Mobile imager of fast neutrons spots radiation source at a distance and through shielding LIVERMORE, Calif. — A nuclear device has been hidden in a high-rise building in a major metropolitan area. Emergency responders have intelligence that narrows down the location to a single city block, but it isn’t safe to search door-to-door. Can they […]
Category Archives: Nonproliferation
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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 […]
3D Earth model developed at Sandia Labs more accurately pinpoints source of earthquakes, explosions
August 22, 2013 – 5:30 am
Sandia offers free, standardized GeoTess software to public ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – During the Cold War, U.S. and international monitoring agencies could spot nuclear tests and focused on measuring their sizes. Today, they’re looking around the globe to pinpoint much smaller explosives tests. Under the sponsorship of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear […]
Radiation detection to go
August 14, 2013 – 5:30 am
Mobile radiation detectors deployed at international ports ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories team completed acceptance testing on an enormous mobile scanner that makes smuggling radiological materials more difficult, the eighth such unit that Sandia has deployed worldwide. The Mobile Radiation Detection and Identification System (MRDIS) enables scanning of containers that are in transit from […]
Project Neptune: Specialized gas detection for nonproliferation
July 24, 2013 – 1:16 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Trying to sniff out traces of hard-to-detect gases can be like trying to hear a whisper at the other end of a very large, very crowded, very noisy room. Sandia National Laboratories’ Project Neptune aims to design a system capable of sensing, from among the loud signals of a lot of gases, […]
Sandia National Laboratories hosts NATO visitors
May 10, 2013 – 12:45 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — NATO delegates toured Sandia National Laboratories during a three-day visit highlighting the labs’ programs that support extended deterrence to U.S. allies, as well as broader national security programs ranging from homeland security to preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The visitors included more than 50 representatives from 23 European countries, […]
Sandia airborne pods seek to trace nuclear bomb’s origins
January 9, 2013 – 9:00 am
Modular units crossing “Valley of Death” for Air Force use ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If a nuclear device were to unexpectedly detonate anywhere on Earth, the ensuing effort to find out who made the weapon probably would be led by aircraft rapidly collecting airborne radioactive particles for analysis. Relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — equipped […]
Colorful light at the end of the tunnel for radiation detection
June 29, 2012 – 8:30 am
Sandia seeks commercialization partners for promising “spectral shape discrimination” technology LIVERMORE, Calif.— A team of nanomaterials researchers at Sandia National Laboratories has developed a new technique that could make radiation detection in cargo and baggage more effective and less costly for homeland security inspectors. Known as spectral shape discrimination (SSD), the method takes advantage of […]
Award-winning Sandia Labs engineer trods global path of nonproliferation
June 27, 2012 – 8:30 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Adam Williams of Sandia National Laboratories won a 2012 Black Engineer of the Year Award for his work in international security and nonproliferation. Williams was named Most Promising Engineer-Government in the prestigious BEYA program, which recognizes some of the nation’s best and brightest engineers, scientists and technology experts. The awards are sponsored […]
Sandia’s Annular Core Research Reactor conducts 10,000th operation
October 31, 2011 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – With a muffled “pop,” a flash of blue light and a few ripples through 14,000 gallons of deionized water, Sandia National Laboratories’ Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) recently conducted its 10,000th operation. “The ACRR has been a real workhorse for Sandia, and labs leadership and the nation rely on these experiments and […]
Sandia seeds culture of nuclear energy safety and security
March 7, 2011 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The growing interest among Middle Eastern nations in establishing nuclear power programs prompted a Sandia National Laboratories team to conceive and lead development of a new institute that will seed and cultivate a regional culture of responsible nuclear energy management. The Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute (GNEII), the product of three years […]
Sandia security experts help Kazakhstan safely transport, store Soviet-era bomb materials
February 8, 2011 – 4:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories team helped reach a major milestone in the nation’s nuclear nonproliferation efforts by working with the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan to move nuclear materials — enough to build an estimated 775 nuclear weapons — to safety. Sandia provided security and logistics expertise to complete the transfer across […]