Explosions
- Predicting Primary Stage Performance
- Predicting Late Primary Stage Performance
- Dynamic Radiography
- Predicting Secondary Stage Performance
- Plutonium Properties
- Predicting Late Primary Stage Performance
- Enlisting the Help of the University Research Community
- Improved Computations for Weapons Simulations: The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI)
- Modifying Nuclear Weapons to Meet "Updated" Military Requirements
- Report Credits and Acknowledgments
For copies of the printed report, please send $5.00 plus $1.45 shipping and handling to: NRDC, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005, ATTN: Nuclear Publications. California residents must add 7.25% sales tax. International orders add $1.00 to cover airmail postage. Please make checks payable to NRDC in US dollars only.
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