Two Nuclear Devices Exploded at Once
Two nuclear weapons were detonated simultaneously beneath the Nevada desert Wednesday morning in a rare experiment 20 miles from Mercury, Nev., where 33 Soviet nuclear scientists are preparing for a historic series of joint nuclear experiments later this summer.
The devices were detonated at 7 a.m. in a 750-foot vertical shaft drilled in Yucca Flat, about 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Energy Department spokesman Jim Boyer said he felt “very, very slight motion” at a control point 17 miles from ground zero.
The two devices were listed as having a combined force of less than 150 kilotons of TNT. Boyer said the exact size of each device was classified.
Energy Department spokesman Chris West said a check of department records since 1968 showed only one occasion when two devices were detonated simultaneously. That was in September of 1982.
Soviet scientists are at the remote desert site to prepare for a blast in mid-August that will determine the ability of the Kremlin and the U.S. to measure the size of each other’s nuclear tests.
The devices detonated today are the sixth and seventh tested this year at the Nevada site. Six of the Soviet scientists have been at the Nevada site for three of those previous tests.
The United States has 34 technicians at the Soviet test site preparing for a joint verification experiment in Russia a month after the U.S. test.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
