Is China secretly working towards next nuclear test? Satellite images hint at development

After nearly detonating its first atom bomb 60 years ago, China is now said to be rapidly expanding the lethality of its missile force by making efforts to reactivate its Lop Nur nuclear test facility which is located in the remote Xinjiang Autonomous Region, in the country's northwest, as per a reportpublished by the New York Times.

According to the purportedsatellite imageswhich were first published in the New York Times, China is likely to soon conduct full-fledged nuclear tests or maybe subcritical nuclear explosions. In the subcritical experiments, nuclear explosions are stimulated with the use of chemical explosives.

The reports by the US government and independent experts have for years expressed concerns regarding China's old base Lop Nur. The reports have always emphasised China making preparations for year-round operations and having a “lack of transparency”.

However, now multiple satellite images have revealed that new boreholes have been drilled by the Chinese military – which is good for storing firestorms of deadly radiation that gets released from large nuclear blasts. The military has also made hundreds of expansions and upgrades.

New roads, recent excavation and construction seen in images

The Lop Nur nuclear test area's main support base, which is sometimes called Malan, is a large complex of buildings and technical sites that’s more than two square miles. More than 30 buildings have been added or renovated here since 2017.

A road runs southwest for about 75 miles to an old testing area. Satellite images have revealed dozens of miles of freshly graded new dirt roads in the eastern area of Lop Nur.

Horizontal tunnels bored into the side of the mountains were used for past nuclear weapons testing. Satellite images suggest recent excavation and construction in at least one of the tunnels.

In the satellite images, several new roads were seen recently added to the existing road network of the base, which extended nearly 30 miles to a new area located in the eastern hills.

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In other images, drill rigs were revealed hidden in these hills, which carried the possibility of turning into an underground test area in future. In the newly developed area, deep vertical shafts will support larger atomic tests than the old network of shallow horizontal tunnels had.

“All the evidence points to China making preparations that would let it resume nuclear tests,” said Tong Zhao,a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, while speaking to the New York Times.

Former director of the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in New Mexico Siegfried SHecker said that rebuilding Lop Nur is unusual. “The Russians and Americans have continued activity at their test sites, but nothing like this,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)