4 Targets and the development of bunker busters.

2.3 Combination penetrator-explosive munitions.

As a result, significant amounts of rock and soil would be rendered radioactive and lofted as dust or vapor into the atmosphere, generating significant fallout. However, it is unlikely that the explosion would be completely contained underground.

This in turn could lead to a reduced amount of radioactive fallout. An underground explosion releases a larger fraction of its energy into the ground, compared to a surface burst or air burst explosion at or above the surface, and so can destroy an underground target using a lower explosive yield. These weapons would be used to destroy hardened, underground military bunkers or other below-ground facilities. The non-nuclear component of the weapon is designed to penetrate soil, rock, or concrete to deliver a nuclear warhead to an underground target.

Subsidence craters remaining after underground nuclear (test) explosions at the north end of the Yucca Flat, Nevada test siteДЄ nuclear bunker buster, also known as an earth-penetrating weapon ( EPW), is the nuclear equivalent of the conventional bunker buster.

Bunker buster