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How The U.K. Will Test Its New Nuclear Warhead Without Setting One Off

william

william

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The U.K. Ministry of Defense has shared details about how it plans to make sure its future A21 nuclear warhead works as intended without actually detonating one. Though this kind of testing is not new in concept, the British government says it has been expanding and improving its capabilities specifically to support work on its next-generation warhead. When ready, the A21s will go into U.S.-made Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
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Details about the A21 are scant and its estimated yield is unknown. The MoD does say that the Astraeas will be loaded into Mk 7 re-entry vehicles, a new design that will also be used with the now-in-development U.S. W93 warhead. The A21, which was previously known publicly simply as the Replacement Warhead Program, is also now called Astraea. Often translated as "star-maiden," Astraea is the name of a minor ancient Greek goddess of purity and justice.
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The A21 "will be the first U.K. warhead developed in an era where we no longer test our weapons underground, upholding our voluntary moratorium on nuclear weapon test explosions," the MoD's new nuclear white paper says. "This is possible because of the long history of technical expertise and extensive investment in UK modelling and simulation, supercomputing, materials science, shock and laser physics at AWE." [the Atomic Weapons Establishment],)
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In the United Kingdom, "we have developed unique and world-leading technology to validate the U.K.’s warhead stockpile. The Orion laser helps our physicists and scientists research the physics of those extreme temperatures and pressures found in a nuclear explosion to better understand the safety, reliability, and performance of nuclear warheads," the MoD's white paper explains. "Orion is used collaboratively with U.K. academia and U.S. teams in their National Laboratories."
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"Supercomputing is also a crucial capability, enabling simulations that allow us to develop a safe, assured warhead without detonation," the newly released document adds. "AWE has recently commissioned a supercomputer named Valiant, one of the most powerful computers in the U.K., to validate the design, performance and reliability of our nuclear warhead."
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A facility in France called EPURE, which British and French authorities operate together, will also support the A21's development.
"EPURE is a technologically-advanced hydrodynamic facility at Valduc, in France, near Dijon. Hydrodynamic testing uses radiography to measure the performance of materials at extreme temperature and pressure."
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www.twz.com

How The U.K. Will Test Its New Nuclear Warhead Without Setting One Off

The UK says it will use lasers, supercomputers, and new technological advances to ensure its A21 nuclear warheads work without as intended.
www.twz.com www.twz.com
 
Our last warhead design was a copy of an American design with a few tweaks (we removed the PAL, aka the lock!)
I would imagine this new warhead is probably a modified American design (again with the PAL stripped out)
 
The reason we don't use a PAL is so that the submarine captain has the ability to launch in case the UK is destroyed, so the captain doesn't need a code from the government, he can launch if he believes the UK has been destroyed.
 
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