Iran Condemns US Nuclear Test

December 13th, 2012 - by admin

Agence France-Presse & PressTV & – 2012-12-13 01:01:24

http://www.france24.com/en/20121208-iran-condemns-us-nuclear-test

Iran Condemns US Nuclear Test
Agence France-Presse

(December 8, 2012) — Iran condemned arch foe the United States on Saturday for conducting a limited nuclear test, saying it showed Washington’s “inattention to full disarmament,” the state television website reported.

The US Energy Department said it conducted a “subcritical” test at an underground site in Nevada on Wednesday [December 5] to study the behaviour of nuclear materials without triggering an atomic explosion. It was its first since February last year.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast “condemned the recent US nuclear test,” saying it displayed “inattention to full disarmament which is a deep-seated demand of international public opinion.”

Iran “as one of the victims of weapons of mass destruction (during its 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq), will pursue the supreme leader’s fatwa regarding the prohibition of production, storage or use of such weapons until it has been fully realised,” Mehmanparast added.

He was referring to a 2005 religious decree by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he declared the atomic bomb to be against the principles of Islam.

Washington and other Western governments have expressed scepticism about Iran’s position and suspect that it is trying to develop a weapons capability under cover of its civil nuclear programme.

Tehran insists the programme is exclusively for power generation and medical purposes.

Subcritical Nuclear Test Undermined
World Peace, Iranian MP Says
PressTV

(December 9, 2012) — Iranian MP Mohammad Hassan Asafari has denounced the subcritical nuclear test the United States conducted on Wednesday, saying the move threatened world peace.

“The nuclear test the US has recently conducted in the Nevada desert undermines international peace,” Asafari, who is also the deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian Majlis (parliament), said on Saturday.

The test “proves that the global arrogance pays particular attention to producing and proliferating weapons of mass destruction,” he stated.

The United States has done nothing for the campaign for total nuclear disarmament and is even making efforts to scuttle the international conference on a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East, he opined.

And the US is well aware that Iran is playing a leading role in the efforts to make the Middle East a nuclear-weapons-free zone and will pursue the goal at international forums until world peace is established, he added.

The test, known as Pollux, was conducted jointly by the Nevada National Security Site, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories on December 5 with the purpose of providing “crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons.”

The experiment was a subcritical nuclear test, which examines the behavior of plutonium when shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.

According to the United Nations, the United States — which is the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons against human beings — has conducted 1,032 nuclear tests since 1945.

NNSA Conducts Pollux Subcritical Experiment at Nevada National Security Site
The National Nuclear Security Administration Press Release

LAS VEGAS (December 6, 2012) — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that Pollux, a subcritical experiment, was successfully conducted yesterday at its Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).

The experiment, conducted by staff from NNSS, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, gathered scientific data that will provide crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear weapons.

“Challenging subcritical experiments maintain our capabilities to ensure that we can support a safe, secure and effective stockpile without having to conduct underground testing,” said NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino. “I applaud the work done by the men and women who worked to make this experiment successful. Experiments such as this help deliver President Obama’s nuclear security agenda.”

Pollux was the 27th subcritical experiment to date. The previous subcritical experiment, Barolo B, was conducted on Feb. 2, 2011. Pollux employed a superb new diagnostic that recently won an R&D 100 award.

“Diagnostic equipment fielded by our scientists resulted in more data collected in this single experiment than all other previous subcritical experiments,” said NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Don Cook. “This type of data is critical for ensuring our computer simulations can accurately predict performance, and thus continued confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the nation’s stockpile.”

Christopher Deeney, NNSA Assistant Deputy Administrator for Stockpile Stewardship said, “Pollux will provide a significant data set to verify codes important to laboratories’ stockpile missions.”

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 effectiveness 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.

Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, reliability and performance of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing; works to reduce global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that Pollux, a subcritical experiment, was successfully conducted at its Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). This video is of the vessel containing the Pollux experiment.