Nuclear Weapons

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Successful crash test meets major milestone for nuclear deterrence program
October 8, 2020 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A full-scale crash test involving a semitruck impacting the side of the first prototype of a new weapons transporter successfully took place at Sandia National Laboratories this summer. Using the labs’ sled track, rockets propelled the semitractor-trailer at highway speeds into the prototype, an over-the-road Mobile Guardian...
Categories: Coronavirus, Homeland security, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering, Transportation
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Picture of mobile guardian transport

Expanding testing capacity for Sandia weapons modernization programs
September 30, 2020 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Energy’s under secretary for nuclear security, joined Sandia National Laboratories Deputy Labs Director Dori Ellis and other Sandia leaders today for a tour of the newest facility in nuclear weapons systems engineering at Sandia’s...
Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering
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How to multitask when nuclear nonproliferation is on the line
September 29, 2020 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New cognitive science research from Sandia National Laboratories shows that while maps can help someone identify landmarks while being escorted, using one also limits situational awareness and knowledge of surroundings not highlighted on the map. This finding is one of several coming from a three-year project that...
Categories: Nonproliferation, Science / Technology / Engineering
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Cognitive safeguards

Sandia weapons program meets safety, design requirements
June 29, 2020 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has successfully completed another milestone in the B61-12 gravity bomb refurbishment program, demonstrating the labs is meeting important nuclear safety and use-control requirements. “The Combined Engineering Judgment is an important step toward ensuring the B61-12 Life Extension Program is on track, and Sandia is...
Categories: Military / Defense, Nuclear Weapons
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Flight tests show B61-12 compatible with F-15E Strike Eagle
June 8, 2020 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Dropped from above 25,000 feet, the mock B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb was in the air for approximately 55 seconds before hitting and embedding in the lakebed, splashing a 40- to 50-foot puff of desert dust from the designated impact area at Sandia Nation…
Categories: Military / Defense, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering
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Sandia initiatives to protect US energy grid and nuclear weapons systems
March 23, 2020 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — To deter attempts to disable U.S. electrical utilities and to defend U.S. nuclear weapon systems from evolving technological threats, Sandia National Laboratories has begun two multiyear initiatives to strengthen U.S. responses. One is focused on defending large U.S. electrical utility systems from potential attacks by hostile nations,...
Categories: Climate Change, Cybersecurity, Energy / Environment / Water, Homeland security, Military / Defense, Nuclear Weapons, Physics, Science / Technology / Engineering
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Power Grid

Award-winning engineer helps keep US nuclear deterrent safe from radiation
December 23, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When nuclear radiation hits electronics, it cuts through semiconductors, leaving scars of charged particles that can flip computing bits and corrupt memory circuits, potentially disabling devices or causing erratic errors. Experts like engineer Alan Mar ensure components made for the U.S. nuclear stockpile pass stringent standards to...
Categories: Awards, Computing, Nuclear Weapons
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Alan Mar

National security chip plant gets an upgrade
October 3, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has completed phase one of an anticipated three-year upgrade at its plant responsible for making integrated circuits, similar to computer chips. The facility is now fully compatible with industry-standard, 8-inch silicon wafers — thin, round starting materials used for making chips. Previously, Sandia used...
Categories: Computing, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering
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silicon wafer

Earthquake or underground explosion?
August 7, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers, as part of a group of National Nuclear Security Administration scientists, have wrapped up years of field experiments to improve the United States’ ability to differentiate earthquakes from underground explosions, key knowledge needed to advance the nation’s monitoring and verification capabilities for detecting...
Categories: Nonproliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Physics, Science / Technology / Engineering
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Responders provide technical expertise in case of nuclear weapons accidents
November 28, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Decades ago, technical experts from the national labs responded in an ad hoc manner to accidents involving nuclear weapons, called “broken arrows.” Thirty-two such accidents have occurred since the 1950s, so the Accident Response Group was created about five decades ago to provide technical expertise in assessing...
Categories: Homeland security, Nuclear Weapons
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Photo of Ryan Kristensen, a member of the Accident Response Group.

Blast tube tests at Sandia simulate shock wave conditions nuclear weapons could face
September 10, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — You can learn a lot from a blast tube. You can learn more when you couple blast experiments with computer modeling. Sandia National Laboratories researchers are using a blast tube configurable to 120 feet to demonstrate how well nuclear weapons could survive the shock wave of a...
Categories: Military / Defense, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering
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Sandia National Laboratories researchers are using a blast tube to demonstrate how well nuclear weapons could survive the shock wave of a blast from an enemy weapon and to help validate the computer modeling.

Supercomputing under a new lens: A Sandia-developed benchmark re-ranks top computers
February 27, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories software program now installed as an additional test for the widely observed TOP500 supercomputer challenge has become increasingly prominent. The program’s full name — High Performance Conjugate Gradients, or HPCG —…
Categories: Computing, Military / Defense, Nuclear Weapons
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New radiation detectors developed at Sandia used for New START inspections
February 1, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories designed, tested and delivered new radiation detection equipment for monitoring under the New START Treaty. Defense Threat Reduction Agency inspectors recently used this equipment for the first time in Russia for a New START inspection. New START, or the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,...
Categories: Nonproliferation, Science / Technology / Engineering
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A man in profile scans three white canisters with a brass box -- the new neutron detection equipment

Sandia computer modeling aids solder reliability in nuclear weapons
December 19, 2017 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Solder isn’t the first thing that comes to mind as essential to a nuclear weapon. But since weapons contain hundreds of thousands of solder joints, each potentially a point of failure, Sandia National Laboratories has developed and refined computer models to predict their performance and reliability. “Computational...
Categories: Computing, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering
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Scintillating discovery at Sandia Labs
June 29, 2017 • Bright thinking leads to breakthrough in nuclear threat detection science LIVERMORE, Calif. — Taking inspiration from an unusual source, a Sandia National Laboratories team has dramatically improved the science of scintillators — objects that detect nuclear threats. According to the team, using organic glass scintillators could soon make it even...
Categories: Homeland security, Materials Science, Nonproliferation, Science / Technology / Engineering
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Side-by-side comparison of scintillators made from trans-stilbene and organic glass.

Overcoming the trust barrier in nuclear weapons verification measurements
June 6, 2017 • Sandia method supports real-time warhead verification without revealing design data LIVERMORE, Calif. — Trust but verify. The catchphrase for arms control popularized by President Ronald Reagan sounds simple. However, verification involving sensitive data is a very complex endeavor. Verifying that a nuclear warhead actually is a warhead may include confirming...
Categories: Homeland security, Nuclear Weapons
CONFIDANTE

Evaluating nuclear weapons: Sandia Labs taking a modern approach
March 1, 2017 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is transforming how it assesses nuclear weapons in a stockpile made up of weapons at different stages in their lifecycles — some systems that have existed for decades alongside those that have undergone life extension programs. Back when the United States was developing new...
Categories: Nuclear Weapons
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Exploring the evolution of nuclear deterrence through interviews, historical footage
February 28, 2017, Media Advisory • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories explores the evolution of nuclear deterrence in a new documentary that combines modern and historical footage with a wide range of interviews. On Deterrence features interviews with former secretaries of defense, general officers, policymakers, analysts, scholars and scientists with varied viewpoints to describe the...
Categories: Nonproliferation, Nuclear Weapons
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Sled track simulates high-speed accident in B61-12 test
October 5, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has sent a mock B61-12 nuclear weapon speeding down the labs’ 10,000-foot rocket sled track to slam nose-first into a steel and concrete wall in a spectacular test that mimicked a high-speed accident. It allowed engineers to examine safety features inside the weapon that...
Categories: Nuclear Weapons
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A B61-12 test unit slams into a target at the end of Sandia National Laboratories’ 10,000-foot rocket sled track in a complex forward ballistics test. The test, which mimicked a high-speed accident, allowed engineers to examine safety features inside the weapon.

Looking from space for nuclear detonations
August 18, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories’ Jaime Gomez was too busy to celebrate the successful launch of the latest nuclear detonation detection system — he was already deep into the next generation. The Global Burst Detection (GBD) system launched Feb. 5 from Cape Canaveral aboard the 70th Global Positioning System...
Categories: Military / Defense, Nonproliferation
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Lightning lab: Recreating nature’s big show for research
June 29, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories creates lightning in a lab to evaluate how anything from sensitive nuclear weapons components to entire buildings will hold up against the worst that nature might throw at them. “Sandia’s primary mission is to assure an ‘always/never’ operating condition for nuclear weapons,” said Larry...
Categories: Nuclear Weapons
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Sandia’s California site invites community to 60th anniversary celebration
May 11, 2016, Media Advisory • LIVERMORE, Calif. –Sixty years ago, the Giants played baseball in New York and the Athletics in Kansas City, Dwight Eisenhower was president and Sandia National Laboratories opened its California site in the city of Livermore, which at the time had a population of under 10,000. Because of Sandia’s California site...
Categories: Community / Education, Cybersecurity, Energy / Environment / Water, Homeland security, Nuclear Weapons, Technology transfer / Economic Impact
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‘Cold War Warriors:’ Sandia’s decades in nuclear weapons
May 9, 2016 • 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...
Categories: History, Nuclear Weapons
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Sandia National Laboratories video producer Myra Buteau interviewed more than 40 people who spent their careers in above-ground and underground nuclear weapons testing. The result is a documentary, "Cold War Warriors."
Results 26–50 of 98