The United States conducted a successful subcritical nuclear experiment last week at its Nevada test site, according to the U.S. Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration.  The test, called Oboe 7, involved small amounts of nuclear material and was subcritical, meaning “no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred,” an administration statement said.  Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California set off the experiment at 1 p.m. on Thursday.

The Oboe 7 was the 15^th such experiment the United States conducted since July 1997.  The experiments are designed to provide information about the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal without conducting full nuclear tests, which the United States froze indefinitely in 1992.  U.S. officials said they planned to conduct more experiments like the Oboe 7 in the future (Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 14).

Anti-nuclear organizations have said the subcritical tests violate the spirit of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (Japan Economic Newswire, Dec. 13).  The United States signed the CTBT in 1996 but has not ratified it (Federation of American Scientists release, Dec. 18).

The Energy Department said the tests did not violate the treaty because no critical mass of fissile material was formed and no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place during the experiments.

The test was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was delayed until Thursday due to operational support problems, the Energy Department said (Japan Economic Newswire).  A two-day strike by security guards was responsible for delaying the Oboe 7 test, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last week (Keith Rogers, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 14).

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