US not planning nuclear explosions

Nuclear weapons tests ordered by US President Donald Trump will not currently involve nuclear explosions.

“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.

“These are not nuclear explosions. We call these non-critical explosions.”

Wright, the agency responsible for testing U.S. nuclear weapons, said the test included all other parts of the nuclear weapon to make sure it worked and could create a nuclear explosion.

Tests will be conducted on new systems to help ensure new nuclear weapons are better than their predecessors, Wright said.

Just before meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, Trump said he had ordered the US military to immediately restart nuclear weapons testing after a 33-year hiatus; It was a move that appeared to be a message to rival nuclear powers China and Russia.

He reaffirmed his comments on Friday but did not directly answer when asked whether this included underground nuclear testing, which was common during the Cold War.

Wright said the United States conducted nuclear test explosions in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and collected detailed information and measurements about the explosions.

“With our science and computing power, we can simulate, incredibly accurately, exactly what would happen in a nuclear explosion,” he said.

“We’re now simulating what the conditions are that enable this, and what will they enable as we change bomb designs?”

with AP