The nuclear weapons tests ordered by the president of the United States, donald trumpwill not involve nuclear explosions for the moment, the Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are systems tests,” Wright said in an interview with Fox News. “These are not nuclear explosions. They are what we call non-critical explosions.”
The tests involve all other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they work and can cause a nuclear explosion, said Wright, whose agency is responsible for testing U.S. nuclear weapons.
The tests will be carried out with new systems to help ensure that the replacement nuclear weapons are better than the previous ones, Wright said on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.”
Just before his meeting with him Chinese leader Xi Jinping In South Korea on Thursday, Trump said he ordered the U.S. military to immediately restart the nuclear weapons testing process after a 33-year hiatus, a move that appeared to be a message to rival nuclear powers China and Russia.
He reaffirmed his comments on Friday, but did not respond directly when asked if that would include underground nuclear tests that were common during the Cold war.
The United States conducted nuclear test explosions in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Wright said, and collected detailed information and measurements on the explosions.
“With our science and our computing power, we can simulate with incredible precision what exactly would happen in a nuclear explosion,” Wright said. “Now we simulate what the conditions were that caused that, and as we change the pump designs, what will they cause?”
