MOSCOW, June 6-RIA Novosti. Russia is conducting non-nuclear experiments at the test site on Novaya Zemlya, aimed at confirming the reliability of the domestic nuclear arsenal, said the head of the 12th Main (Nuclear Weapons) Department of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Kolesnikov.
On the air of the program "Military Acceptance" on the TV channel "Zvezda" Kolesnikov said that 132 nuclear tests took place on Novaya Zemlya from 1954 to 1990. "Further, since the 1990s, taking into account the introduction of a moratorium, no nuclear explosions have been made at this test site," he said.
Kolesnikov recalled that the Russian Federation signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996 and ratified it in 2000.
"Therefore, we are now conducting non-nuclear explosive experiments. Non-nuclear experiments are conducted to confirm the reliability of the existing nuclear ammunition, " Kolesnikov said. "I must say that the United States of America is working in exactly the same direction, also conducting the same experiments in Nevada," he added.
With the cessation of full-scale underground nuclear tests, non-nuclear (so-called "subcritical") explosive experiments (NVE) began to play an important role in assessing the reliability and safety of the existing nuclear arsenal. This is a special way of conducting research on the physical processes occurring in nuclear charges. Such experiments are conducted with test-site models of nuclear explosive devices without nuclear energy release caused by chain reactions of fission of uranium-235 or plutonium-239 nuclei.
The data obtained in the NVE allows us to draw a conclusion about the operability and reliability of the test model of a nuclear charge, as well as about the possibility of extending its shelf life.