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 Schneider, senior manager of Sandia’s […]
Category Archives: Nuclear Weapons
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Sandia’s California site invites community to 60th anniversary celebration
May 11, 2016 – 5:00 am
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 and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, […]
‘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 dial-a-fire test complex ignites huge blaze
April 28, 2016 – 2:03 pm
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 a 16-foot-high test enclosure placed within Sandia National Laboratories’ Thermal Test Complex. Researchers […]
Sandia inks emergency response pact with California Fire and Rescue Training Authority
March 30, 2016 – 5:00 am
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 Marianne Walck, vice president of Sandia’s California site and the Energy & Climate program, and by […]
Chinese nuclear security center opens with help from Sandia Labs
March 24, 2016 – 10:15 am
Sandia helps support physical protection system to train future nuclear security experts 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 […]
Thor’s hammer to crush materials at 1 million atmospheres
January 5, 2016 – 5:00 am
Sophisticated features may influence eventual Z-machine rebuild ALBUQUERQUE, 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 accelerator, in generating pressures to study materials under extreme conditions. “Thor’s magnetic field will reach about one million […]
W80-4: Sandia California works on nuclear weapon Life Extension Program
October 15, 2015 – 5:00 am
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 Program (LEP) is refurbishing the W80 warhead with replacement […]
Workhorse gamma ray generator HERMES III fires its 10,000th shot at Sandia Labs
September 9, 2015 – 5:00 am
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 the output of a nuclear […]
New vice president to oversee energy, security, nonproliferation research at Sandia
September 8, 2015 – 2:00 pm
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, Chavez has served as the […]
Hardware from old nuclear weapons systems becomes valuable teaching resource
July 30, 2015 – 5:00 am
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 of knowledge are represented by this hardware, and being able to pick up […]
Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on
July 22, 2015 – 5:00 am
Sandia’s new vibration table promises different ways of testing ALBUQUERQUE, 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 consults at the labs, knew that shaking in all directions at once was the key […]
Sandia tamper-detecting seal is tough to fool
July 7, 2015 – 7:20 am
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 Dianna Blair, manager of Sandia’s […]
New Sandia director will be first woman to lead national security lab
June 22, 2015 – 8:55 am
Jill Hruby to become 14th director in Sandia’s 66-year history 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 […]
Always/Never: Sandia documentary tells story of nuclear weapons safety, security
June 15, 2015 – 11:45 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories’ documentary, Always/Never: The Quest for Safety, Control & Survivability, showcases rare historical footage and interviews with a wide range of experts to describe how national security laboratories improved the safety and security of nuclear weapons from the dawn of the nuclear age to the end of the Cold War. […]