- (AFP) -- Scientists at the Nevada Test Site have said
they generated a current equal to roughly four times all the electrical
power on Earth.
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- The current, which created pressures in materials millions
of times greater than normal, was part of an experiment to better understand
nuclear weapons.
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- The experiment was conducted on Wednesday at the test
site's Atlas Pulsed Power Facility by scientists from Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico, along with staff from the test site and contractor
Bechtel Nevada.
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- 19 million amps
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- During the few millionths of a second that it operated,
the 650-ton Atlas pulsed-power generator discharged nearly 19 million amps
of current through an aluminum cylindrical shell about the size of a tuna
can, the National Nuclear Security Administration said.
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- Atlas, which works as a giant power multiplier, was designed
as part of an Energy Department programme to determine the readiness of
the nation's nuclear stockpile without underground testing.
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- It was built at Los Alamos and recently moved to the
Nevada Test Site, a proving ground just north of Las Vegas.
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