Nuclear Testing without Testing
SINCE THE FIRST NUCLEAR TEST EXPLOSION IN 1945, MORE THAN TWO
THOUSAND TEST BOMBS HAVE BEEN DETONATED AROUND THE WORLD. 
SINCE THESE SEND RADIOACTIVITY INTO THE ENVIRONMENT, A NEW
INTERNATIONAL TREATY--THE COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY--HAS
BEEN PROPOSED TO BAN ALL SUCH TESTING.  THE US CONGRESS IS
CURRENTLY CONSIDERING WHETHER TO RATIFY THE TREATY AND ONE
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS IS HOW WILL THE GOVERNMENT KNOW THEIR
WEAPONS WORK IF THEY CAN'T TEST THEM?  THE DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE'S SANDIA NATIONAL LABS IS ONE OF THE PLACES STEPPING IN
TO DEVISE NEW WAYS OF INSPECTING NUCLEAR ARMS.

Cook: "Without underground testing, we must be able to make sure that nuclear weapons
are safe, reliable, and effective. Without such testing, we'll do that through a compniation
of computer calculations and experiments."

PHYSICIST DON COOK IS ONE OF THE SCIENTISTS IN CHARGE OF THOSE
EXPERIMENTS FOR SANDIA.  HE SAYS THE ATOM-SMASHERS PHYSICISTS
USE TO STUDY TEENSY PARTICLES CAN ALSO BE USED TO STUDY
NUCLEAR REACTIONS.  THESE PARTICLE ACCELERATORS CAN SEND
PARTICLES ZOOMING SO FAST THEY COULD FLY FROM NEW YORK TO LOS
ANGELES IN A SINGLE SECOND.

Cook: "Matter can be very rapidly accelerated and then stopped on itself. . . a lot like
brakes stop an automobile and make the brake linings hot.  If we can accelerate matter
very rapidly and then stop it in a very short time, we make very high temperatures. . .that
heat simulates what happens in a nuclear weapon."

EXPERIMENTS UNDER THESE INTENSE HEAT CONDITIONS COMBINED WITH
ELABORATE COMPUTER MODELS OF NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS WOULD
ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR ACTUAL TEST DETONATIONS, SAYS VICTOR
REISS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY.

Reiss: "If we can do it right, we can maintain our stockpile indefinitely and we can do it
without testing."