LAS VEGAS (AP) — Researchers say they detonated an underground explosion comparable to nearly 2.5 tons of TNT in a vast former nuclear testing range in the Nevada desert north of Las Vegas.
A statement from the U.S. Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration said the Wednesday explosion was the sixth in a series of experiments designed to test methods for detecting underground nuclear explosions.
Agency spokesman Dante Pistone says no unexpected damage and no injuries resulted.
The statement says chemical explosives equivalent to 4,850 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of TNT were detonated 101 feet (31 meters) underground to allow monitors to collect seismic, optical, acoustic and magnetic data.
Results were to be shared with researchers worldwide on an Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology website, in a comparison of conventional and nuclear explosions.