Underground nuclear explosions

Mills, H. L. and Shields, L. M. (1961). Root absorption of fission products by Bromus Rubess, L. from the AEC Nevada Test Site soil contaminated by an underground nuclear explosion, Radiat. Bot. 1, 84. 

Levy, H. B., "On Evaluating the Hazards of Groundwater Contamination by Radioactivity from an Underground Nuclear Explosion," Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Rept. UCRL-51278, (September 18, 1972). 

Storm of Nov. 15-17, 1966. The fission product ratio data by nuclear event for this storm are given in Table VII. The storm occurred 18 days after the reported Chinese fourth nuclear weapon test of about 20 lalotons on Oct. 28, 1966 and 190 days after the Chinese third nuclear explosion of about 200 kilotons on May 9, 1966. Also listed is the series of tests conducted by the French in the Southern Hemisphere (near Tahiti) in the time period between these two Chinese tests. A further possible source of fission products was the vented U.S.S.R. underground nuclear explosion of Oct. 27, 1966 (14). The extent of venting is not reported, and contributions to the storm deposition, if any, would appear as part of the fission products from the China-3 explosion. However, the venting process may result in significant fractionation of the fission products. 

Other activities of man have led to the distribution of appreciable amounts of radionuclides in the atmosphere and on the earth s surface. In the first place nuclear explosions and nuclear weapon tests have to be mentioned, by which Pu and fission products have been deposited on the earth, either directly or via the atmosphere in the form of fall-out. The amount of Pu released by nuclear weapon tests between 1958 and 1981 is estimated at 4.2 tons, of which 2.8 tons were dispersed in the atmosphere and 1.4 tons deposited locally. By underground nuclear explosions about 1.5 tons of Pu have been liberated. Radionuclides released into the air are mainly present in the form of aerosols. 

Dalhman, O. and Israelson, H., Monitoring Underground Nuclear Explosions, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1977. 

At the request of any State party, the conference may consider the possibility of permitting the conduct of underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes . If it permits such explosions by consensus, then the review conference shall commence work without delay, with a view to recommending to State Parties an appropriate amendment to this Treaty that shall preclude any military benefits of such nuclear explosions . 

The combined primary and auxiliary networks are expected to have a detection threshold corresponding to an underground nuclear explosion yield of less than 1 kiloton TNT equivalent fully coupled, independent of location, with event localization in the range of 100-1000 km depending on how well the source-to-receiver paths are characterized. 

During an underground nuclear explosion, almost all the energy released is trapped in the first few tens of metres surrounding the explosion point. The energy is mainly absorbed by the vaporization of the rock in the immediate vicinity of the explosion point, then by the fracturing of the material. Beyond a certain distance, known as the elastic radius , the shock wave is sufficiently attenuated for the movements to be reversible after the wave has passed, the material returns to its initial state. All that... 

The elastic radius delimits a zone inside which the displacements are irreversible. For a given medium, the size of this zone increases with explosion yield and decreases with depth. Observed from long distances compared with this radius, that is, beyond a few kilometres, an underground nuclear explosion can be represented, in seismic terms, by a single point emitting an isotropic seismic wave whose amplitude and frequency content are governed by the explosion yield, the depth of the zero point and the mechanical characteristics of the material surrounding this point. 

The recording at long distances of the seismic waves generated by underground nuclear explosions has four steps ... 

Dale, J.M. and Dehart, R.C., 1960. The use of underground nuclear explosions for mining sulphur. In Proc. of Minerals and Metals Symposium, Mexico City. 

Nuclear explosions in the Lop-Nor range (May 15, 19, 1992) and underground nuclear explosions in India (May 1998)... 

One of the causes of aerosol increase in the atmosphere is the radioactive burst in the epicenter of underground nuclear explosions. If after an explosion, the aerosol cloud gets into the zone of jet flow, it will settle down or rise up depending on the leg it encountered (anticyclone or cyclone). The higher the wind velocity in the jet is, the higher the layer of maximum values of aerosol concentrations is located. The upward aerosol transfer on a cyclone leg is more intensive than the downward transfer on an anti-cyclone leg, as the ascending vertical velocities are more powerful than the descending ones. 

After the underground nuclear explosion at Lop-Nor on May 15, 1992, an aerosol cloud 2 km thick (from 4.5 to 6.5 km) was observed, with the maximum aerosol concentration at 5.8 km (i =62.8) (Chen and Lelevkin, 2000). The fast exponential increase of the distance ratio up to the maximum value, followed by a linear decrease up to a height of 7.5 km was observed. By May 23 the thickness of the layer did not change, and the maximum of aerosol concentration moved to the height of 6.5 km (/ =6.5). The maximum concentration decreased by 7 i units per diem, and moved upwards by 200 m per diem. 

Underground nuclear explosions are usually performed at a depth of hundreds of metres in order to... 

Higgins, G.H. (1959). Evaluation of the ground-water contamination hazard from underground nuclear explosions. Journal of Geophysical Research, 64,... 

Seismographs, which can distinguish between an underground nuclear explosion and the many earthquakes that occur on a daily basis (on average, 100 per day)... 

February This announcement from TASS was the first mention of the blasts and it appeared on the last page. On 26 February 1987 at 8,00 Moscow time on the Polygon near Semipalatinsk there was executed an underground nuclear explosion with the power of up to 20 kilotons. The test was made with an aim... 

U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. (1989). The containment of underground nuclear explosions. Washington, DC U.S. Government Printing Office, Report OTA-ISC-414 (document contains many detailed maps of the Nevada Test Site). Also this is available on pdf. 

Environmental Consequences of Underground Nuclear Explosions, by V. Men-schikov and B. Golubov (Nuclear Control, October 1995 Center for Political Studies, Moscow) (quoted as NC). 

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