The United States conducted Wednesday a nuclear test at an underground site, which aimed at maintaining the safety and effectiveness of its nuclear weapons.

The United States conducted Wednesday a nuclear test at an underground site, which aimed at maintaining the safety and effectiveness of its nuclear weapons.

In a statement issued Thursday by the US Energy Department and published by AFP, the department said “the test, conducted in Nevada, aims to gather scientific data that will provide crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons."

“Challenging subcritical experiments maintain our capabilities to ensure that we can support a safe, secure and effective stockpile without having to conduct underground testing," the news agency quoted National Nuclear Security Administration Head Thomas D'Agostino.

Staff from the Nevada National Security Site, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories conducted the experiment, known as Pollux.

Subcritical nuclear tests, which do not trigger a self-sustaining chain reaction that would create a nuclear explosion, examine how plutonium behaves when it is shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.