The US Department of Energy conducted two dry runs of a nuclear weapons test at the Nevada Test Site on January 18, in preparation for subcritical nuclear test that is scheduled for February of this year.
Environmental activists disagree.
There will be protests at the Nevada Test Site as well as Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where OBOE was created. The alpha form of plutonium is far denser and has a smaller volume, thus increasing the threat of ruined mechanical assemblies and changes in the critical mass for a nuclear chain reaction. Plutonium instability could mean a sharp decline in the lifetime of nuclear weapons cores, in theory reducing them from some 70 years to as little as 20 years. Faster aging of the weapons stockpile might cause the United States to begin remanufacturing nuclear arms much sooner than expected and at considerable additional costs. Some anti-nuclear activists fear that the findings will be used as a pretext for more plutonium manufacturing.