September 7, 2011 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two remarkable pulsed-power machines used to test the nation’s defenses against atomic weapons have surpassed milestones at Sandia National Laboratories: 4,000 firings, called ‘shots,’ on the Saturn accelerator and 9,000 shots on the HERMES III accelerator. Saturn — originally projected to last 5 to 10 years — began...
