Earthquakes and nuclear war: seismology as surveillance
Posted: 14th February 2024
Now that testing warheads has literally been forced underground, ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT explain how ‘forensic seismology’ is used by the British Ministry of Defence to monitor its atomic enemies
AT the 2022 British Seismology Meeting, a conference which brings together seismologists from around the world, an entire session was devoted to “Nuclear Monitoring.” Talks came from employees of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), an arms-length body of the British government.
Two AWE sites at Burghfield and Aldermaston are used for research, design and manufacture of nuclear warheads; a third site at Blacknest is used for seismic monitoring of nuclear weapons tests across the globe.