Area 27 is a division of the

Nevada National Security Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...

. It occupies approximately in the south-central portion of the NNSS. A portion of Area 27 was originally known as Area 410. No tests of

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

took place in Area 27.

History

Area 27 was used for weapons assembly and staging. Super Kukla reactor being prepared for a test

The Super Kukla Reactor Facility was built in Area 27 and operated from 1965 to 1978. A major U.S. concern in the Cold War was Soviet use of defensive

tactical nuclear weapons A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territo ...

. Nuclear-armed interceptors and

anti-ballistic missiles An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to counter ballistic missiles (missile defense). Ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological, or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajector ...

could be used to intercept a U.S. attack. To simulate nearby nuclear explosions, the Super Kukla reactor produced an ultrahigh burst of

prompt critical In nuclear engineering, prompt criticality describes a nuclear fission event in which criticality (the threshold for an exponentially growing nuclear fission chain reaction) is achieved with prompt neutrons alone (neutrons that are released immed ...

neutrons and gamma rays. This could be used to test the effects on weapons hardware. Super Kukla is now entombed in place at Area 27.

Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research

Area 27 is home to the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) Facility. JASPER uses a two-stage high-energy shock gun to achieve shock pressures, temperatures, and strain rates similar to those attained in a nuclear weapon. It is specifically designed to conduct research using

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...

and surrogate materials as targets. Data from these experiments is used to determine material

equations of state In physics, chemistry, and thermodynamics, an equation of state is a thermodynamic equation relating state variables, which describe the state of matter under a given set of physical conditions, such as pressure, volume, temperature, or intern ...

and to validate computer models of material response for weapons applications. JASPER experiments support the Stockpile Stewardship Program and complement subcritical experiments conducted in Area 1. The facility is located in a decommissioned weapons assembly complex and was established in 1999. By April 2003, qualification testing using non-nuclear materials was complete. By May 2007, a series of tests comparing new plutonium weapons pits with old ones had confirmed that the plutonium cores in US weapons stockpiles were less subject to deleterious aging effects than previously anticipated.

References

{{Department of Energy Nevada Test Site