Subcritical test conducted at Nevada Test Site

MERCURY, Nev. - Another in a series of experiments to assess the reliability of the nation's nuclear stockpile was conducted Tuesday at the Nevada Test Site.

It was the third so-called subcritical experiment of the year, and the eighth since they were begun in the place of nuclear testing. There have been no nuclear tests at the site since a moratorium went into effect in 1992.

The experiment, performed at the Nevada Test Site about 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas, remained subcritical, and no nuclear chain reaction occurred, the Energy Department said.

The DOE contends the experiments are essential to the nation's program to maintain the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile in the absence of underground nuclear testing.