Department of Energy FY 2012 Congressional ... - The FIRE Place

NNSA Office of Defense Programs and the nation’s ability to return to underground nuclear testing,
should the President direct it.
ACTIVITIES:
Directed Stockpile Work (DSW)
The NNSS scope falls within the DSW Stockpile Services activities, which support multiple weapons
systems, studies, and other Research and Development (R&D) activities to support future stockpile
requirements. The NNSS primarily supports DSW by developing and executing Equation of State
(EOS) experiments and other highly diagnosed dynamic experiments. The work scope includes support
for dynamic plutonium experiments (DPEs) and high explosive pulse power experiments, test bed
construction development and design, and procurement and operation of diagnostics systems. Also
included are diagnostic development activities required to support future experiments, including
research and development, control systems, data acquisition, and data analysis.
The NNSS supports LANL in fielding the large bore powder gun experiments at U1A, LLNL in
operating the JASPER and BEEF facilities, and all three labs in conducting subcritical experiments at
U1a and with diagnostic development for these and other series of dynamic plutonium experiments.
The NNSS will provide the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) technical input, analysis and
interpretation of time-resolved experiments fielded at NNSS as part of the National Hydrotest Plan.
Science Campaign
The NNSS participates in the following Science Campaign activities:
• Primary Assessment Technologies: The NNSS conducts scientific experiments, which support the
experimental study and improvement of material models with emphasis on plutonium. The NNSS
will continue to assist LLNL in defining and executing a series of High Explosive Pulse Power
(HEPP) experiments as part of the Phoenix project. The NNSS also provides support in the area of
testbed engineering and construction, diagnostics fielding, controls, and data reduction for the DPEs.
In FY 2012, NNSS will continue to support both LLNL and LANL reanalysis of underground test
(UGT) data using modern statistical analysis.
• Dynamic Materials Properties: The NNSS supports the laboratory subprograms by developing
diagnostics and fielding experiments. The NNSS will support dynamic materials experiments data
collection at the Special Technologies Laboratory (STL) Boombox. Special Nuclear Material
(SNM) experiment series and diagnostic advancements at the Joint Actinide Shock Physics
Experimental Research (JASPER) Facility are planned and executed with LLNL. Also, NNSS will
support dynamic experiments and diagnostic development leveraging gas guns at LANL and large
bore powder gun capabilities at U1A.
• Advanced Radiography: The NNSS supports the LANL Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamics
Test (DARHT) and the proton radiography (pRad) experiments at the Los Alamos Neutron Science
Center (LANSCE). The NNSS will continue to provide accelerator diagnostics for DARHT II
activities, focusing on LANL experiments. The pRad group will support experiments at LANSCE
by providing diagnostics equipment, machined hardware, and personnel.
Nevada National Security Site Page 512
FY 2012 Congressional Budget