CAAB

Nevada Site Office News
News Media Contact: For Immediate Release:
Darwin J. Morgan, 702-295-3521 September 16, 2003
morgan@nv.doe.gov
Kevin J. Rohrer, 702-295-3521
rohrer@nv.doe.gov

National Nuclear Security Administration Scientists to Conduct Piano Subcritical Experiment

The National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office will conduct a subcritical experiment called Piano at the Nevada Test Site on September 18, 2003. Subcritical experiments examine the behavior of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives. Subcritical experiments produce essential scientific data and technical information used to help maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile. The experiments are subcritical; that is, no critical mass is formed and no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction can occur; thus, there is no nuclear explosion.

Piano, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory subcritical experiment, will be conducted at the Nevada Test Site’s U1a Complex located 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The U1a Complex is designed to contain these experiments in a safe and secure environment in an underground laboratory of horizontal tunnels with small excavated experiment alcoves mined at the base of a vertical shaft, approximately 960 feet beneath the surface.

Lawrence Livermore scientists conducted their last subcritical experiment, Oboe 9, on June 7, 2002. The last subcritical experiment conducted was Rocco, by Los Alamos National Laboratory, on September 26, 2002. To date, 19 subcritical experiments have been conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
NV-03-27
-30-
NNSA/NSO Office of Public Affairs P.O. Box 98518 Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518