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

conditions and in extreme environments, hydrodynamics, low-energy nuclear science, and high-energydensity
science.
The Science Campaign integrates budget and performance targets and national level milestones for
primary and secondary predictive capability. These targets and milestones underpin stockpile
assessment and certification, and reflect national program priorities. Quantification of Margins and
Uncertainties (QMU) is a developing methodology that is applied to stockpile assessment issues and
communicates assessments within a common framework. The QMU can be used to define the goals and
success criteria of the science efforts. As experience is gained in the development and application of
QMU, the results are increasingly being used to identify technical areas requiring improvement and to
prioritize resources. The Science and ASC Campaigns have principal responsibility for the continued
development of the QMU methodology and improved predictive capability, while Directed Stockpile
Work (DSW) applies these tools to stockpile assessments.
The Predictive Capability Framework is the method used to plan and integrate the Science Campaign
with the other Stockpile Stewardship programs. The Science Campaign provides experimental data used
to explore, inform and validate models in the ASC simulation codes. These physical data and
methodologies lend confidence to calculations that are performed to meet commitments for
understanding the impact of aging on weapons systems, closing Significant Finding Investigations, and
performing annual assessments and certifications. The pace of work under the Science Campaign is
timed to support milestones, shared with the ASC Campaign, to release substantially improved
simulation codes for primaries and secondaries. These shared milestones require the incorporation of
improved physics models, which require the experimental exploration and validation provided by the
Science Campaign. These improved physics models include validated models for plutonium equation of
state (EOS) and constitutive properties. The Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT)
Facility is used as a validation tool for mock primaries. The high energy density physics facilities and
other materials characterization facilities support this and other stockpile science and technology issues.
The Science Campaign supports scientific research activities in partnership with other national and
international sponsors. During FY 2010, the Science Campaign pursued various collaborations with the
Office of Science’s Basic Energy Sciences for the application of the Advanced Photon Source and the
Linac Coherent Light Source for stockpile relevant science. This approach has and will continue to
extend our science capability.
Benefits
The Science Campaign is composed of five subprograms. The unique contributions of each subprogram
to Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Unit Program Number 37 are summarized below:
The Advanced Certification subprogram integrates certain scientific and technological advances from
the stockpile stewardship programs, and develops data from crosscutting studies and integrated
experiments (including hydrodynamic and subcritical experiments) in order to: (1) improve the
weapons certification process; (2) refine computational tools and methods; (3) promote the advancement
of the physical understanding of surety mechanisms; (4) ensure further exploration of failure modes;
(5) conduct manufacturing process assessments; and (6) anticipate technological surprise. In FY 2011,
an increase was requested to support advanced certification efforts in failure modes, including stockpile,
and non-stockpile designs, to utilize the major stockpile stewardship experimental capabilities to
examine options for modernized surety.
Weapons Activities/
Science Campaign Page 82
FY 2012 Congressional Budget