Urge Congress to Cease and Desist on Subcritical Testing

August 28, 2006

Yesterday we learned that the National Nuclear Security Administration plans on conducting a sub-critical test on August 30 at the Nevada Test Site called Unicorn. While the test has been planned for some time, since 2003, the actual test date is so abrupt that yesterday’s press release is not even posted on the DOE web site.

You can read the Aug 22, 2003 press release here: http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/newsreleases/UnicornSubcritical_NR08222003.pdf

And yesterday's Las Vegas Sun article here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/aug/28/082810058.html

Here is the text of the press release we received by fax yesterday:

Unicorn Subcritical Experiment Scheduled

The Unicorn subcritical experiment will be conducted on August 30, 2006, at the Nevada Test Site. Los Alamos National Laboratory is conducting the experiment to gather scientific data that provides critical information to maintain the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons without having to conduct underground nuclear tests.

The last subcritical experiment, Krakatau, was conducted on February 23, 2006. Unicorn will be the 23rd subcritical experiment conducted since they began in July 1997.

Subcritical experiments examine the behavior of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives. Subcritical experiments produce essential scientific data and technical information used to help maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. The experiments are subcritical; that is, no critical mass is formed and no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction can occur; thus, there is no nuclear explosion.

Please call your local congressional office and tell your Senators and Representatives:

• Continued testing at the Nevada Test Site violates the spirit, if not the letter of test ban treaties. We should be setting the example, not pushing limits
• Asserting that these tests are necessary to the reliability of the stockpile, implies the continued willingness to use nuclear weapons, and such use is unacceptable.
• Testing of any kind at the Nevada Test Site is a violation of Western Shoshone sovereignty and must cease.