ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One thousand feet below the ground, three national defense labs and a remote test site are building Scorpius — a machine as long as a football field — to create images of plutonium as it is compressed with high explosives, creating conditions that exist just prior to a nuclear explosion. These nanosecond […]
Tag Archives: nuclear
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 […]
W88 warhead program performs successful tests
October 28, 2014 – 5:00 am
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 conducted this summer, provide data for the program, the W88 ALT 370 (alteration), to […]
IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Society Merit Award honors Sandia radiation effects expert
July 17, 2014 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia radiation effects researcher Jim Schwank has won the 2014 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Merit Award, which recognizes outstanding technical contributions to the fields of nuclear and plasma sciences. “I feel highly honored,” said Schwank, who is the second active Sandia employee to win the award and the sixth person […]
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 […]
Wind tunnel tests support improved aerodynamic design of B61-12 bomb
April 14, 2014 – 1:30 pm
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 deliver the necessary spin motion of the bomb during freefall and are an […]
Sandia conducts first impact test in years of B61 nonnuclear components
January 14, 2014 – 10:00 am
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 components on the weapon performed as expected. “Really nice work,” said Engineering Sciences Director Justine Johannes, […]
Sandia Labs revitalizes nuclear security infrastructure
February 21, 2013 – 3:35 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories has completed $199 million in facilities construction and repair as part of an 11-year national effort to revitalize the physical infrastructure of nuclear security enterprise sites. The Facilities and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program (FIRP) was established in 2001 to reduce a long-standing backlog of deferred maintenance at the National Nuclear […]
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 […]
Northrop Grumman, GE partnerships tap wide range of Sandia Labs expertise
November 5, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories has signed a pair of cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) that could broadly add to the Labs’ research into combustion, defense, energy and nuclear security. The umbrella CRADAs, which enable Sandia and its partners to pursue multiple projects in a variety of categories, are with Northrop Grumman Information […]
Sandia Labs technology used in Fukushima cleanup
May 29, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories technology has been used to remove radioactive material from more than 43 million gallons of contaminated wastewater at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Sandia researchers had worked around the clock following the March 2011 disaster to show the technology worked in seawater, which was pumped in […]
Sandia chemists find new material to remove radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel
January 23, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Research by a team of Sandia chemists could impact worldwide efforts to produce clean, safe nuclear energy and reduce radioactive waste. The Sandia researchers have used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to capture and remove volatile radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel. “This is one of the first attempts to use a MOF for iodine […]
National Nuclear Science Week celebrates nuclear everything from energy to safety to medicine
January 19, 2012 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Each day during National Nuclear Science Week, Jan. 23-27, some 250 middle school and high school students will pack the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History for hands-on activities that span the breadth of the nuclear world. They will work on everything from atomic modeling and chain reactions to workshops on […]