THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PEACEFUL NUKE WEAPONS USE – ALL USES GIVE INFORMATION ON HOW TO BETTER DEVELOP NUCLEAR WEAPONS. M.D. Nordyke Professor of Nuclear Physics @ University of Arizona The Soviet Program for Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosions USDOE, September 1, 2000 The fundamental problem posed by permitting PNEs to be carried out under a ban on all testing of nuclear weapons devices is how to prevent nuclear explosions earned out for peacefil purposes from contributing knowledge useful to the development of nuclear weapons. Whereas PNE and weapon devices could well have different design requirements in terms of size, weight, radiation output, and residual radioactivity, learning how to design better PNE devices would dbectly contribute to designing better weapons. Development of cleaner explosives with much lower fission-to-fision ratios were essential for nuclear excavation applications. How could the side conducting PNEs be prevented from testing new device design ideas, with or without diagnostic measurements of device performance, even if such improvements were prohibited The final yield or radiochemical analysis of microscopic particles of the debris tlom a PNE explosive could provide sufficient proof of the validity of many new ideas, but only to those who designed the device.
