DoE Could be Ready to Go With Minimal Nuke Test in Nevada in 'Months,' Pentagon Official Says

摘要

It would take only a matter of months for the Department of Energy to perform an undergroundnuclear-explosive test with minimal diagnostics, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.Previous heads of the agency's semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration(NNSA) have talked “about a very quick test with limited diagnostics, though certainlydiagnostics, within months,” said Drew Walter, who is performing the duties of deputy assistantsecretary of defense for nuclear matters. “A fuller test, fully diagnostic, and lots of data, all thebells and whistles, so to speak, might be measured in years. But ultimately, if the Presidentdirected because of a technical issue or a geopolitical issue, a system to go test, I think it wouldhappen relatively rapidly.”