Executive Summary
High explosives represent a significant step in transforming fissile material into a weaponised device as they are a foundational component of implosion-type nuclear weapons, enabling the precise implosion required to initiate a nuclear chain reaction. Despite this, HE testing has received limited systematic attention in open-source analysis.
As part of a broader project funded by Global Affairs Canada, the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC), in cooperation with Open Nuclear Network (ONN), a PAX sapiens programme, completed open-source assessments of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK’s) nuclear capabilities. This paper builds on that work to support analysis of HE testing programmes in the DPRK and other states.
Drawing on open-source documentation, this research examines what high explosives are, how they are used, how and why they are tested, and their unique signatures. By providing a general overview of high explosives and their testing regimes, this paper seeks to aid other open-source researchers by providing a baseline level of information that can be used to analyse states’ nuclear weapons programmes, an area that is largely under-researched.
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