MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2021) Russia conducts non-nuclear explosive experiments at the test site in the Novaya Zemlya area in the country's north to assess the reliability of the domestic nuclear arsenal, Maj. Gen. Igor Kolesnikov, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry's 12th directorate in for the country's nuclear arsenal, said on Sunday.
While speaking on the Russian Zvezda broadcaster, Kolesnikov said that Russia has carried out a total of 132 relevant tests in Novaya Zemlya from 1954-1990. In the following years, no experiments were conducted at the site due to the introduction of a moratorium on nuclear testing in 1990. The serviceman recalled that Russia signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), in 1996 and ratified it in 2000. The accord entails the parties discontinuing all nuclear testing.
"Therefore, we are now conducting non-nuclear explosive experiments. Non-nuclear experiments are conducted to confirm the reliability of the existing nuclear ammunition," Kolesnikov said, adding that the United States perform the same activities in Nevada.
Under the CTBT, non-nuclear explosive experiments, also known as sub-critical tests, are the only type of experiments allowed to be conducted. They involve the use of nuclear materials or explosives without generating any nuclear yield at the end.
The data obtained as a result of such experiments allow to assess the efficiency and reliability of a test object.
