Scorpius (Nuclear Weapons Test Project)

2023: Product Announcement

On October 5, 2023, the US Department of Energy Sandia National Laboratory spoke about a large-scale project called Scorpius, the purpose of which is to organize underground tests of nuclear weapons without actual explosions. The implementation of the initiative will cost almost $2 billion.

The project is attended by specialists from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Livermore National Laboratory named after E. Lawrence, who are also part of the US Department of Energy. The goal of Scorpius is to make sure that the old stockpile of American nuclear weapons is suitable for use. The US has been observing a moratorium on nuclear test explosions since 1992, and therefore researchers have to perform virtual simulations on supercomputers. But the results of such work cannot give a 100 percent guarantee of the readiness of nuclear weapons for use. The Scorpius initiative is designed to solve the problem.

Sandia National Laboratory spoke about a large-scale project called Scorpius, the purpose of which is to organize underground tests of nuclear weapons without actual explosions

As part of the project in the Nevada desert, a special training ground the size of a football field will be deployed at a depth of more than 300 meters underground, which will allow you to go beyond theoretical computer modeling and study in more detail the conditions observed in the last stages of nuclear weapons implosion, but without explosion. Scorpius will create X-ray images during full-scale nuclear weapons tests, which will then be compared to images of the same events created by supercomputer models.

Deliveries of the first components under the Scorpius project are planned to be organized in March 2024, and assembly and testing will last until the fall of 2025. The actual operation of the underground landfill will begin no earlier than 2027. The construction costs of the complex are estimated at $1.8 billion.^[1]

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