Nuclear Weapons

Results 51–75 of 99

‘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 nuc…

Categories: History, Nuclear Weapons

Topics: documentary, field testing, history, nuclear weapons

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."

Sandia dial-a-fire test complex ignites huge blaze

April 28, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Though researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories Thermal Test Complex study a variety of fires, they focus on those that rotate rather than burn in place. Whirls generate much higher heat fluxes than non-rotational fires.Massive flames billow from…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: fire, fire whirl, flame, heat flux, nuclear security, nuclear weapons hardware, plumes, Thermal Test Complex

Sandia inks emergency response pact with California Fire and Rescue Training Authority

March 30, 2016 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories and the California Fire and Rescue Training Authority (CFRTA) this month signed a memorandum of agreement to develop new concepts and capabilities for emergency planning, exercise and response.The agreement was signed by Mar…

Categories: Homeland security, Nonproliferation

Chinese nuclear security center opens with help from Sandia Labs

March 24, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) Principal Deputy Administrator Madelyn Creedon, Sandia National Laboratories President and Labs Director Jill Hruby and other experts and international guests joined with leaders of China on March 18 to commission the Chinese Center of Excellence (COE)...

Categories: Nonproliferation, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: China, Chinese, DTRA, Moniz, nuclear, physical security, security

Thor’s hammer to crush materials at 1 million atmospheres

January 5, 2016 • Sophisticated features may influence eventual Z-machine rebuildALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new Sandia National Laboratories accelerator called Thor is expected to be 40 times more efficient than Sandia’s Z machine, the world’s largest and most powerful pulsed-power accelerat…

Categories: Energy / Environment / Water, Materials Science, Military / Defense, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Weapons, Physics, Renewable energy, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: change of state, extreme conditions, magnetic fields, particle accelerator, pulsed power, stockpile stewardship, Thor, Z, z machine

W80-4: Sandia California works on nuclear weapon Life Extension Program

October 15, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is doing what it hasn’t done in decades: extending the life of a nuclear warhead at the same time the U.S. Air Force develops a replacement cruise missile that will carry the weapon.The goal of the W80-4 Life Extension Pro…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons

Topics: Life Extension Program, nuclear weapons, W80-4

Workhorse gamma ray generator HERMES III fires its 10,000th shot at Sandia Labs

September 9, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The High-Energy Radiation Megavolt Electron Source, better known as HERMES III, has fired its 10,000th shot at Sandia National Laboratories. HERMES III, the world’s most powerful gamma ray generator, produces a highly energetic beam that tests how well electronics can survive a burst of radiation that approximates...

Categories: Nonproliferation, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: electronics testing, gamma rays, HERMES III

New vice president to oversee energy, security, nonproliferation research at Sandia

September 8, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has appointed James M. Chavez vice president of its Energy, Nonproliferation and High Consequence Security Division and its International, Homeland and Nuclear Security Program Management Unit effective Sept. 11. He replaces Jill Hruby, who became Sandia president and labs director in July. Most recently,...

Categories: Homeland security, HR / Personnel, Nonproliferation

Hardware from old nuclear weapons systems becomes valuable teaching resource

July 30, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is preserving the history of nuclear weapons in hardware developed since the start of the nuclear era as a way to connect new generations of weapons engineers to the engineering work of past generations.“Tremendous amounts…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: legacy hardware, nuclear weapons, stockpile, Weapon Intern Program

Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on

July 22, 2015 • Sandia’s new vibration table promises different ways of testingALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It took decades for technology to catch up with the math David Smallwood worked out to control vibration table shakers.Smallwood, a retired Sandia National Laboratories researcher who cons…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: nuclear weapons, tests, vibration table

Sandia tamper-detecting seal is tough to fool

July 7, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A critical area of security is ensuring that something inside a container stays there. Sandia National Laboratories has made the job easier with an innovative technology that detects signs of tampering. “In our world, one advance by an adversary can make a security technology obsolete overnight,” said...

Categories: Cybersecurity, Homeland security, Nonproliferation, Technology transfer / Economic Impact

Topics: business, cargo, container, cybersecurity, Homeland security, sealing, tamper detection, tech transfer

New Sandia director will be first woman to lead national security lab

June 22, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jill M. Hruby today was named the next president and director of Sandia National Laboratories, the country’s largest national lab. She will be the first woman to lead a national security laboratory when she steps into her new role July 17. A Sandia staff member and manager...

Categories: Homeland security, HR / Personnel, Nonproliferation

Topics: director, executive, first female, first woman, WMD

Always/Never: Sandia documentary tells story of nuclear weapons safety, security

June 15, 2015, Media Advisory • [caption id="" align="alignright" width="250"] Six active and retired Sandia National Laboratories employees gathered in 2011 at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico, around two B28 gravity bombs recovered from a 1966 nuclear accide…

Categories: Media advisories, Nuclear Weapons

Topics: deterrent, Global Zero, James Schlesinger, nuclear weapons, Robert McNamara, Scott Sagan

Tests with Sandia’s Davis gun aid B61-12 life extension effort

May 11, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Three years of design, planning and preparation came down to a split second, a loud boom and an enormous splash in a successful impact test of hardware in the nose assembly of an unarmed, mock B61-12 nuclear bomb.The Sandia National Laboratories test al…

Categories: Military / Defense, Nuclear Weapons

Topics: B61, EMRTC, energetic materials, New Mexico Tech

Pulsed-power physicist receives IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science award

May 5, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — William Stygar, manager of Sandia National Laboratories’ Advanced Accelerator Physics department, has been selected to receive the Erwin Marx Award by the Pulsed Power Science and Technology Committee of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society. The award’s previous recipients “are a who’s who of the leaders...

Categories: Awards, Military / Defense, Nuclear Weapons, Physics, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: accelerators, LTD, Marx generator, physics, pulsed power, Z

MESA complex starts largest production series in its history

March 25, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has begun making silicon wafers for three nuclear weapon modernization programs, the largest production series in the history of its Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications complex.MESA’s silicon fab in October …

Categories: Nuclear Weapons

Topics: ASICs, fabs, MESA, nuclear weapon modernization, wafer fabrication

Studies look at long-term aging of electronics in nuclear weapons

December 4, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is studying how environments, including radiation that originates from a nuclear weapon itself, could affect the performance of electronics in the W76-1 warhead as they age.Sandia, which is responsible for most non-nuclear c…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons

Topics: electronics, nuclear weapons, stockpile, stockpile stewardship, W76

MINER shines in urban emergency response exercise

October 30, 2014 • Mobile imager of fast neutrons spots radiation source at a distance and through shielding[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250"] Sandia National Laboratories' Mark Gerling, left, and John Goldsmith demonstrated the effectiveness of the mobile imager of neutrons for em…

Categories: Homeland security, Nonproliferation, Physics

Topics: chicago, emergency exercise, nonproliferation, nuclear detector, nuclear material, radiation, radiation detection

W88 warhead program performs successful tests

October 28, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The first flight and drop tests for the latest variant of the W88 nuclear warhead are providing data for Sandia National Laboratories to validate designs, improve computer modeling and update component specifications.The two successful tests, which were…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: Kansas City Plant, los alamos, nuclear, nuclear weapons, Pantex, w88

Survivor: Sandia ensures US nuclear weapons deterrent can remain effective, credible

July 22, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It may sound strange to say that nuclear weapons must survive radiation. But as part of its mission of ensuring the nation’s stockpile is safe, secure and effective as a deterrent, Sandia National Laboratories must make sure crucial parts can function…

Categories: Computing, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: modeling, neutron damage, nuclear weapons, QASPR, Sandia National Laboratories, Sandia Pulsed Reactor

DOE Early Career award won by Sandia researcher Stephanie Hansen

June 9, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A $2.5 million, five-year Early Career Research Program award from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science has been won by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Stephanie Hansen for her fundamental science proposal to improve existing atomic-scale models for high-energy-density matter. Thirty-five winners were chosen by peer...

Categories: Awards, Nuclear Weapons, Physics

Topics: DOE, early career award, high energy density, ICF experiments, nano, radiation, z machine

Sandia completes major overhaul of key nuclear weapons test facilities

May 8, 2014 • 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 …

Categories: History, Nonproliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: large-scale testing, national laboratories, national labs, nuclear, Sandia

Wind tunnel tests support improved aerodynamic design of B61-12 bomb

April 14, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has finished eight days of testing a full-scale mock unit representing the aerodynamic characteristics of the B61-12 gravity bomb in a wind tunnel.The tests on the mock-up were done to establish the configuration that will d…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons

Topics: Air Force, B61, nuclear, nuclear weapons, Sandia National Laboratories, stockpile, wind tunnel test

Sandia conducts first impact test in years of B61 nonnuclear components

January 14, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A ground-penetrating bomb, minus its nuclear components, rammed through a target at the remote Coyote Canyon test range last month in Sandia National Laboratories’ first such rocket-driven impact test in seven years. Engineers said the Sandia componen…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: B61, bomb, large-scale testing, nuclear, nuclear weapons

3D Earth model developed at Sandia Labs more accurately pinpoints source of earthquakes, explosions

August 22, 2013, Media Advisory • 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 Nonproliferation R&D, Sandia...

Categories: Nonproliferation, Science / Technology / Engineering

Results 51–75 of 99