ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When archaeologist Christina Chavez surveys Sandia National Laboratories land and finds rusted tobacco tins, ceramic fragments, glass shards or rocks resting in deliberate formations, she documents and determines who at the Labs needs to know. “Archaeological resources are all around us, and even if most people don’t see them, there’s still a […]
Category Archives: History
Sandia creates global archive of historical renewable energy documents
October 6, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories began studying the power of the sun to produce utility-scale energy in the 1960s. Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility was commissioned in 1978, spurred by the oil crisis of 1973. Many of the documents detailing the design, construction and research conducted at the world’s first multimegawatt concentrating solar […]
Cleared for takeoff
June 15, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 30-year program that made flying safer through continued innovations in airplane inspection, maintenance and airworthiness research has ended its tenure at Sandia National Laboratories. The Federal Aviation Administration Airworthiness Assurance Center, or AANC, operated by Sandia for the FAA, is moving to the National Institute of Aviation Research at Wichita State […]
Prehistoric humans first traversed Australia by ‘superhighways’
May 3, 2021 – 10:21 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sometime between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago, prehistoric humans took their first steps into Sahul, an ancient landmass made up of modern Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. But nobody knows which way they went after that. “One of the really big unanswered questions of prehistory is how Australia was populated in the […]
From concept to commercialization: 40 years of concentrating solar power research
July 26, 2018 – 12:00 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — From testing space shuttle tiles to making electricity from sunlight, the world’s first multimegawatt solar tower has contributed to energy research, space exploration, defense testing and solar energy commercialization since it was commissioned at Sandia National Laboratories in July 1978. The solar tower is a key component of a specific type of […]
‘Cold War Warriors:’ Sandia’s decades in nuclear weapons
May 9, 2016 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories video producer Myra Buteau swept a hand toward the top shelf of a bookcase stuffed with black cases of high-definition tapes. The biggest challenge in telling the story of Sandia’s years of above-ground and underground nuclear weapon field tests, she said, was condensing the 100 hours of interviews on […]
Sandia’s California site marks 60 years of engineering, science and service
March 8, 2016 – 10:05 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories’ California site celebrates its 60th anniversary today, March 8. The site, which began with a singular nuclear weapons mission, now supports all Sandia missions. Nuclear weapons accounts for nearly half of the site’s work, along with strong programs in homeland security, transportation energy, cyber and chemical and biological defense. […]
Sandia’s Cooperative Monitoring Center promotes global security for 20 years
November 18, 2014 – 12:35 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories’ Cooperative Monitoring Center is celebrating its 20th anniversary of promoting the principles of cooperation and the value of technology in support of international security agreements. Since it was established in 1994, the CMC has worked to address critical security issues by bringing together policy and technical experts from different […]
From Vietnam with love: Sandia Labs retiree works to return wartime greetings
November 6, 2014 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If you were, or know, a New Mexico Air National Guardsman stationed in Tuy Hoa,Vietnam, in 1968, Art Sena is looking for you. The reason goes back to a long-ago wish to make Christmas merrier for servicemen at war, and a long-lost box of film. Sena, a Sandia National Laboratories retiree, tracked […]
Sandia completes major overhaul of key nuclear weapons test facilities
May 8, 2014 – 3:30 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories recently completed the renovation of five large-scale test facilities that are crucial to ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons systems. The work supports Sandia’s ongoing nuclear stockpile modernization work on the B61-12 and W88 Alt, assessments of current stockpile systems and test and analysis for […]