Message posted by lone wolf on March 12, 2006 at 9:52:49 PST:

The Nevada Test Site does subcritical tests for new weapons and to maintain the current nuclear weapon stock. Subcritical means they don't have enough nuclear material to reach critical mass that is required to sustain a chain reaction. They claim is there is enough to be learned from these nuclear tests that an actual explosion isn't required.

These tests take quite a bit of preparation, so even in the few times a year I've had to scan the NTS trunk system, I've managed to hear one subcritical test (q1a Armando) and a dry run for another test that escapes my memory. The tests have been on talk group 2000. To be more specific, I've heard the tests while monitoring on the trunk system while monitoring near the NTS. However, if a NTS employee or contractor with TG 2000 in his radio happens to be in Vegas at the time, the Motorola smart zone will relay the radio traffic to the trunk systems that can be heard in Las Vegas.

The NTS just did a US/UK subcritical test near the end of February.

In Reply to: OT: British and American nuclear bomb posted by Nick on March 12, 2006 at 8:01:27 PST:

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